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 ----------------------------------------------------------------- |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 | |-----+--------------------------+-----+--------------------------| | | | | | ----------------------------------------------------------------- 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 Page 2 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