California's greenhouse gas policies, in conjunction with related energy policies such as the state's Renewables Portfolio Standard, the Emission Performance Standard, the phaseout of electrical generation facilities using once-through cooling, and an increase of smaller and community-based distributed energy resources, have resulted in significant changes to the state's electricity generation system over the last decade. This report builds upon previous Environmental Performance Reports by providing an overview of the energy and climate change policy drivers and recommendations from previous EPRs; evaluating changes in the state’s energy resource mix and the physical infrastructure for electricity and transmission; analyzing the environmental performance of the system and societal effects; and discussing new climate change policies, as well as transformative technologies and approaches that may have the potential to support the state’s long-term greenhouse gas reduction goals. As part of the 2016 Integrated Energy Policy Report Update, the Energy Commission held a public workshop on the draft 2016 EPR on August 4, 2016, and this final 2016 EPR provides an analytical basis for policy discussions and options that may be incorporated into future reports and decisions.
