No Action on Clean Energy Bill; NEV Bill Passes
State Legislature Adjourns

While the Democrats control the majority of seats in the State Senate, the State Assembly and the Governor’s Office, it still wasn’t enough to pass the Clean Energy Jobs Act (Senate Bill 450) before the State Legislature adjourned its 2009-2010 Legislative Session. It is uncertain whether another version will be introduced at the start of the next legislative session.

MEUW worked on or tracked nearly 40 bills and rules throughout the session. One measure MEUW sought is a fix to the Neighborhood Electric Vehicle (NEV) state statute allowing local control over NEV designated routes and crossings within municipal boundaries. State Senators Kathleen Vinehout (D-Alma), Jim Holperin (D-Conover) and State Representative John Steinbrink (D-Pleasant Prairie) were instrumental in moving Senate Bill 321 through the process.

On May 12, Governor Jim Doyle signed the NEV bill into law, creating 2009 Wisconsin Act 311 (which will become effective November 1). MEUW Member leaders Whitehall Mayor Rod Moen and Eagle River City Administrator Joe Laux were continually contacting legislative leaders with communications of support for the measure.

With the close of official business, legislators head back to their home districts for the fall campaigns. November 2010 is shaping up to be a very interesting election season with state races for governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, 17 State Senate seats, and all 99 State Assembly seats up for grabs.
 

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Use PSC Electronic Regulatory Filing System for Reports
Wisconsin Administrative Code PSC Chap. 113 Reporting Requirements

Electric utility reporting requirements contained in Wisconsin Administrative Code Chap. PSC 113 are shown below. This table outlines the various reports required with the applicable due dates and respective staff contacts. All reports should be filed using the PSC’s Electronic Regulatory Filing (ERF) system according to the instructions and guidelines found on the PSC’s ERF website at http://psc.wi.gov/apps35/erf_public/Default.aspx. All Wisconsin Administrative Code Chap. PSC 113 reports should be filed under the docket number “5 GF 113”, with the subject box indicating the subsections of Chap. PSC 113 the report falls under. If you have general questions about the process of electronic filing or instructions on formatting, etc., please contact the PSC Records Management Unit by telephone at (608) 261-8524 or by e-mail at pscrecs@wisconsin.gov. A copy of this list can also be found on www.meuw.org.
 

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APPA Washington Report
Plan B
by Robert Varela, Editor, APPA’s Public Power Weekly

With the prospects for enactment of a climate change bill this year looking dim and dimmer, it’s a good time to consider what “plan B” should be.

The Obama administration already has its plan B set to go—regulation of greenhouse gas emissions by the Environmental Protection Agency using its existing authority under the Clean Air Act.

EPA has several regulatory options, but the most likely one would mean large new stationary sources and modified facilities would need to install “best available control technology” to limit their greenhouse gas emissions in order to obtain federal air permits. Based on guidance from EPA, state regulators would determine what constitutes best available control technology (BACT) on a case-by-case basis as they review individual applications.

The leading BACT options for a coal-fired power plant are (1) carbon capture and storage, which has yet to be proven feasible at the scale needed to accommodate power plant emissions, and (2) switching to natural gas, which still produces significant emissions of carbon, just not nearly as much as coal. Either option would be costly and would lead to court battles.

As APPA President and CEO Mark Crisson points out in the May issue of Public Power magazine, “climate change regulation without new legislation portends an unacceptable level of uncertainty and high costs.”

All this leaves public power officials with a few options. One is to keep lobbying members of Congress to pass a sensible comprehensive climate change bill and avert what looks to be a regulatory train wreck.

This makes sense even if climate change legislation bogs down completely this year. Lawmakers need to keep hearing that the utility industry needs certainty on greenhouse gas controls and that regulation under the Clean Air Act is not a viable route. In addition, the legislation is still being revised—who would have thought a few months ago that the Senate would abandon cap-and-trade? Public power utilities need to make the case for their priorities.

Another option is to begin now to prepare for limits on greenhouse gas emissions, which appear to be inevitable despite the congressional snafus. Energy efficiency clearly makes a lot of sense, even if selling less electricity sounds counterintuitive for an electric utility. But energy efficiency will help your customer-owners lower their bills and, if it means you can delay building a new peaking unit or having to rely on expensive spot market power, energy efficiency can help your utility’s bottom line.

Pushing energy efficiency when demand already is down due to the recession also sounds counterintuitive. But energy efficiency can cut electricity bills at a time when consumers and businesses need any extra money. It’s also easier to build in energy efficiency measures as new businesses start up, with the economy recovering, rather than retrofit later.

One potential added bonus is that EPA is looking at how the BACT process can be used to encourage the development of energy efficient processes and technologies.

APPA offers plenty of resources to help public power utilities with energy efficiency. The best place to start is the Energy Efficiency Resource Central section of the association’s website, www.APPAnet.org, which provides a wide variety of education, policy and advocacy resources and services to help utilities promote energy efficiency. APPA also has published “A New View on Energy Efficiency,” aimed at elected officials and utility CEOs that covers how updated energy efficiency programs can help utilities control costs, risk and achieve other utility and customer goals.

Two resources of particular note are APPA’s searchable database of energy efficiency programs offered by public power utilities across the country, and the energy services list server, an electronic forum for APPA members to discuss policy and operational issues on energy services, energy efficiency and similar issues.

Energy efficiency is not a silver bullet. It’s not free any more than wind or solar power is free. Good energy efficiency programs require thought, care, hard work and money. But energy efficiency is cost effective and it’s the right thing to do, for the environment and for your
customers.
 

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