BILL ANALYSIS
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | SB 1198|
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UNFINISHED BUSINESS
Bill No: SB 1198
Author: Huff (R), et al
Amended: 6/30/10
Vote: 21
SENATE ENERGY, U.&C. COMMITTEE : 6-4, 4/20/10
AYES: Padilla, Dutton, Kehoe, Oropeza, Strickland, Wright
NOES: Corbett, Florez, Lowenthal, Simitian
NO VOTE RECORDED: Cox
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE : 5-4, 5/10/10 (FAIL)
AYES: Cox, Price, Walters, Wyland, Yee
NOES: Kehoe, Alquist, Leno, Wolk
NO VOTE RECORDED: Corbett, Denham
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE : 6-4, 5/17/10
AYES: Cox, Denham, Walters, Wolk, Wyland, Yee
NOES: Kehoe, Alquist, Corbett, Leno
NO VOTE RECORDED: Price
SENATE FLOOR : 24-9, 6/1/10
AYES: Aanestad, Ashburn, Calderon, Cedillo, Cogdill,
Correa, Cox, Denham, Ducheny, Dutton, Florez, Harman,
Hollingsworth, Huff, Negrete McLeod, Padilla, Price,
Romero, Runner, Strickland, Wolk, Wright, Wyland, Yee
NOES: Alquist, Corbett, DeSaulnier, Hancock, Leno, Liu,
Lowenthal, Pavley, Simitian
NO VOTE RECORDED: Kehoe, Oropeza, Steinberg, Walters,
Wiggins, Vacancy, Vacancy
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 69-3, 8/18/10 - See last page for vote
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SUBJECT : Energy: regulation
SOURCE : Consumer Electronics Association
DIGEST : This bill prevents the California Energy
Commission from implementing existing television product
labeling regulations before July 1, 2011. In addition, the
regulations shall only be effective if a Federal Trade
Commission labeling rule for television products is not
effective on or before July 1, 2011.
Assembly Amendments make clarifying changes.
ANALYSIS : The Warren-Alquist State Energy Resources
Conservation and Development Act requires the State Energy
Resources Conservation and Development Commission
(California Energy Commission [CEC]) to adopt those
regulations that are necessary to carry out the Act.
The Act also requires the CEC, after one or more public
hearings, to prescribe, by regulation, standards for
minimum levels of operating efficiency and prescribe other
measures, such as energy and water consumption labeling not
preempted by federal labeling law, to promote the use of
energy and water efficient appliances that do not result in
any added total costs for consumers over the designed life
of the appliances concerned.
In November 2009, the CEC adopted energy efficiency
standards for new televisions beginning in 2011 and 2013.
(These standards have not yet been approved by the Office
of Administrative Law.) The Tier 1 standards will reduce
energy use of new televisions by approximately 33 percent,
starting in 2011. The Tier 2 standards will reduce total
energy use of new televisions by an average of 49 percent,
starting in 2013. In addition, beginning in 2011,
televisions sold in the state must be permanently marked
with information on the television's electricity
consumption.
This bill delays implementation of CEC's television energy
efficiency labeling regulations until July 1, 2011, and
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makes CEC regulations effective July 1, 2011 if a Federal
Trade Commission (FTC) labeling rule for televisions is not
effective by that date, and continues the CEC regulations
in effect until FTC final labeling rule is effective.
Background
Energy Efficiency . California has pursued its energy
demand reduction goals through two primary avenues -
utility-sponsored programs to reduce end-user consumption,
and codes and standards designed to lower the energy use of
buildings and appliances. By 2004, these efforts had
cumulatively saved more than 40,000 gigawatt hours (GWh) of
electricity and 12,000 megawatts (MW) of peak electricity,
equivalent to 24 500-MW power plants. More than half of
the statewide savings has come from the building and
appliance standards, with the balance resulting from
programs implemented by the state's investor owned
utilities and local publicly owned utilities. As a result
of these efforts California's energy use per capita has
remained stable for more than 30 years while the national
per capita average has steadily increased and is nearly
double that of California.
CEC Appliance Standards . California's Appliance Efficiency
Regulations were established in 1976 in response to a
legislative mandate to reduce California's energy
consumption. The regulations are updated periodically to
allow consideration and possible incorporation of new
energy efficiency technologies and methods.
The Appliance Efficiency Regulations include standards for
both federally-regulated appliances and
non-federally-regulated appliances. Twenty-three
categories of appliances are included in the scope of these
regulations which include commercial and residential
products including water heaters, clothes washers,
dishwashers, traffic signals, lighting and heath and air
conditioning systems. The standards within these
regulations apply to appliances that are sold or offered
for sale in California, except those sold wholesale in
California for final retail sale outside the state and
those designed and sold exclusively for use in recreational
vehicles or other mobile equipment.
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Pending CEC Television Standards . The CEC has adopted
energy efficiency standards for new televisions offered for
sale in California beginning in 2011 and 2013. Currently,
statewide TV energy consumption is estimated to be 6,360
million kilowatt hours (kWh) per year, or roughly two
percent of California's gross system electricity usage.
This percentage is expected to increase as the current
stock (mostly analog cathode ray tubes) is replaced by the
newer and larger TV types. There are many "large-screen"
digital televisions on the market that use 500 or more kWh
per year, as much energy as many new refrigerators.
The first television standard (Tier 1) will take effect
January 1, 2011, and reduce energy consumption by average
of 33 percent. The second measure (Tier 2) will take
effect in 2013 and, in conjunction with Tier 1, reduce
energy consumption by an average of 49 percent.
Televisions sold in California, starting January 1, 2011,
will also be required to be permanently marked with the on
mode power consumption in watts and list the same data in
any publication website, document or retail display that is
used for selling the product. The regulation package
specifies July 1, 2010, but the CEC reports that this was a
typographical error that will be changed to January 1, 2011
at the Office of Administrative Law (OAL).
The proposed regulations will generate an estimated 6,515
GWh in energy savings annually after all existing stock is
replaced. The overall energy cost savings to consumers for
California is expected to be approximately $8.1 billion.
The estimated total value of this regulation is
approximately $8.7 billion, which is the sum of energy cost
savings from the proposed standards and savings in avoided
construction cost of a $615 million natural gas power
plant.
The regulation package has been adopted by the CEC but has
not yet been submitted to the OAL for approval. Submission
is anticipated in two to four weeks.
Pending FTC Television Labeling Requirement . The FTC's
Appliance Labeling Rules require energy disclosures for a
variety of covered products, including home appliances,
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lighting, and plumbing products. The Rule requires most
covered products to have, at the point of sale, yellow
EnergyGuide labels containing estimated annual operating
cost information based on Department of Energy test
procedures. The label information must also appear in
catalogs and on Internet sites offering the products for
sale.
The FTC has proposed to extend the labeling rule to
televisions. Each television would be required to have
specific information consistent with EnergyGuide labels for
other products including annual energy costs based on a
uniform electricity rate of 11-cents per kWh, an on-mode
usage rate of five hours per day and 19 hours per day in
standby mode to calculate annual cost and energy
consumption information. The label would also have
comparative information to other televisions grouped by
screen size.
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: Yes
Local: No
According to the Senate Appropriations Committee:
Fiscal Impact (in thousands)
Major Provisions 2010-11 2011-12 2012-13 Fund
Regulation implementation Minor costs
General*
* Energy Resources Program Account
SUPPORT : (Verified 8/4/10) (per Assembly Energy and
Commerce Committee analysis and Assembly Appropriations
Committee analysis)
Consumer Electronics Association (source)
California Retailers Association
Consumer Electronics Retailers Association
Custom Electronic Design & Installation Association
Mitsubishi Electric
Plasma Display Coalition
Sharp
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OPPOSITION : (Verified 8/4/10) (per Assembly Energy and
Commerce Committee analysis and Assembly Appropriations
Committee analysis)
California Energy Commission
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT : The bill's sponsor, the Consumer
Electronics Association, states: "Specifically, SB 1198
would delay implementation of the CEC's television energy
use labeling requirement until July 1, 2011, to allow the
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) time to develop and adopt
its own energy efficiency labeling rule. Prior to the
CEC's rulemaking, the Federal government enacted
legislation mandating energy use disclosure requirements
for certain electronics products, including televisions.
In order to implement this legislation, the FTC initiated a
rulemaking in early 2009, and they have been working with a
variety of stakeholders to craft regulations. In March
2010, the FTC issued a notice of proposed rulemaking that
includes specific energy use disclosure and labeling
requirements for televisions. If the FTC rulemaking is
adopted, it would supersede California's recently adopted
regulations. As adopted, the CEC's regulations would apply
to televisions sold in California after January 1, 2011.
SB 1198 would specify that California's television energy
use regulations would become effective July 1, 2011, in the
event that the FTC has not successfully adopted its own
regulation by this date. The FTC's process has been
informed by significant stakeholder input, as well as the
agency's own experience successfully operating the existing
EnergyGuide labeling program for EnergyStar appliances."
They believe it will be beneficial to California consumers,
manufacturers, retailers, and others for California to
permit a reasonable amount of time for the Federal process
to unfold.
ARGUMENTS IN OPPOSITION : The CEC believes that the FTC
labels could be misleading. By conveying operating costs
in dollars, compared with the CEC labels that convey power
consumption, the commission argues that Californians could
be misled into believing a television is cheaper to operate
than it really is due to different energy rate structures
across the country. The CEC states this bill dilutes CEC's
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standards because the federal standards are almost always
less stringent that California's.
ASSEMBLY FLOOR :
AYES: Adams, Anderson, Arambula, Bass, Beall, Bill
Berryhill, Tom Berryhill, Block, Blumenfield, Bradford,
Buchanan, Caballero, Carter, Conway, Cook, Coto, Davis,
De La Torre, De Leon, DeVore, Eng, Fletcher, Fong,
Fuentes, Fuller, Furutani, Gaines, Galgiani, Garrick,
Gatto, Gilmore, Hagman, Hall, Harkey, Hayashi, Hernandez,
Hill, Huber, Huffman, Jeffries, Jones, Knight, Lieu,
Bonnie Lowenthal, Ma, Mendoza, Miller, Monning, Nestande,
Niello, Nielsen, Norby, V. Manuel Perez, Portantino,
Ruskin, Salas, Saldana, Silva, Skinner, Smyth, Solorio,
Audra Strickland, Swanson, Torlakson, Torres, Torrico,
Tran, Villines, John A. Perez
NOES: Ammiano, Feuer, Nava
NO VOTE RECORDED: Blakeslee, Brownley, Charles Calderon,
Chesbro, Evans, Logue, Yamada, Vacancy
DLW:mw 8/18/10 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
**** END ****
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