{"id":11119,"date":"2015-08-16T08:58:03","date_gmt":"2015-08-16T13:58:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=11119"},"modified":"2015-08-16T08:58:03","modified_gmt":"2015-08-16T13:58:03","slug":"california-distributed-energy-incentive-program-disproportionately-benefiting-fossil-fuels-regulators-ok-with","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=11119","title":{"rendered":"California Distributed Energy Incentive Program Disproportionately Benefiting Fossil Fuels, Regulators OK With"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"field field-name-field-bimage field-type-image field-label-hidden\">\n<div class=\"field-items\">\n<div class=\"field-item even\">\n<h3 id=\"page-title\" class=\"page__title title\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.desmogblog.com\/2015\/08\/16\/california-distributed-energy-incentive-program-disproportionately-benefiting-fossil-fuels-regulators-propose-keep-it\" target=\"_blank\">California Distributed Energy Incentive Program Disproportionately Benefiting Fossil Fuels, Regulators OK With\u00a0<\/a><\/h3>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.desmogblog.com\/sites\/beta.desmogblog.com\/files\/styles\/blog_teaser\/public\/blogimages\/shutterstock_249315760.jpg?itok=cul-gfLu\" alt=\"\" width=\"200\" height=\"133\" \/><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden\">\n<div class=\"field-items\">\n<div class=\"field-item even\">\n<p>A California program designed to spur innovation in technologies for distributed generation of low-emission energy is disproportionately benefiting fossil fuels projects, primarily natural gas \u2014 and a new proposal to update the emissions threshold that determines which projects are eligible will not change that, critics of the program say.<\/p>\n<p>Some 70 percent of the energy generation that has so far received rebates from California\u2019s $83-million-a-year, ratepayer-funded Self-Generation Incentive Program (<span class=\"caps\">SGIP<\/span>) has been fossil-fueled, according to the\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.sierraclub.org\/planet\/2015\/08\/fossil-fuel-boondoggle-california-public-utilities-commission\" target=\"_blank\">Sierra Club<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"caps\">SGIP<\/span>, administered by the California Public Utilities Commission (<span class=\"caps\">CPUC<\/span>), provides rebates for distributed energy systems installed on the customer side of the utility meter \u2014 \u201cbehind the meter\u201d in industry\u00a0parlance.<\/p>\n<p>To qualify for funding, distributed energy system providers must demonstrate that their technology\u2019s greenhouse gas emissions fall below a certain threshold, ensuring that it\u2019s cleaner than the grid energy it will replace.<\/p>\n<p>Janice Lin, executive director of the California Energy Storage Alliance (<span class=\"caps\">CESA<\/span>), says that the new emissions threshold proposed by\u00a0<span class=\"caps\">CPUC<\/span>\u00a0chairman Michael Picker is too high because it fails to properly account for California\u2019s Renewable Portfolio Standard (<span class=\"caps\">RPS<\/span>), which directs energy providers to increase procurement from renewable sources to 33 percent of the state\u2019s total energy mix by 2020.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf they had correctly factored in the 33 percent\u00a0<span class=\"caps\">RPS<\/span>,\u201d Lin told DeSmog, \u201cthey would have arrived at a much lower emissions factor threshold.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In one example cited in a\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/strategen.egnyte.com\/fl\/pEZY0Dx9lc#folder-link\/\" target=\"_blank\">comment<\/a>\u00a0<span class=\"caps\">CESA<\/span>\u00a0and the Natural Resources Defense Council submitted to the\u00a0<span class=\"caps\">CPUC<\/span>, a consumer using a distributed energy system that adheres to the proposed emissions factor could be responsible for as much as 23 percent more greenhouse gas emissions than if they were to simply stick with the grid, which is easily on pace to achieve<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;click on the above link to read the rest of the article&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>California Distributed Energy Incentive Program Disproportionately Benefiting Fossil Fuels, Regulators OK With\u00a0 A California program designed to spur innovation in technologies for distributed generation of low-emission energy is disproportionately benefiting fossil fuels projects, primarily natural gas \u2014 and a new proposal to update the emissions threshold that determines which projects are eligible will not change [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[101,8160,113,8159,1004,5317,8158,8157,328,674],"class_list":["post-11119","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-energy-2","category-environment","tag-california","tag-california-energy-storage-alliance","tag-carbon-emissions","tag-cesa","tag-co2","tag-desmog-blog","tag-distributed-energy-systems","tag-energy-technology","tag-fossil-fuels","tag-renewable-energy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11119","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11119"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11119\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11120,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11119\/revisions\/11120"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}