[Sustain] PG&E Using Large Hydro Scam For Meeting Renewable Standard

[Eric Brooks]

PG&E is trying to scam its way to meet its renewable requirements by 
counting upgrades done on large hydro.

http://www.sfbg.com/printable_entry.php?entry_id=4178

<http://www.sfbg.com/printable_entry.php?entry_id=4178>


  Dam scam

/Are efficiency upgrades renewable energy?/

By Amanda Witherell

A bill to have efficiency upgrades at large hydroelectric dams be 
considered renewable energy is floating through the State Legislature, 
with very few members swimming upstream against it.

The legislation by Assemblymember Sam Blakeslee (R--San Luis Obispo) is 
supported by Pacific Gas and Electric Co., which indicated it could 
count an additional 460 gigawatt-hours toward its renewable portfolio 
standard if the rule were changed. The utility company delivered a total 
of 84,310 GWh of energy last year, and by 2010 it will be required to 
provide 20 percent of that from renewable sources. Small hydroelectric 
facilities of 30 megawatts or less are considered renewable.

The bill received unanimous assembly approval, but opponents say 
efficiency upgrades at dams are or should be occurring anyway and don't 
deserve the coveted "renewable" title.

"California's RPS program was established to promote generation of new 
renewable energy sources. The RPS program was not designed to simply 
reward actions that would have occurred without the program," the 
Planning and Conservation League wrote to the Senate Natural Resources 
Committee. The Sierra Club also opposes the bill, as does Sen. Carole 
Migden, whose press secretary, Tracey Fairchild, said, "It doesn't 
ultimately create one megawatt of true renewable energy." *(Witherell)*

Tuesday July 31, 2007

-- 
"The past is the Textbook of Tyrants; the Future the Bible of the Free" - Herman Melville

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