By Kent Singer, CREA Executive Director –
Colorado’s divided session leaves a legislative graveyard of bills.
Colorado’s divided session leaves a legislative graveyard of bills.” That was a recent headline in The Denver Post describing the challenges of passing legislation in Colorado in 2015. Currently in the Colorado General Assembly, the Republicans have a majority in the Senate and the Democrats have a majority in the House of Representatives. Having to pass both houses proved fatal for much of this year’s proposed legislation.
Kent Singer
But, I’m happy to report that the Colorado Rural Electric Association avoided the Grim Reaper on most of the bills it supported. CREA’s legislative agenda was alive and well at the end of the 2015 legislative campaign.
We initiated Senate Bill 15-046, a bill that passed through the entire legislative process without a single no vote in any committee or on the floor. SB 15-046 allows electric co-ops to count the output of community solar gardens as retail distributed generation for purposes of complying with the renewable energy standard. It also allows co-ops to exclude sales from industrial customers in calculating the requirement.
CREA and its member co-ops appreciate the cooperation of a large group of stakeholders in reaching a compromise on SB 15-046 and we are also extremely grateful for the assistance of Sens. Kevin Grantham (R) and Kerry Donovan (D), as well as Rep. Dominick Moreno (D) for their sponsorship of the bill. Gov. John Hickenlooper (D) signed the bill May 1 and we believe it will help our members comply with the requirements of the renewable energy requirements in a more cost-effective manner.
A bill that was essentially a spinoff of SB 15-046 was introduced late in the session and eventually passed on the last day. House Bill 15-1377 expands the types of renewable energy gardens that co-ops can count toward their retail distributed generation obligation to include all renewable resources and not just solar energy. CREA worked with the primary proponents of the bill (the Colorado Cleantech Industries Association and the Distributed Wind Energy Association) to address parts of the bill that would hurt co-ops and we were able to agree on compromise language that addressed our concerns.
The common theme between SB 15-046 and HB 15-1377 is maintaining flexibility for co-ops to determine how best to incorporate new renewable energy projects that are proposed in electric co-op service territory.
A third bill that we worked hard on this session is HB 15-1364, a bill that clarifies the authority of the state electrical board as it relates to the inspection and approval of small hydropower projects. In a couple of instances, proposed micro hydropower projects were not approved by the state electrical board because the equipment used by the developers was not UL approved. Working with the state electrical board and other parties, we developed a bill that will enable these projects to go forward while making sure the projects are safe for the developers and the public.
Another bill that CREA supported in the 2015 legislative session was SB 15-258. This bill established a state review process for the development of a plan for carbon emission reductions as contemplated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Power Plan. CREA supported this bill to give the Colorado Public Utilities Commission and the Colorado legislature a formal role in reviewing the state plan that will be developed by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. If Colorado electric utilities are required to make significant investments in new infrastructure to comply with the Clean Power Plan, our legislature and Public Utilities Commission should have a role in determining how those expenses will affect Colorado electricity consumers.
SB 15-258 passed the Colorado Senate with bipartisan support, but it was killed in the House State Affairs Committee in the last days of the session. We believe this is an incredibly important issue for our electric co-op member-owners and we will carefully review the final Clean Power Plan rules when they are announced this summer to determine if we will seek legislative review again in the 2016 legislative session.
And, finally, after a lot of wrangling, a bill to continue the Colorado Office of Consumer Counsel was approved by the legislature. We believe the Office of Consumer Counsel plays an important role in advocating for residential, agricultural and small-business consumers in Colorado and in reviewing the proposed rates of Colorado’s investor-owned electric utilities. We were glad to see the office continue and support its efforts.
So, with all due respect to The Denver Post, our 2015 legislative session was anything but a graveyard, and we look forward to equal success in 2016 and beyond.