BILL ANALYSIS
AB 758
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Date of Hearing: April 29, 2009
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Kevin De Leon, Chair
AB 758 (Skinner) - As Amended: April 14, 2009
Policy Committee:
UtilitiesVote:11-4
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
No Reimbursable:
SUMMARY
This bill requires the California Energy Commission (CEC) to
develop an energy efficiency program for existing residential
and commercial buildings. Specifically, this bill:
1)Requires the CEC to:
a) Establish a regulatory proceeding, by March 1, 2010, to
develop and implement a comprehensive program to achieve
energy savings in the existing residential and commercial
building stock that falls significantly below current Title
24 building standards.
b) Coordinate with the Public Utilities Commission (PUC)
and consult with the Department of Real Estate, the
Department of Housing and Community Development,
investor-owned and publicly owned utilities, and other
groups deemed appropriate to develop and implement the
regulator program.
2)Requires that the program developed pursuant to (1) ensure
that energy efficiency audits or improvements do not
unreasonably affect the home purchasing process, and
stipulates that a transfer of property subject to the program
shall not be invalidated for failure to comply with a
provision of the program.
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3)Requires the PUC to open a proceeding to investigate the
ability of electrical corporations to provide energy
efficiency financing options to their customers for programs
in (1).
4)Requires the PUC, by January 1, 2011, to authorize each
electrical corporation to provide a targeted number of low- or
no-cost energy efficiency audits each calendar year, and to
report the audit results annually to the Legislature and the
CEC, including the energy savings resulting from the energy
efficiency improvements.
5)Requires local publicly-owned electric utilities to implement
an energy efficiency program and report annually to its
customers and the CEC specified information about the program.
FISCAL EFFECT
1)CEC estimates a need for 10 positions at a cost of about $1
million, plus $500,000 in contracts annually for five years,
to develop and implement the energy efficiency requirements.
Sixty % of these resources would be for the commercial
application and 40% for the residential application. [Energy
Resources Programs Account] The comprehensive program would
include a broad range of energy audits, building benchmarking
or energy ratings, cost effective energy efficiency
improvements, public and private sector energy efficiency
financing options, public outreach and education, and expanded
utility energy efficiency programs.
2)The PUC would incur one-time costs of about $100,000 for the
proceeding and ongoing costs of about $314,000 for one
analyst-to coordinate with the CEC, assist with the
proceeding, and oversee the audit program-and consulting
contracts to evaluate the utilities' audit programs. [Public
Utilities Reimbursement Account]
COMMENTS
AB 758
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1)Purpose . According to the author, the purpose of this bill is
to capture energy savings in existing buildings. State energy
policy prioritizes energy efficiency to reduce energy usage,
which in turn diminishes the need for new power plants and
transmission lines. Energy efficiency measures are an
inexpensive alternative to investment in infrastructure, and
reduces the proliferation of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
The CEC, in its Integrated Energy Policy Report, strongly
supports capturing all cost-effective efficiency savings
potential and recommends pursuing legislation that would
require energy audits and cost-effective levels of efficiency
improvements at the time of sale of a building.
AB 758 includes a provision that ensures that energy audits
for residential buildings are not required as a condition of
sale and do not unreasonably or unnecessarily affect the home
purchasing process or the ability for individuals to rent
housing. However, the author would like to retain the
authority to use time-of-sale as a trigger for a comprehensive
audit, but not prevent a transfer of title if the work isn't
complete. The bill includes a provision that states that a
transfer of property subject to this program shall not be
invalidated solely because of the failure of a person to
comply with a provision of the program.
2)Prior Legislation . AB 2678 (Nunez) of 2008, which was
substantially similar to this bill, was held on Suspense in
Senate Appropriations.
3)Related Legislation . AB 212 (Saldana), also on today's
committee agenda, requires the CEC to adopt standards
requiring new residential construction to be "zero net energy"
buildings effective the latter of January 1, 2020 or the date
on which the commission determines that the use of
photovoltaic technology is cost effective.
AB 758
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Analysis Prepared by : Chuck Nicol / APPR. / (916) 319-2081