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California Energy Commission, CEC

The California Energy Commission is the state's primary energy policy and planning agency. Created by the Legislature in 1974 and located in Sacramento, CA the Commission responsibilities include:

• Forecasting future energy needs and keeping historical energy data.
• Licensing thermal power plants 50 megawatts or larger.
• Promoting energy efficiency by setting the state's appliance and building efficiency standards and working with local government to enforce those standards.
• Supporting public interest energy research that advances energy science and technology through research, development, and demonstration programs.
• Supporting renewable energy by providing market support to existing, new, and emerging renewable technologies; providing incentives for small wind and fuel cell electricity systems; and providing incentives for solar electricity systems in new home construction.
• Developing and implementing the state Alternative and Renewable Fuel and Vehicle Technology Program to reduce the state's petroleum dependency and help attain the state climate change policies.
• Administering more than $300 million in American Reinvestment and Recovery Act funding through the state energy program, the energy efficiency conservation and block grant program; the energy efficiency appliance rebate program and the energy assurance and emergency program.
• Planning for and directing state response to energy emergencies.

With energy challenges facing the state, the Commission and its dedicated staff of state employees stand ready to turn challenges into opportunities and help Californians continue to have energy choices that are affordable, reliable, diverse, safe, and environmentally acceptable.

Energy Commission Roles in Climate Change and Transportation Energy

The most important development in California energy policy in the past two years, if not the past several decades, is the arrival at consensus that California must act to mitigate its greenhouse gas emissions, in order to reduce the impact of climate change. In 2006, the Legislature passed and the Governor signed two landmark pieces of legislation with far-reaching implications for energy policy.

The most comprehensive is Assembly Bill 32 (PDF file), the California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 (Núñez, Statutes of 2006, Chapter 488), which sets an economy-wide cap on California greenhouse gas emissions at 1990 levels by no later than 2020. This is an aggressive goal that represents approximately an 11 percent reduction from current emissions levels and nearly a 30 percent reduction from projected business-as-usual levels in 2020. Twenty-five percent of the state's greenhouse gas emissions is attributable to electricity generation while 38 percent is attributed to the transportation sector.

Addressing the impacts of the transportation sector on climate change, Assembly Bill 118 (Núñez, Chapter 750, Statutes of 2007) created the Energy Commission's Alternative and Renewable Fuel and Vehicle Technology Program. (Health and Safety Code, Section 44270 et seq). The program is intended to increase the use of alternative and renewable fuels and innovative technologies that will transform California's fuel and vehicle types to help attain the state's climate change policies.

AB 118 authorizes the Energy Commission to provide, upon appropriation by the Legislature, approximately $120 million annually as incentives to public agencies, vehicle and technology consortia, businesses, public-private partnerships, workforce training partnerships and collaborative relationships, fleet owners, consumers, recreational boaters, and academic institutions for projects that:

• Develop and improve alternative and renewable low-carbon fuels,
• Optimize alternative and renewable fuels for existing and developing engine technologies,
• Produce alternative and renewable low-carbon fuels in California,
• Decrease the overall impact of an alternative and renewable fuel's life-cycle carbon footprint and increase sustainability,
• Expand fuel infrastructure, fueling stations, and equipment,
• Improve light-, medium-, and heavy-duty vehicle technologies,
• Retrofit medium-and heavy-duty on-road and non-road vehicle fleets,
• Expand infrastructure connected with existing fleets, public transit, and transportation corridors, and
• Establish workforce training programs, conduct public education and promotion, and create technology centers.

Meeting these goals requires the cooperation and teamwork of multiple sectors of the California economy, including the electricity, natural gas, and transportation sectors. The Energy Commission is working with its sister agencies setting California's climate change policies and regulations.

For more information, please visit www.energy.ca.gov.

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