Disclosure of sources of electrical generation.

(1) Under existing law, the Public Utilities Commission has regulatory authority over public utilities, including electrical corporations. Existing law establishes a program under which retail suppliers of electricity disclose accurate, reliable, and simple to understand information on the sources of energy that are used to provide electric services. This bill would define the term "unspecified sources of power" for purposes of the above-described disclosure requirements to mean electricity generated that is not traceable to specific generation sources by any auditable contract trail or equivalent that provides commercial verification that the electricity source claimed has been sold once, and only once, to a retail consumer. The bill would additionally define the term "retail supplier." The bill would also enumerate specific fuel types and energy sources that are required to be disclosed by the retail supplier as a percentage of annual sales. Further, this bill would change reporting requirements from quarterly to annually and amend other details regarding disclosures and eliminate certain reporting requirements. (2) Under existing law, the governing board of a local publicly owned electric utility, as defined, is responsible for implementing and enforcing a renewables portfolio standard for the utility that recognizes the intent of the Legislature to encourage renewable resources, while taking into consideration the effect of the standard on rates, reliability, and financial resources and the goal of environmental improvement. Existing law requires the governing board of a local publicly owned electric utility to report certain information relative to renewable energy resources to its customers. This bill would provide that compliance by a local publicly owned electric utility with the program under which retail suppliers of electricity disclose accurate, reliable, and simple to understand information on the sources of energy that are used to provide electric service, is compliance with the renewables portfolio standard reporting requirements.