California may need to move beyond a renewable energy portfolio standard
and develop a more comprehensive approach to procuring renewable resources to
meet its own climate goals, a California Environmental Protection Agency
official said on Monday.

Energy efficiency and renewable energy will "likely be the core" elements
of the plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to comply with the state's 2006
climate law, said Daniel Pellissier at the Platts California Power Market
Forum in San Francisco. The state's renewable portfolio standard "may become
moot," because the climate law requires a more "rigorous and comprehensive
planning regime," Pellissier said.

The 2006 climate law requires the state to reduce greenhouse gas
emissions to 1990 levels by 2010.

In addition, Pellissier said he believes it is reasonable to expect that
electricity rates in the state could climb by as much as 40%, as a result of
strategies needed to meet climate goals. The hope is that higher electricity
costs will send price signals that will help moderate prices, he said.

Paul Douglass, renewable portfolio standard manager for the California
Public Utilities Commission, expressed similar views, saying the state needs
to take a more proactive approach.

Douglas said the recently California Renewable Energy Transmission
Initiative will play a key role in advancing the state's renewable goals.
CRETI is a statewide-effort to develop zones for siting renewable energy
resources and tranmission to access them.

Also at the meeting, Claire Breidenich, consultant for the Western Power
Trading Forum, urged policymakers against placing a disproportionate burden on
the electricity sector when it comes to GHG emissions compliance.

She called on policymakers to "not go after one sector because it is the
easiest to regulate."

--Lisa Weinzimer, lisa_weinzimer@platts.com