California Air Resources Board Increases State’s Renewable Portfolio Standard
On September 23, the California Air Resources Board unanimously voted to increase the state’s Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) to 33 percent by 2020. The rule is a result of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Executive Order S-21-09 to increase the RPS, issued September 15, 2009.
The regulation will require both investor owned and publicly owned utilities to increase the amount of electricity obtained from renewable sources. This is different from the 20 percent RPS ending this year as publicly owned utilities were not previously included. The policy is expected to reduce greenhouse gas emissions below business-as-usual levels by the equivalent of 12 to 13 million metric tons of carbon dioxide per year by 2020.
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