BILL ANALYSIS
AB 531
Page 1
ASSEMBLY THIRD READING
AB 531 (Saldana)
As Amended April 23, 2009
Majority vote
UTILITIES AND COMMERCE 15-0
APPROPRIATIONS 17-0
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|Ayes:|Fuentes, Duvall, Tom |Ayes:|De Leon, Nielsen, |
| |Berryhill, Blakeslee, De | |Ammiano, |
| |La Torre, Carter, Fong, | |Charles Calderon, Davis, |
| |Fuller, Furutani, | |Duvall, Fuentes, Hall, |
| |Huffman, Krekorian, | |Harkey, Miller, |
| |Skinner, Smyth, Swanson, | |John A. Perez, Price, |
| |Torrico | |Skinner, Solorio, Audra |
| | | |Strickland, Torlakson, |
| | | |Krekorian |
|-----+--------------------------+-----+--------------------------|
| | | | |
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SUMMARY : Exempts utilities from prohibitions against
disclosing customer energy consumption data to comply with the
California law requiring benchmarking for certain
non-residential buildings. Specifically, this bill:
1)Exempts an electric or gas utility from these certain
disclosure prohibitions when the electric or gas utility, upon
written authorization, is uploading the energy consumption
data for the account specified for a building to the United
States Environmental Protection Agency's ENERGY STAR Portfolio
Manager (ESPM).
2)Requires that an owner or operator of a nonresidential
building disclose ESPM benchmarking data and ratings for the
most recent 12-month period to a prospective buyer, lessee of
the entire building, or lender that would finance the entire
building based on a schedule of compliance established by the
California Energy Commission (CEC).
EXISTING LAW :
1)Requires that upon the authorization of a nonresidential
building owner or operator, an electric or gas utility upload
AB 531
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may all of the energy consumption data for the account
specified for a building to the ESPM.
2)Requires that an owner or operator of a nonresidential
building disclose the ESPM benchmarking data and ratings for
the most recent 12-month period to a prospective buyer, lessee
of the entire building, or lender that would finance the
entire building on and after January 1, 2010.
3)States that utility customer information regarding
customer-specific billing, credit, or usage information shall
be confidential unless the customer consents in writing.
FISCAL EFFECT : Absorbable costs to the CEC, which is currently
implementing the statute modified by this bill.
COMMENTS : According to the author, this bill is needed in
order for utilities to disclose the necessary customer usage
data in order to comply with the state's benchmarking law
without violating existing utility consumer confidentiality
laws. This bill also removes the hard implementation date of
January 1, 2010, and instead allows CEC to develop a feasible
implementation schedule.
Analysis Prepared by : Nina Kapoor / U. & C. / (916) 319-2083
FN: 0001212