Bill Text: CA AB2137 | 2013-2014 | Regular Session | Amended

NOTE: There are more recent revisions of this legislation. Read Latest Draft

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Bill Title: Energy efficiency programs: information available for small businesses.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)

Status: (Passed) 2014-08-25 - Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 290, Statutes of 2014. [AB2137 Detail]

Download: California-2013-AB2137-Amended.html

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BILL NUMBER: AB 2137	AMENDED
	BILL TEXT

	AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY  APRIL 21, 2014
	AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY  MARCH 28, 2014

INTRODUCED BY   Assembly Member Quirk

                        FEBRUARY 20, 2014

   An act to add  Chapter 5.10 (commencing with Section
25499) to Division 15 of the Public Resources   Section
12098.9 to the Government Code, and to add Section 323.5 to the Pu
  blic Utilities  Code, relating to energy efficiency.


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   AB 2137, as amended, Quirk.  Small Business Energy
Efficiency Incentive Program.   Energy efficiency
programs: information available for small businesses.  
   Existing law creates the Office of Small Business Advocate within
the Governor's Office of Business and Economic Development. Existing
law establishes the duties and functions of the advocate, which
include advisory participation in the consideration of all
legislation and administrative regulations that affect small
businesses. Existing law also requires the office to post specified
information on its Internet Web site, including information about
emergency preparedness, responses, and recovery strategies for small
businesses and information regarding programs administered through
the statewide network of small business financial development
corporations.  
   This bill would require the office to develop and maintain on its
Internet Web site a section dedicated to all of the energy efficiency
programs that are available to small businesses within the state.
 
   Under existing law, the Public Utilities Commission has regulatory
authority over public utilities, including electrical corporations
and gas corporations, as defined. The Public Utilities Act requires
the Public Utilities Commission to review and accept, modify, or
reject a procurement plan for each electrical corporation in
accordance with specified elements, incentive mechanisms, and
objectives. The act requires that an electrical corporation's
proposed procurement plan include certain elements, including a
showing that the electrical corporation will first meet its unmet
needs through all available energy efficiency and demand reduction
resources that are cost effective, reliable, and feasible. Existing
law requires the Public Utilities Commission, in consultation with
the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission,
to identify all potentially achievable cost-effective electricity
efficiency savings and to establish efficiency targets for electrical
corporations to achieve pursuant to their procurement plan. The
Public Utilities Act additionally requires the Public Utilities
Commission, in consultation with the State Energy Resources
Conservation and Development Commission, to identify all potentially
achievable cost-effective natural gas efficiency savings and to
establish efficiency targets for gas corporations to achieve and
requires that a gas corporation first meet its unmet resource needs
through all available gas efficiency and demand reduction resources
that are cost effective, reliable, and feasible.  
   This bill would require the Public Utilities Commission to develop
and maintain on its Internet Web site a section dedicated to all of
the electrical corporation and gas corporation energy efficiency
programs that are available to small businesses within the state,
which emphasizes energy efficiency measures that are likely to be of
most interest to small businesses. The bill would require the Public
Utilities Commission, when available, to include hyperlink or URL
connections to electrical corporation and gas corporation Internet
Web sites that enable users of the Internet to directly access
available information on those utility Internet Web sites. 

   Existing law requires the State Energy Resources Conservation and
Development Commission to administer various programs to provide
incentives to specified entities for energy efficiency projects.
Existing law requires the commission to establish incentives in the
form of specified financial assistance for, among other entities,
small businesses for constructing and retrofitting buildings to be
more energy efficient by using, among other things, products
certified by the commission as energy efficient zone heating
products. Existing law also requires the commission to establish
minimum levels of operating efficiency for appliances. 

   This bill would require the commission to establish the Small
Business Energy Efficiency Incentive Program to provide rebates to
small business for eligible equipment, as defined, that meets the
appliance efficiency standards established by the commission and
reduces the electricity usage of the small business. The bill would
establish the Small Business Energy Efficiency Incentive Program Fund
in the State Treasury and would require the moneys in the fund, upon
appropriation by the Legislature, to be expended by the commission
for the purposes of the program. The bill would require the
commission to identify excess moneys available for energy efficiency
programs that it administers and would require those excess moneys be
transferred to the fund. 
   Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: no.


THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

   SECTION 1.    The Legislature finds and declares all
the following:  
   (a) Helping small businesses become more energy efficient can help
California reduce energy consumption and thereby help in reducing
emissions of greenhouse gases throughout the state.  
   (b) Small businesses are the backbone of California's economic
prosperity.  
   (c) Maximizing the energy efficiency programs the state,
electrical corporations, gas corporations, and local publicly owned
electric and gas utilities offer can help small businesses become
more productive and assist in reducing electrical demand during peak
demand periods.  
   (d) To better serve the public, and to benefit the state, the
state shall promote and facilitate the fullest possible participation
of small businesses to benefit from energy efficiency programs run
by the state, as well as any programs of an electrical corporation,
gas corporation, or local publicly owned electric or gas utility.

   SEC. 2.   Section 12098.9 is added to the  
Government Code   , to read:  
   12098.9.  (a) For purposes of this section, the following terms
have the following meanings:
   (1) "Energy efficiency programs" mean all energy efficiency,
energy conservation, energy savings, or weatherization programs of
the state or a local government, electrical corporations, gas
corporations, or a local publicly owned electric or gas utility.
   (2) "Electrical corporation," "gas corporation," and "local
publicly owned electric utility" have the same meanings as
respectively defined in Sections 218, 222, and 224.3 of the Public
Utilities Code. "Local publicly owned gas utility" includes the gas
departments of the City of Long Beach and the City of Palo Alto.
   (3) "Small business" has the same meaning as defined in Section
14837.
   (b) In order to educate small business owners of the availability
of various programs promoting the efficient use of energy, the office
shall develop and maintain on its Internet Web site a section
dedicated to all of the energy efficiency programs that are available
to small businesses within the state. The office shall consult with
the Public Utilities Commission, the State Energy Resources
Conservation and Development Commission, and local publicly owned
electric and gas utilities in developing the information to include
on its Internet Web site. 
   SEC. 3.    Section 323.5 is added to the  
Public Utilities Code   , to read:  
   323.5.  (a) For purposes of this section, the following terms have
the following meanings:
   (1) "Energy efficiency programs" mean all energy efficiency,
energy conservation, energy savings, or weatherization programs of
electrical corporations or gas corporations subject to direction and
supervision by the commission.
   (2) "Hyperlink" means a special Hypertext Markup Language (HTML)
code that allows text or graphics to serve as a link that, when
clicked on, takes a user to another place in the same document, to
another document, or to another Internet Web site or Web page.
   (3) "Small business" has the same meaning as defined in Section
14837 of the Governmental Code.
   (4) "Uniform Resource Locator" or "URL" means the address of an
Internet Web site or the location of a resource on the World Wide Web
that allows a browser to locate and retrieve the Internet Web site
or the resource.
   (b) In order to educate small business owners of the availability
of various electrical corporation and gas corporation programs
promoting the efficient use of electricity and natural gas, the
commission shall develop and maintain on its Internet Web site a
section dedicated to all of the energy efficiency programs that are
available to small businesses within the state, which emphasizes
energy efficiency measures that are likely to be of most interest to
small businesses. Where available, the commission shall include
hyperlink or URL connections to electrical corporation and gas
corporation Internet Web sites that enable users of the Internet to
directly access available information on those utility Internet Web
sites.
   (c) (1) Nothing in this section limits the authority of the
commission to make information relative to energy efficiency programs
available to other target audiences in addition to small businesses.

   (2) Nothing in this section limits the authority of the commission
to make information specially available to small businesses relative
to other public utility programs that may be of special interest to
small businesses.  
  SECTION 1.    Chapter 5.10 (commencing with
Section 25499) is added to Division 15 of the Public Resources Code,
to read:
      CHAPTER 5.10.  SMALL BUSINESS ENERGY EFFICIENCY INCENTIVE
PROGRAM


   25499.  (a) For purposes of this chapter, "eligible equipment"
means an electric or gas product that supports the day-to-day
operation of a business.
   (b) The commission shall establish the Small Business Energy
Efficiency Incentive Program to provide rebates to small businesses
for the purchase of eligible equipment that meets the energy
efficiency standards established pursuant to subdivision (c) of
Section 25402 and decreases the electricity usage of the small
business.
   (c) The commission, in consultation with the Governor's Office of
Business and Economic Development, shall develop an investment
strategy to allocate funds appropriated for the purpose of this
program.
   (d) (1) There is hereby established in the State Treasury the
Small Business Energy Efficiency Incentive Program Fund. Moneys in
the fund, upon appropriation by the Legislature, shall be expended by
the commission for the purpose of this chapter.
   (2) The commission shall identify excess moneys available for
energy efficiency programs it administers and, to the extent not
inconsistent with federal law or the California Constitution, shall
transfer those excess moneys to the Small Business Energy Efficiency
Incentive Program Fund to be available for appropriation.