We are pleased to report that Senator Jones and Senator Bennett have joined Senator Altman in co-sponsoring SB 1724 and that Representative Ahearn has joined Representative Burgin in co-sponsoring HB 1349. We expect to have more co-sponsors of this legislation, allowing for distributed production of renewable energy, to sign on in the House and Senate this week. In the meeting packet from yesterday's House Energy Committee you can read proposed legislative language that will be put forth on behalf of the committee. Beginning on page 24 you can read the proposed language for the legislation that deals with renewable energy development. As you can see, this committee language falls well short of opening up a free and competitive market for renewable energy development, and instead gives almost total (95%) control to allow utilities to build, own and operate renewable energy facilities with full cost recovery from their ratepayers. The key points of HB 1349, sponsored by Representatives Burgin and Ahearn, will need to be incorporated in to the committee's language, including: - A mechanism of standard offer contracts allowing independently built projects the ability to sell the energy that they produce to the grid at an economically viable rate.
- A market driven auction mechanism to establish prices levels of standard offer contracts.
- The ability for commercial entities to produce energy and sell it to their tenants or neighbors at a negotiated price, without government intervention or being deemed a utility.
It is also important to note that the existing committee language does not include incentives for small scale or solar thermal systems, as well as no details on how the allotted 5% would actually be purchased from customer owned systems. Along with supporting HB 1349 and SB 1724, FARE will be submitting amendments to address these points within the House Energy Committee. *On Monday, it is expected that the Senate Utility Committee will release the language that they intend to include in their committee bill. Other bills: HB 531 sponsored by Representative Frishe, which deals with property tax exemptions for renewable energy has passed favorably out of its first committee stop after becoming what is known as a "committee substitute" and now moves on to it second of four committee stops. HB 531's companion in the Senate - SB 434 by Senator Latvala, followed a similar course of action and passed out of the Senate Energy Committee and on to it's next stop. Legend: · SB = Senate Bill · HB = House Bill · CS = Committee Substitute = Also known as a Council Substitute (depending on the House or Senate), is when a committee or council keeps the legislative intent of a given bill but rewrites or amends the bill per the committee or councils instructions. | 
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