Successful Energy Bills Cross the Divide

Many bills made it to the other side of the state Capitol, including several increasing safety protocols for natural gas pipelines and reauthorizing the ratepayer-funded energy efficiency programs. June 3 was the deadline for passing legislation out of its house of origin. Winning approval by the Senate or Assembly were the following measures. Passed on a 24-15 vote June 2 was SB 454 by Senator Fran Pavley (D-Santa Monica). It requires utilities to verify that an efficiency building retrofit was permitted before handing out rebates. Another bill, SB 343 by Senator Kevin De León (D-Los Angeles), seeks an unspecified amount of Energy Commission energy efficiency funding for commercial building retrofits to cut avoidable energy uses. It won a 22-16 vote. Senator Christine Kehoe’s (D-San Diego) SB 585 requires residential ratepayers to pay an additional $170 million into the $3 billion California Solar Initiative to replenish the investor-owned utility portion of subsidies for larger photovoltaic systems. It was approved on a 28-11 vote by the Senate. SB 771, also by Kehoe, adds landfill gas turbines and digester gas and micro turbines to the list of low emission technology eligible for bond funding from the California Alternative Energy and Advanced Transportation Financing Authority. The Senate passed it 38-0. SB 790 by Senator Mark Leno (D-San Francisco) seeks to protect cities that pursue community choice aggregation programs enabled in 2001 under AB 117. Leno’s measure, winning a 24-12 vote, attempts to limit what community choice customers have to pay their old utility for their stranded costs. SB 836 by Senator Alex Padilla (D-Van Nuys) requires the CPUC to report to the Legislature the tallied costs of approved private utility renewable energy contracts. It passed the Senate on a 39-0 vote. Bills seeking to keep the public goods funded energy efficiency program from sunsetting also won approval in both houses. They include: -AB 723 by Assemblymember Stephen Bradley (D-Los Angeles), which extends for four years the ratepayer-funded public goods program supporting energy efficiency projects. It passed the Assembly on a 58-14 vote. -AB 1303 by Assemblymember Das Williams (D-Santa Barbara), which reauthorizes the public goods funding for the Energy Commission’s public interest research program through 2019. The Assembly approved it on a 56-16 vote. -SB 35 by Padilla, which attempts to improve the Energy Commission’s public goods program via the creation of a council that decides how the commission’s alternative energy research and development funds are invested. The Senate approved it on a 29-8 vote June 2. Among other approved Assembly bills was one seeking to ensure homeowners who replace their air conditioning, heating, and ventilation systems and/or add a cool roof actually see lower energy consumption and utility bills. AB 1073 by Assemblymember Felipe Fuentes (D-Arleta) won a 78-0 vote. AB 644 by Assemblymember Bob Blumenfield (D-Van Nuys) attempts to use the California Energy Commission and Google Earth to track down parcels of land to site renewable energy projects. It passed on a 52-25 vote. Seeking to use financial leverage for expanding a “green” economy, AB 796, also by Blumenfield, seeks to implement the state’s greenhouse gas reduction law by working with lenders to “create more manufacturing in California.” The measure tapping into a small business lending program to encourage banks to loan money for “green” business won the Assembly’s approval on a 62-14 vote. Legislation exempting electric vehicle charging stations from regulatory authority passed the Assembly June 3 on a 74-1 vote. AB 631 by Assemblymember Fiona Ma (D-San Francisco) codifies the California Public Utilities Commission ruling from last July that electric vehicle charging stations are not to be regulated as public utilities. AB 880 by Assemblymember V. Manuel Pérez (D-Indio), streamlining California environmental review for pollution control projects using a “focused” environmental impact report, passed on a 77-2 vote. Passed natural gas safety measures include: -A bill increasing state regulatory oversight of in-state natural gas pipelines and prohibiting the use of ratepayer funds to cover penalties arising from gas accidents passed the Assembly 54-21 on June 2. AB 56 by Democratic Asssemblymember Jerry Hill, whose district includes San Bruno--the site of last September’s gas explosion--advanced in spite of concerns that it may cause investor-owned utilities to over-insure and drive up ratepayers’ costs. -SB 44 requiring the Public Utilities Commission to establish emergency response standards for operators of natural gas lines passed on a 39-0 vote. The measure by Senator Ellen Corbett (D-San Leandro) went to the other house June 1. -SB 216 by Senator Leland Yee (D-San Francisco) seeks to thwart a repeat of the delayed shut off of the gas line that exploded in San Bruno that killed eight people and destroyed more than three dozens homes. It passed the Senate on a 39-0 vote June 2. -SB 705 requires natural gas companies to develop and implement natural gas safety plans, which are to be reviewed by the California Public Utilities Commission. The bill by Leno passed 30-7. -SB 879 by Padilla, approved on a 38-0 vote, creates a one-way account for CPUC-authorized utility costs for natural gas infrastructure maintenance, upgrades, and replacements.

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Successful Energy Bills Cross the Divide

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