The 'Perfect Storm' for Renewable Energy: Policy Drivers and Decisionmaking

• Date: 01 March 2011

3-2011 NEWS & ANALYSIS 41 ELR 10179

D I A L O G U E

The “Perfect Storm” for

Renewable Energy: Policy

Drivers and Decisionmaking

Editors’ Summary

e American Recovery and Reinvestment Act,

AB 32, multiple memoranda of understanding,

and recent Executive Orders have created a “perfect

storm” of renewable energy policies, making Califor-

nia the hottest place for large-scale renewable energy

development in the country. ese policies and laws

have inspired collaboration among multiple agencies,

streamlined project review processes, and triggered

substantial engagement from stakeholders through-

out the state and country. On September 29, 2010,

the Environmental Law Institute brought together a

panel of experts representing federal and state agen-

cies, industry, and the environmental community to

discuss the successes and pitfalls of the policies, the

lessons learned, and what the panel believed should be

done in the future to either protect or improve the reg-

ulatory framework for developing renewable energy.

David Lazerwitz, Farella Braun + Martel LLP (moderator)

Joshua Bason, California Representative, Defenders of

Wildlife

Ashley Conrad-Saydah, Bureau of Land Management

Roger Johnson, California Energy Commission

Sue Kateley, California Solar Energy Industries

Commission

I. Introductions

David Lazerw itz: Well, thank you everyone for com-

ing. My name is David Lazerwitz. I’m an attorney here at

Farella, Braun & Martel and on behalf of Farella, the Envi-

ronmental Law Institute, and the Berkeley Center for Law,

Energy, and the Environment, I’d like to welcome you all.

Just to give you a little bit of background on this semi-

nar, we were approached by ELI back in April when they

were doing their annual [Western Boot Camp on Envi-

ronmental Law] here in San Francisco, and they wanted to

do a seminar in conjunction with that. We put together a

renewable energy seminar called “NEPA Revival,” focused

on all the NEPA [National Environmental Policy Act]1

issues that were emerging in the state. It was so well-

received that we decided to start a series to focus on these

issues, and Berkeley has joined us in this as well.

e rst seminar will focus on how we got to where we

are today, looking at policy drivers and the decisionmak-

ing processes with renewable energy, principally with solar

and wind. We also have a panel set for January 2011 that is

going to focus on the nuts and bolts of technology. It will

focus on solar, particularly looking at utility-scale permit-

ting both for thermal and PV [photovoltaic] projects.2

I’d like to go ahead and introduce our panelists today

who are going to lead us through this topic. I’ve asked each

of them as an initial part of this to give about a 10-min-

ute presentation and overview of the issues emerging from

their own areas and their own work.

Our rst panelist is Ashley Conrad-Saydah, the Califor-

nia renewable energy program manager for the Bureau of

Land Management (BLM). In that capacity, Ashley works

with stakeholders to encourage environmentally and tech-

nologically viable wind and solar energy development and

transmission on BLM land throughout the state. She rep-

resents BLM in California on numerous renewable energy

initiatives, including the National Solar Programmatic

Environmental Impact Statement and the state’s Renew-

able Energy Action Team (REAT).

Next, is Roger Johnson. He’s the manager of the Califor-

nia Energy Commission’s (CEC’s) Energy Facilities Siting

Oce and has worked with the CEC for 30 years. He also

represents the CEC on several renewable energy planning

and permitting initiatives, including the REAT that Ash-

ley is involved with. Since electricity deregulation occurred

in California in 1998, Roger has overseen the CEC sta’s

permitting work on over 100 power plants totaling more

than 38,000 megawatts (MW).

Next, is Sue Kateley. She is the executive director of

the California Solar Energy Industries Association. Sue

has over 30 years of experience in developing and imple-

menting energy policies and programs with a particular

focus on renewable energy and advanced technologies. She

has extensive experience in the renewable energy codes

1. 42 U.S.C. §§4321-4370f, ELR S. NEPA §§2-209.

2. “Nuts and Bolts of Technology: Closer Look at Utility-Scale Solar Power”

took place on January 26, 2011. More information is available on the ELI

website at http://www.eli.org/Seminars/past_event.cfm?eventid=582.

Copyright © 2011 Environmental Law Institute®, Washington, DC. reprinted with permission from ELR®, http://www.eli.org, 1-800-433-5120.