BILL ANALYSIS
AB 531
Page 1
Date of Hearing: May 13, 2009
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Kevin De Leon, Chair
AB 531 (Saldana) - As Amended: April 23, 2009
Policy Committee:
UtilitiesVote:15-0
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
No Reimbursable:
SUMMARY
This bill:
1)Requires that an owner or operator of a nonresidential
building disclose the United States Environmental Protection
Agency's 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 compliance schedule to be established by the
California energy Commission (CEC) rather than after January
1, 2010 as required by current law.
2)Exempts utilities from the prohibition against the disclosure
of customer information related to billing, credit, or usage
information for the purposes of reporting energy consumption
data, to comply with California law requiring benchmarking for
non-residential buildings.
FISCAL EFFECT
The CEC would require two positions at a cost of $260,000 to
develop the compliance schedule for disclosure of benchmarking
data by nonresidential building owners. Commission staff
believe these positions and costs need to be permanent in order
to provide oversight of the benchmarking requirements. These
ongoing responsibilities are not specified either in the bill or
in current law, however, and therefore should be clarified by
subsequent amendments.
COMMENTS
AB 531
Page 2
1)Background . Benchmarking is a term applied to efforts to
track and compare the energy use of commercial buildings by
comparing the energy consumption per square foot of floor
space. It is a tool for assessing the relative energy
efficiency of buildings to better inform investment decisions
made by building operators, owners and prospective owners.
AB 1103 (Saldana)/Chapter 533 of 2007, required that utilities
upload the necessary energy consumption data to create, upon
request, an Energy Star Portfolio Manager (ESPM) account-based
on a benchmark system developed by the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency-and required that ESPM data and ratings be
provided to a prospective buyer, lessee of the entire
building, or lender that would finance the building.
2)Purpose . 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 AB 1103 specific
implementation date of January 1, 2010 and instead allows the
CEC to develop an implementation schedule in order to ensure
that the goals of AB 1103 are met without harming potential
building transactions.
Analysis Prepared by : Chuck Nicol / APPR. / (916) 319-2081