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San Francisco -- California utility regulators approved rules Thursday banning power companies from buying electricity from high-polluting energy sources, including most out-of-state coal plants, to curb emissions of heat-trapping gases linked to global warming. The Public Utilities Commission voted 4-0 to adopt the "greenhouse gas emissions performance standard," which will prohibit utilities and other energy providers from entering long-term contracts with sources that emit more carbon dioxide than a modern natural gas plant.

The South Coast Air Quality Management District sued state public utility officials, claiming the liquefied natural gas that officials approved for use in California could worsen air pollution. Energy providers plan to spend about $3 billion on the construction of seven natural gas terminals on the coast of California and Baja in Mexico. The air-quality agency alleges that natural gas could set back progress toward clean air. The lawsuits were filed with the California appeals court and the state Supreme Court. The California Public Utilities Commission has approved a standard that will allow oil companies and other energy providers to...

A federal appeals court ordered energy regulators Wednesday to consider ordering stiffer penalties for power companies that manipulated the market and caused blackouts during the 2000-2001 energy crisis. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's 2003 handling of some of the fallout from California's energy crisis was "arbitrary, capricious and an abuse of discretion." The state has sought reimbursement for an estimated $8 billion to $10 billion paid by consumers and businesses for overpriced power. FERC ordered energy companies, including several subsidiaries of bankrupt Enron Corp., to pay about $3 billion for market manipulation....

Edison International, PG&E Corp. and other suppliers of electricity in California will be required by state regulators to cut greenhouse-gas emissions. Power companies in the most populous state will face a cap intended to bring emissions down, possibly to 1990 levels, according to a measure approved Thursday by the California Public Utilities Commission. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said last year that he wanted the state to cut greenhouse-gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020. The state would be the first to regulate emissions by electricity providers. "It's a very positive first step in the right direction," said Dan Kalb, the California...

Schwarzenegger gave Susan Kennedy $25,000 after he received that amount from AT&T. Days later, she voted to OK its merger with SBC. SACRAMENTO — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger paid thousands of dollars in campaign money to a California Public Utilities commissioner three weeks after receiving contributions in the same amount from a company the commissioner regulated. Susan P. Kennedy, now the governor's chief of staff, received $25,000 from his campaign account 21 days after AT&T donated $25,000 to the fund.

California citizens will pay at least $3.2 billion over the next 11 years to finance a costly solar energy initiative rejected by the state's legislature in fall 2005 but implemented by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) on December 13. Observers quickly derided CPUC's decision, the California Solar Initiative, as demonstrating deliberate disregard for the state's democratic processes. Initiative Mirrors Failed Bill CPUC's California Solar Initiative is virtually identical to S.B. 1, the Million Solar Roofs proposal that was supported by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) but died in the state assembly in September 2005. S.B. 1 aimed to place solar...

For Immediate Release: 1/12/2006 For More Information: Contact Bernadette Del Chiaro (916) 446-8062 x 103 "It's Official!" CPUC Approves $3.2 Billion Solar Program Landmark Vote Creates Nation’s Largest Solar Roofs Program and Puts California on Pace to Become a World Solar Power Leader SAN FRANCISCO—Today, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) approved the California Solar Initiative (CSI), committing a combined $3.2 billion in incentive funds to drive consumers toward solar power over the next 11 years. The CSI, modeled largely on the Million Solar Roofs bill that ran aground in the state Legislature last year, is designed to provide rebates...

BLACK MESA, Ariz. – The gigantic earthmoving crane sits idle, stilled by a legal, cultural and environmental dispute playing out far from the rich vein of coal beneath the desert of remote northeastern Arizona. Some welcome the idling of the crane, calling it a symbol of the rape of the land and precious water below. Others, mostly American Indians who have come to depend on the high-paying jobs at the mine, are furious. For 35 years, the Black Mesa Mine has produced coal for a power plant in southern Nevada. But the plant suspended operations at the end of December,...

LAUGHLIN, Nev. - A large coal-fired power plant will close at the end of the year rather than violate a court-ordered deadline to install an estimated $1.1 billion in pollution-control measures. Southern California Edison said Thursday the Mohave Generating Station, at the center of an environmental dispute several years ago, would close. The plant has provided the utility with 7 percent of its electricity, but the company said its 13 million customers would not be immediately affected because of other power sources. Under a 1999 consent decree won by environmental groups, the aging Mohave plant was required to upgrade its...

A controversial plan to slap sky-high electric rates on large power consumers to encourage energy conservation during key times this summer should be postponed, an administrative law judge has ruled. The California Public Utilities Commission judge reviewing so-called critical peak pricing plans from San Diego Gas & Electric and two other large utilities concluded there was insufficient time to implement the programs this summer. The judge, Michelle Cooke, instead suggests considering similar plans for next year or 2007 as part of a comprehensive rate redesign. At the earlier urging of the commission, SDG&E had presented a proposal to triple rates...

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - California, armed with what it calls hard, new evidence of rampant power market manipulation, handed federal regulators on Monday the names of about 60 energy companies it alleges were behind the state's 2000-2001 energy crisis. Loretta Lynch, a member of the California Public Utilities Commission, told Reuters a 1,000-page final report on the crisis filed Monday at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission names "almost 60 companies that participated in gaming our energy market." The crisis, triggered by a badly flawed attempt to open the electric industry to competition, cost California billions of dollars, bankrupted the state's...

....With memories still fresh from the energy crisis that sent California's electricity prices soaring, commercial landlords are beginning to install on- site power systems, known as distributive generation, as a way to lessen dependency on the Pacific Gas and Electric Co. grid. .....The state of California could end up running the most influential experiment with on-site power, with tens of millions of square feet of office space potentially using the technology. So far, the state has installed pilot systems in the state office building on Golden Gate Avenue, the Public Utilities Commission headquarters on Van Ness Avenue and the Elihu...

NEW YORK -- The organization that runs California's electricity transmission system has substantiated Duke Energy Corp.'s claim that all of its generating capacity in the state was producing power, providing other services or unavailable because of predisclosed outages on May 8, 2001, undermining a charge that Duke kept capacity off line that day even as some customers had their power cut.The California Independent System Operator, in an analysis undertaken at the request of a state senator and released late Friday, also raised broader questions about the report by the California Public Utilities Commission, which concluded last month that most of...

LOS ANGELES -(Dow Jones)- Dynegy, Inc. (NYSE:DYN - News) Friday posted a response on its Web site denying charges by California's top energy regulator that it and five other energy firms could have prevented most of the state's power blackouts and service interruptions in 2000-2001. ADVERTISEMENT "After a thorough review of its own data and data from the California Independent System Operator (ISO), Dynegy concludes that generation capacity controlled by the company was offered or available to the ISO," the company said. The Sept. 17 report, released by California Public Utilities Commission President Loretta Lynch, said the companies failed to...

LOS ANGELES -(Dow Jones)- AES Corp's role in the California power market was mischaracterized in a report by state regulators that said energy firms failed to generate available power during blackouts, the company said in a response to the report seen by Dow Jones Newswires. AES owns and operates three power plants from which it has agreed to sell all the energy to the Williams Companies . The contract price of power isn't affected by the real-time market price, and AES generates power only when told to do so by Williams, AES said. "For those reasons, it also is a...

CALIFORNIA DWR WILL ISSUE $11.9 BILLION TO FUND PAST ENERGY PURCHASES Moody's has assigned the credit rating of A3 to the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) Power Supply Revenue Bonds. The state DWR expects to issue in October 2002 approximately $11.9 billion of revenue bonds including $5.9 billion of fixed rate bonds and an expected $6 billion of floating rate bonds. The bonds are secured by charges to be paid by customers of the state's three investor-owned utilities. The charges are paid as part of the customers' regular electric bill based on electricity usage and the revenue is passed...