BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    



                                                                  AB 531
                                                                  Page  1

          CONCURRENCE IN SENATE AMENDMENTS
          AB 531 (Saldana)
          As Amended  June 11, 2009
          Majority vote
           
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          |ASSEMBLY:  |77-1 |(June 1, 2009)  |SENATE: |35-0 |(August 31,    |
          |           |     |                |        |     |2009)          |
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           Original Committee Reference:    U. & C.  

           SUMMARY  :   Revises a provision of current law that requires that  
          an owner or operator of a nonresidential building to disclose  
          Energy Star Portfolio Manager (ESPM) benchmarking data to a  
          prospective buyer, lessee of the entire building, or lender to  
          instead do so based on a schedule of compliance established by  
          the California Energy Commission (CEC).

           The Senate amendments  delete provisions of the bill that  
          exempted utilities from certain prohibitions against disclosing  
          customer energy consumption data. 
           
          EXISTING LAW  :

          1)Requires that upon the authorization of a nonresidential  
            building owner or operator, an electric or gas utility upload  
            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. 

           AS PASSED BY THE ASSEMBLY  , this bill exempted utilities from  
          prohibitions against disclosing customer energy consumption data  
          to comply with the California law requiring benchmarking for  
          certain non-residential buildings.  









                                                                  AB 531
                                                                  Page  2

           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: 0002161