Act No. 47 (H.56). Energy; public service; renewable energy; tax; municipalities; real property; commerce and trade; consumer fraud; natural resources; air quality

This act contains various statutes and session law related to energy. Among other things, the act:

· Changes the net metering statute, including increasing the maximum capacity of individual systems and the cumulative capacity of all such systems on the electric grid, mandating a registration process for solar net metering systems of five kilowatts or less, and requiring each utility to provide an additional credit for solar net metering systems (Secs. 1 and 2.)

· Makes permanent a pilot project related to a self-managed energy efficiency program (Secs. 3 and 4.)

· Revises the circumstances under which a regulated utility's purchase of electricity from outside the state automatically requires review by the public service board (Sec. 5.)

· Exempts in-state transmission projects by electric cooperatives from the requirement for member approval if the projects are solely for reliability purposes (Sec. 5.)

· Makes changes to the Sustainably Priced Energy Enterprise Development (SPEED) program, including making unused capacity from the standard offer component of that program available to existing small hydroelectric projects (Secs. 6-10.)

· Establishes a baseload renewable power portfolio requirement to be met by using an existing woody biomass plant (Sec. 11.)

· Amends existing law under which municipalities may create special assessment districts to fund energy efficiency and renewable energy improvements, including changing the name of these districts to property-assessed clean energy (PACE), limiting PACE to residential properties, making PACE liens subordinate to first mortgages, requiring that on foreclosure PACE payments are made current and that the PACE lien survives foreclosure, and establishing two tiers of reserve funding to provide security for PACE assessments (Secs. 18a-18j.)

· Requires the content of heating oil, over time, to have less sulfur and more biodiesel, with the biodiesel requirements coming into effect when surrounding states have adopted substantially similar or more stringent requirements (Sec. 19.)

· Establishes protections for propane consumers (Sec. 19a.)

· Requires the department of public service (DPS) to report to the general assembly by January 15, 2012 on whether it is in the public interest for regulated utilities to allocate credit and debit card service fees across all ratepayers rather than charging an additional fee to each ratepayer seeking to pay by credit or debit card (Sec. 20.)

· Directs that thermal energy efficiency programs support use of woody biomass heating systems (Secs. 20a-20c.)

· Creates a working group on building energy disclosure to study whether and how to require disclosure of the energy efficiency of commercial and residential buildings to make such information available in the marketplace for real property, and to submit to the general assembly by December 15, 2011 a report with recommended legislation (Sec. 20d.)

· Specifies particular issues to be considered by the DPS in its next update of the comprehensive energy and 20-year electric energy plans (Sec. 20e.)

· Requires each regulated electric utility to have a rate schedule that provides an option under which efficient streetlights (including light emitting diodes or LED lights) are installed on company-owned fixtures, and to have a separate option under which customers may own street lights and install efficient lights (Secs. 20f-20g.)

· Makes changes related to the clean energy development fund (CEDF) and the solar energy tax credits, including allowing a taxpayer an option to receive a grant for one-half the value of those credits in lieu of taking their full value over five years, excluding such a grant from income for state tax purposes, enabling the CEDF to issue such a grant, and returning the CEDF to the supervision of the DPS (Secs. 20h-20m.)

· Amends existing statutes and session law regarding the ability of the DPS, the public service board, and the joint fiscal committee to allocate costs (Secs. 20n-20s.)

· Modifies statutory provisions that govern when revisions to building energy standards will become effective (Secs. 20t-20u.)

Multiple effective dates, beginning May 25, 2011