Category Archives: Financial

The Renewable Portfolio Standard requires retail sellers (defined as investor‐owned utilities, electric service providers, and community choice aggregators) to increase renewable energy as a percentage of their retail sales to 20 percent by 2010. State law also requires publicly owned utilities to implement the standard but gives them flexibility in developing specific targets and timelines. In November 2008, Governor Schwarzenegger raised California’s renewable energy goals to 33 percent by 2020 in his Executive Order S‐14‐08. In July 2009, the California Public Utilities Commission reported that the three investor‐owned utilities were supplying approximately 13 percent of their aggregated total sales from eligible renewable resources as of 2008, far below the 20 percent required by 2010. Publicly owned utilities are showing some progress in renewable energy procurement with expectations for the 15 largest publicly owned utilities of 12.4 percent of RPS eligible renewable retail sales by 2011, but this progress is still far short of the renewable target. Continue reading →