Subject: Status of CA bills with possible green energy implications
From: [email-masked]
To: [email-masked], [email-masked], [email-masked], [email-masked]
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Date: Fri, 7 Sep 2001 08:48:32 -0700 (PDT)

FYI - 
 
This is to update you on several CA bills that may have implications for green energy/renewables.
 
**Bills previously discussed
SBX2 78
Status: Last night the bill was approved by the State Assembly.  Will be returned to Senate for reconciliation.
Link: <http://info.sen.ca.gov/cgi-bin/postquery?bill_number=sbx2_78&sess=CUR&house=B&site=sen>
 
SB 532
Status: Heard by Assembly Utilities and Commerce Ctte., failed passage
Link: <http://info.sen.ca.gov/cgi-bin/postquery?bill_number=sb_532&sess=CUR&house=B&site=sen>

**"Windfall profits tax" bills: Generally, these bills impose a tax on electricity sales beyond a specified baseline price (see article below for more detail). Note the exemptions: 
 
SBX2 1
Status: Expected to be heard by Assembly floor on Monday
Link: <http://info.sen.ca.gov/cgi-bin/postquery?bill_number=sbx2_1&sess=CUR&house=B&site=sen>
Exemptions include: "generators of renewable energy sources, as defined, qualifying small production facilities, or qualifying cogeneration facilities.  In addition, this bill would not apply to sales of electricity made by local publicly owned utilties made under specified conditions or to generation units used to serve the electrical load of a generation facility" 
 
ABX2 2
Status: Expected to be considered by State Assembly today.  If it passes, it will go back to the Senate.
Link: <http://info.sen.ca.gov/cgi-bin/postquery?bill_number=abx2_2&sess=CUR&house=B&site=sen>
Exemptions include: 
"...the tax imposed under this part shall not apply to sales of electricity, sold for consumption in this state, made by qualifying facilities.

   (c) For purposes of this section, the term "qualifying facilities"
includes qualifying small power production facilities or qualifying
cogeneration facilities within the meaning of Sections 201 and 210 of
Title II of the federal Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act of
1978 (16 U.S.C. Secs.  796(17), 796(18), 824a-3), and the regulations
adopted pursuant to those sections by the Federal Energy Regulatory
Commission (18 C.F.R. Secs. 292.01 to 292.602, inclusive), and other
generation units installed, operated, and maintained at a customer
site exclusively to serve that facility's load. 

******************
2 Elec Profits Tax Bills On The Move In Calif Assembly 
By Jessica Berthold 
  
09/06/2001 
Dow Jones Energy Service 
(Copyright (c) 2001, Dow Jones & Company, Inc.) 

OF DOW JONES NEWSWIRES 

LOS ANGELES (Dow Jones)--The California Assembly is to consider a bill Friday to place a progressive tax on electricity sales in California , the second windfall profits tax measure to be heard by legislators in a week. 

Under Assembly Bill 2XX, introduced by Assemblywoman Ellen Corbett, D-San Leandro, generators wouldn't be taxed on power priced below $60 per megawatt-hour. Prices above $60/MWh would be subject to a gradually increasing tax. 

The first $30 charged by suppliers over the $60/MWh baseline would be taxed at a 50% rate. The next $30 would be taxed at 70%. Anything higher would be taxed at 90%. 

The tax would be retroactive to Jan. 1, 2001 and effective through 2005. Tax proceeds would be used to fund a state sales tax holiday on the first weekend in December. Alternative energy suppliers, or "qualifying facilities," as well as self-generators, would be exempt from the tax. 

Any excess receipts after the sales tax holiday would be used to provide tax credits to companies for building new generation. 

"AB 2XX will help Californians recoup and regain financial footing in an economy that is changing very quickly," said Corbett. "This measure is a major step for California 's recovery from this year's disastrous energy crisis." 

If the bill passes the Assembly floor, it will move to the Senate for committee and floor votes. The legislature is set to adjourn Sept. 14. 
 
       Similar Bill On Assembly Floor Monday 
   
A second windfall profits tax bill is likely to be heard on the Assembly floor Monday, said a spokesman for the bill's sponsor, Sen. Nell Soto, D-Ontario. The bill passed out of the Assembly Appropriations Committee Thursday. 

The bill, SB 2XX, would require state regulators to establish a cost-based price for electricity for each plant in the state. Sellers would be taxed 100% on any sales from a plant that exceeded its cost-based price, and the money would be used for taxpayer rebates. The cost-based price would include up to a 20% return on invested capital. 

The tax, which would be effective retroactively to Jan. 1, 2001, would apply to the last sale before electricity hits the power grid, and so would include marketers as well as generators. Co-generation facilities and renewable generators would be exempt, as would some state municipal utilities. 

The bill has a good chance of passing the Assembly floor, since only a majority vote is required and Democrats dominate the Assembly 50-30, said Soto spokesman Paul Van Dyke. Thus far, the bill has passed the Senate and various committees in the Assembly on strict party lines. 

If the bill does pass the Assembly floor, it would go back to the Senate for concurrence, and then to the governor's desk to be signed. Van Dyke said he did not know which windfall profits tax bill was more likely to pass out of both houses before the legislature adjourns, nor whether the two might be cobbled together to form one bill. 

"Our bill is two steps from going to the governor; the other bill has a ways to go," Van Dyke said. "Sometimes two bills on the same issue will pass and go all the way to the governor, and it's up to him to choose." 

A spokesman for Gov. Gray Davis said last week that he was open to a windfall profits tax bill, but would not indicate which bill he might prefer.