BILL ANALYSIS Ó
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 1150|
|Office of Senate Floor Analyses | |
|(916) 651-1520 Fax: (916) | |
|327-4478 | |
-----------------------------------------------------------------
THIRD READING
Bill No: AB 1150
Author: Levine (D)
Amended: 9/3/15 in Senate
Vote: 21
SENATE EDUCATION COMMITTEE: 8-0, 6/17/15
AYES: Liu, Runner, Block, Hancock, Leyva, Monning, Pan, Vidak
NO VOTE RECORDED: Mendoza
SENATE ENERGY, U. & C. COMMITTEE: 10-0, 6/30/15
AYES: Hueso, Fuller, Cannella, Hertzberg, Hill, Lara, Leyva,
McGuire, Morrell, Pavley
NO VOTE RECORDED: Wolk
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE: 7-0, 8/27/15
AYES: Lara, Bates, Beall, Hill, Leyva, Mendoza, Nielsen
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 76-0, 5/26/15 (Consent) - See last page for
vote
SUBJECT: Energy: University of California and California
State University partnership
SOURCE: Author
DIGEST: This bill requests the University of California (UC)
and requires the California State University (CSU), to consider
aligning greenhouse gas reduction goals with those of the
existing statewide institutional partnership with investor-owned
utilities (IOU) to include facilities served by publicly owned
utilities (POU) that choose to participate.
AB 1150
Page 2
Senate Floor Amendments of 9/3/15 correct a drafting error
clarifying that the "commission," means the State Energy
Resources Conservation and Development Commission.
ANALYSIS:
Existing law:
1)Establishes the UC as a public trust, administered by the
Regents and provides that statutes related to UC are
applicable only to the extent that the UC Regents make such
provisions applicable. (Constitution of California, Article
IX, Section 9)
2)Confers upon the CSU Trustees the powers, duties, and
functions with respect to the management, administration, and
control of the CSU system. (Education Code § 66606)
3)Requires the California Energy Commission (CEC) to develop and
administer a series of programs to provide cost-effective
energy efficiency and conservation contracts, grants, and
loans to eligible entities. Additional financial assistance is
available through IOUs, as required by the PUC. (Public
Resources Code § 25410-25474)
4)Requires POUs to encourage energy savings and greenhouse gas
emissions reductions in existing residential and
non-residential buildings, while taking into consideration the
effect of the program on rates, reliability, and financially
resources. (PUC § 9503)
This bill:
1)Requests the UC and requires the CSU to do all of the
following:
a) Expand participation in the statewide institutional
partnership with the IOU for purposes of aligning
greenhouse gas reduction goals, to include university
facilities served by POUs that choose to participate and
seeking the assistance of the State Energy Resources
Conservation and Development Commission in requesting the
participation of those local POUs.
AB 1150
Page 3
b) Evaluate activities that reduce greenhouse gas emission
and improve energy, as specified.
c) Utilize whole building or whole campus meter-based
verification
d) Develop an administrative framework for in order to
accommodate for multiple funding sources, as specified.
1)Requires UC and CSU to report to the applicable POU or IOU the
annual reduction in emissions of greenhouse gases as a result
of the project performed under the expanded partnership.
2)Requires funds associated with an investor-owned energy
utility to be used only for projects that comply with CPUC
requirements at facilities located within its service
territory.
3)Specifies, that the provision of this bill does not affect UC
and CSU eligibility to receive or leverage resources from
various entities.
4)Makes a variety of legislative findings and declarations
regarding UC's commitment to achieving carbon neutrality and
developing renewable energy resources through various measures
including expanding its statewide partnerships.
5)Defines various terms for the purposes of this bill.
Comments
1)Need for the bill? According to the author, current law limits
the UC's and CSU's energy efficient program known as the
Energy Efficiency Partnership, to those campuses located
within an IOU service territory. This approach limits a POU
served campus from participating in the program. Additionally,
the program's current structure is outdated and the provisions
in this bill provide for advanced and long-lasting "deep"
energy efficient projects that will ultimately deliver ongoing
savings and assist UC and CSU in meeting their energy goals.
This bill codifies and streamlines the expanded partnership
program, proposes a new metric of carbon reduction for
evaluating energy efficiency projects and updates the existing
AB 1150
Page 4
administrative framework related to energy efficiency programs
to accommodate future funds.
2)Energy Efficiency Partnership. In 2004, the UC and the CSU
each established partnerships with California's four largest
IOUs (Pacific Gas and Electric, San Diego Gas and Electric,
Southern California Edison and Southern California Gas
Company) to provide an energy management program and improve
the energy performance of existing buildings. As a result of
this partnership, UC has achieved an annual savings of 373
million kilowatt-hours (electricity), and 18.7 million
therms-per-year (gas) through 2014. In total, the UC has
received $63.6 million in incentives from utilities.
However, six CSU and UC campuses are unable to participate in
the Energy Efficiency Partnership given that they are located
within a POU service territory. Those campuses include the UC
Los Angeles, UC Riverside, UC Davis Medical Center, and CSU at
Sacramento, Northridge, and Los Angeles. A key difference
between a public and investor owned utility is that IOU are
required to use a portion of ratepayer funds for projects that
comply with California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC)
requirements. In contrast, POU's are independent of the CPUC
requirements and are regulated by locally elected boards or
city councils each with their own methods for reaching energy
saving goals. According to the UC, the absence of the
partnership incentives for POU served campuses has limited the
ability of some campuses to implement energy efficiency
projects.
3)The provisions in this bill aim to help position UC and CSU
campuses located within the territories of POU's to receive
incentives generated as a result of the partnership by
inviting POU's to participate. This bill specifies that the
campuses may seek the assistance of the State Energy Resources
Conservation and Development Commission to encourage the
involvement of those local publicly owned energy utilities.
Prior Legislation
AB 1959 (Skinner, 2014) would have required the CEC to develop a
financial assistance program for energy efficiency projects on
the UC and CSU campuses. The bill died in the Senate
Appropriations Committee.
AB 1150
Page 5
FISCAL EFFECT: Appropriation: No Fiscal
Com.:YesLocal: No
According to the Senate Appropriations Committee, there are
minor and absorbable costs to the Public Utilities Reimbursement
Account (special) to consult with the UC and CSU on their
partnership.
SUPPORT: (Verified9/4/15)
California State University
Sierra Club
University of California
OPPOSITION: (Verified 9/4/15)
None received
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 76-0, 5/26/15
AYES: Achadjian, Alejo, Travis Allen, Baker, Bigelow, Bonilla,
Bonta, Brough, Brown, Burke, Calderon, Campos, Chang, Chau,
Chiu, Chu, Cooley, Cooper, Dababneh, Dahle, Daly, Dodd,
Eggman, Frazier, Beth Gaines, Gallagher, Cristina Garcia,
Eduardo Garcia, Gatto, Gipson, Gomez, Gonzalez, Gordon, Gray,
Grove, Hadley, Roger Hernández, Holden, Irwin, Jones,
Jones-Sawyer, Kim, Lackey, Levine, Linder, Lopez, Low,
Maienschein, Mayes, McCarty, Medina, Melendez, Mullin,
Nazarian, Obernolte, O'Donnell, Olsen, Patterson, Perea,
Quirk, Rendon, Ridley-Thomas, Rodriguez, Salas, Santiago,
Steinorth, Mark Stone, Thurmond, Ting, Wagner, Waldron, Weber,
Wilk, Williams, Wood, Atkins
NO VOTE RECORDED: Bloom, Chávez, Harper, Mathis
Prepared by:Olgalilia Ramirez / ED. / (916) 651-4105
9/4/15 19:12:05
**** END ****
AB 1150
Page 6