Existing law vests the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) with regulatory authority over public utilities, including gas corporations. Existing law requires the CPUC, in consultation with the State Air Resources Board (ARB), to consider adopting specific biomethane procurement targets or goals for each gas corporation.
Existing law requires that the CPUC, before establishing biomethane procurement targets or goals, find that the targets or goals are cost-effective means of achieving the reductions in emissions of short-lived climate pollutants and other greenhouse gases (GHGs).
Existing law requires the CPUC and the California Energy Commission (CEC) to undertake specified actions to advance the State’s clean energy and pollution reduction objectives, including, where feasible, cost effective, and consistent with other State policy objectives, increasing the use of large- and small-scale energy storage with a variety of technologies, including green electrolytic hydrogen.
This bill would require the CPUC to open a new proceeding, or a new phase of an existing proceeding, to consider establishing procurement goals for renewable hydrogen, as defined, and consider requiring each gas corporation and core transport agent to annually procure a proportionate share of renewable hydrogen to meet those goals. The bill would require the CPUC to make specified findings before establishing renewable hydrogen procurement targets or goals.
Committee Location: Held in Assembly Appropriations Committee May 18, 2023.
