The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) formally opened a new regulatory proceeding focused on expanding the number of small bioenergy projects throughout the state.
The “Order Instituting Rulemaking to Implement Assembly Bill 843” will modify the state’s Bioenergy Market Adjusting Tariff (BioMAT) program to enable local Community Choice Aggregators (CCAs) to procure power for their customers through the BioMAT program.
The BioMAT program requires investor-owned utilities to procure 250MW of energy from small-scale bioenergy projects, including from: wastewater treatment, municipal organic waste diversion, food processing, and co-digestion; dairy and agricultural operations; and, projects using byproducts of sustainable forest management. AB 843 did not change any of the procurement requirements, but simply allows CCAs to contract for bioenergy under the program. Many CCAs have expressed a strong interest in procuring bioenergy under the BioMAT program to help develop local projects that will reduce wildfire risk and improve forest health, improve local energy resiliency, or help meet the state’s new organic waste procurement requirements.
The CPUC is also considering whether to extend the program’s December 31, 2025 sunset date. RCRC strongly supports extending that sunset date, as the BioMAT program could be very helpful to promote local energy reliability, reduce wildfire risk, and satisfy SB 1383 organic waste procurement obligations. The rapidly approaching deadline could chill many of these smaller projects that will be instrumental to the state’s forest health, climate change, and pollution reduction objectives.
AB 843, authored by Assembly Member Cecilia Aguiar-Curry was sponsored by Marin Clean Energy and Pioneer Community Energy and strongly supported by RCRC.
For more information contact RCRC Policy Advocate, John Kennedy.