California Air Resources Board

In 2002, Senate Bill (SB) 1078 (Sher, August 2002) established the basic policy framework for the increased use of renewable energy resources in California, known as the Renewables Portfolio Standard (RPS). RPS requires renewable energy resources be used as a certain percentage of all electricity sales by electricity utilities in the state, including publicly owned utilities (POUs), investor-owned utilities, electricity service providers, and community choice aggregators. Major eligible renewable energy resources, as defined by the California Energy Commission (CEC), include biomass, geothermal, solar, wind, and small hydroelectric facilities. CEC and the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) work collaboratively to implement and enforce RPS.

SB 350 (de León, October 2015) and 100 (de León, September 2018) have increased the renewable energy target to 60% by 2030 and requires all the state's electricity to come from carbon-free resources by 2045.  As part of the revisions to RPS, Section 399.30 (o) of the Public Utility Code included new enforcement provisions that directs CARB to impose penalties for any Notice of Violation (NOV) referred by CEC for failure of a POU to comply with requirements of RPS. In April 2020, CARB’s Enforcement Policy was updated to include a mechanism pursuant to PUC section 399.30 (o), under Appendix B: Enforcement Policy for the Renewables Portfolio Standard Program.