BILL ANALYSIS
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Christine Kehoe, Chair
758 (Skinner)
Hearing Date: 08/27/2009 Amended: 08/17/2009
Consultant: Brendan McCarthy Policy Vote: EU&C 11-0
AB 758 (Skinner)
Page 2
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BILL SUMMARY: This bill requires the Energy Commission to
develop and implement a program to achieve additional energy
efficiency savings in existing commercial and residential
buildings. The bill requires the Public Utilities Commission to
investigate the ability of electricity and natural gas utilities
to provide financing to their customers to pay for energy
efficiency measures. The bill requires municipal utilities to
implement an energy efficiency program.
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Fiscal Impact (in thousands)
Major Provisions 2009-10 2010-11 2011-12 Fund
Energy Commission $900 $1,800 $1,800 Federal
regulatory activities
Implementation of additional Unknown Federal
energy efficiency programs
Public Utilities Commission $58 $115
$115Special *
proceeding
* Public Utilities Commission Utilities Reimbursement Account.
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STAFF COMMENTS: Suspense file.
Approximately 75 percent of homes and apartments in the state
were developed prior to the adoption of building energy
efficiency standards by the Energy Commission in 1982.
Current law requires the California Energy Commission to
establish criteria for a statewide home energy rating system for
residential buildings and to develop materials to educate
property owners about energy efficiency options. Current law
also gives the Commission authority to develop energy efficiency
standards for buildings and certain appliances. In 2005, the
Energy Commission released a report on potential energy
efficiency measures that could be adopted in existing commercial
and residential buildings. The report found that cost effective
AB 758 (Skinner)
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energy efficiency measures could reduce statewide consumption of
electricity and natural gas by 15 to 18 percent.
Under current law, the Public Utilities Commission is authorized
to establish energy efficiency targets for electricity and
natural gas utilities under its jurisdiction. The Public
Utilities Commission is also authorized to require utilities to
provide energy efficiency programs for their customers. In the
2009-2011 program cycle, the Public Utilities Commission has
authorized the utilities to spend about $1 billion per year in
ratepayer funds for energy efficiency programs.
This bill requires the Energy Commission to begin a regulatory
proceeding to develop and implement a program to achieve greater
efficiency savings in existing residential and commercial
buildings. The Energy Commission is authorized to include energy
assessments, energy efficiency improvements, financing options
for efficiency projects, public education, and other strategies.
The Energy Commission is required to coordinate its activities
with the Public Utilities Commission and a variety of other
public and private entities. The program developed by the Energy
Commission may include both utility and non-utility administered
energy efficiency programs. The Energy Commission is required to
include information developed through the proceeding in an
existing report to the Legislature.
The Energy Commission indicates that the cost to develop and
adopt the program required in the bill, including staff and
contract costs, to be about $1.8 million per year. Because the
exact nature of the program to be developed is unknown, the
costs to implement such a large scale energy efficiency program
are unknown.
The bill requires the Public Utilities Commission to open or
modify an existing regulatory proceeding to determine whether
utilities under its jurisdiction can provide financing options
to their customers to implement the program developed by the
Energy Commission. The Public Utilities Commission is also
required to report on the utilities' implementation of the
program. The Public Utilities Commission indicates that the cost
to comply with the bill's requirements would be about $115,000
per year.
The bill requires municipal utilities to implement energy
efficiency programs and to include information on their efforts
AB 758 (Skinner)
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in an existing report to the Energy Commission. The costs for
the municipal utilities to comply with this requirement are
unknown. However, because the municipal utilities have the
authority to charge users for the costs of the bill, there would
be no reimbursable state mandate for these costs.
This bill is substantially similar to AB 2678 (Nunez, 2008)
which was held in this committee.