MEEA Policy Insider - February 2021

The MEEA Policy Insider summarizes the latest state policy activity and provides new resources to aid members in their outreach, education and advocacy initiatives.

In this issue:

COVID-19

While some states have resumed economic activity, others are implementing new restrictions to confront the latest surge in infections, encouraging or requiring safety measures against the spread of COVID-19. There are ongoing cases in public service commissions to address utility service impacts to customers. The efficiency workforce has not fully recovered from the economic slowdown and social distancing in late spring that carried into the summer. Most utility programs have resumed, some with alterations including virtual elements or limited direct customer interaction. All legislatures in the Midwest have now reconvened for the new session.

MEEA is tracking impacts, program responses and recovery from COVID-19 and sharing resources as the situation evolves. For consolidated information, see MEEA’s COVID-19 resources page. Members who are able to share information about utility program and energy service impacts or have any resource needs, please contact Policy Director Nick Dreher.

Webinar Recording: The Midwest Shoots, Does It Score? A Regional Status Update

On February 2, MEEA held a webinar to roll out the 2021 Midwest Energy Efficiency Spotlight, a report containing metrics that detail the impact of energy efficiency policies and programs in the region. The webinar also included Midwest perspectives from ACEEE’s 2020 State Scorecard. Review the slides and webinar recording >>

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Executive

On August 21, Governor Pritzker’s office announced Eight Principles for a Clean and Renewable Economy. The eighth principle is “Enhance Energy Efficiency in Illinois” and lays out numerous policy proposals the Governor would like to pursue. The Governor’s office held working groups focusing on the power sector, transportation, equity and commercial/industrial/buildings-related energy efficiency issues in October. MEEA attended all three commercial/industrial/buildings EE working group meetings (October 13, 20 and 22), which focused on principle number eight. There has been no formal announcement regarding the results of the working groups’ efforts.

Legislative

The new 2-year legislative session began on January 13th, 2021.

The 2020 Illinois legislative session adjourned on May 31 but reconvened for a lame duck session from January 8th to 13th. A new Speaker, Emmanuel “Chris” Welch (7th District), was selected, ending the 35-year tenure of former Speaker Mike Madigan. Welch is the first Black speaker of the Illinois House in the state’s history.

The major piece of clean energy legislation, the Clean Energy Jobs Act (CEJA), previously introduced as SB 2132 / HB 3624, was re-introduced on February 9th following a press conference. It has been amended extensively since its first introduction, including new or expanded electrification, workforce development and utility accountability provisions. Topic-specific excerpts of CEJA are available on the pro-CEJA Illinois Clean Job Coalition website.

On February 10th, the House voted to adopt a set of rules that would allow remote legislating, including participation in committee hearings, task forces and voting. The rules also included other provisions, such as term limits of 10 years (5 biennial sessions) for the office of speaker or minority leader.

How to Get Involved

Due to COVID-19, all Illinois EE Stakeholder Advisory Group (SAG) large group and working group meetings will be held via teleconference until further notice. SAG meeting information, COVID-19 updates and documents can be found on the SAG website.

For more information about Illinois or to get more involved, contact Nick Dreher.

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Legislative

House Bill 1220, as amended, passed the House and is currently in the Senate Utilities committee. It would reestablish the 21st Century Energy Policy Development Task Force with a new mandate to include topics that the first task force declined to address, including:

  • Regulation of the development of distributed energy resources (DERs)
  • Status of EE in Indiana & potential for a statewide EE plan
  • Demand response & pricing structures that encourage load shifting

Regulatory

Integrated resource planning is ongoing for Indiana utilities.

The utility filing deadline for upcoming IRPs are as follows:

  • NIPSCO: November 1, 2021
  • Wabash Valley: November 1, 2021
  • Duke Energy Indiana: November 1, 2021
  • Indiana Michigan Power: December 15, 2021

Utility stakeholder meetings will continue during the planning period. Updates from the commission on IRPs in Indiana will be posted to the IURC’s IRP page.

How to Get Involved

IRP meetings are all open to the public. Anyone interested is encouraged to attend. They are typically announced through utility mailing lists. For help finding the utility mailing list sign-up and IRP meeting registration, or for other questions about Indiana, contact Greg Ehrendreich.  

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Legislative

Representative Isenhart introduced HF 305, HF 351 and HF 355. The former two were referred to the House Commerce Committee while the latter was referred to the Local Government Committee.

  • HF 305 would require utilities with energy efficiency plans approved by the Iowa Utilities Board to carry over unspent budgets from the previous program year to the following program year.
  • HF 351 would add encouragement of energy efficiency investments in public school facilities as a purpose of the Iowa Energy Center’s alternative energy revolving loan fund.  
  • HF355 would allow counties or cities to create energy investment districts to finance energy investments, including energy efficiency measures, for private properties, excluding residential property with fewer than 3 units.

How to Get Involved

If you have any questions about Iowa or want to get more involved, contact Samarth Medakkar.

Legislative

On February 12, HB 2381, a bill that establishes a state energy plan task force and requires the development of a plan, was introduced and referred to the House Committee on Energy, Utilities and Telecommunications. The bill received a hearing on February 23.

On February 10, HB 2320 was introduced and referred to the House Committee on Financial Institutions and Rural Development. The bill would enact a Commercial Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) act.

On January 26, SB 81 (HB 2181) was introduced and referred to the Committee on Utilities in the House and Senate. The bill requires the Kansas Corporation Commission (KCC) to provide an annual report on the electric rates of KS public utilities by sector, and those of utilities in surrounding states. The stated purpose is to inform electric policy that would lead to competitive rates. The bill received a hearing in the House Utilities Committee on February 9 and in the Senate Utilities Committee on February 11.

Regulatory

On January 14, Commissioner Andrew French was elected chairperson of the Kansas Corporation Commission. 

How to Get Involved

For more information about Kansas or to get more involved, contact Samarth Medakkar.

Executive

On September 23, Governor Whitmer announced a goal of carbon neutrality by 2050 through an executive order and an executive directive. In the order, Michigan will work towards carbon neutrality by reducing emissions from public buildings, emphasizing carbon neutrality in utility IRPs and adding renewable energy on state facilities and lands. The MPSC is currently studying its role in executive order implementation.

Legislative

The Michigan legislature convened for its new biennium on January 13, 2021. Committee assignments have yet to be announced.

Regulatory

Governor Whitmer has appointed Katherine Peretick to the MPSC. Commissioner Peretick will fill out the remainder of former Commissioner Sally Talberg’s term. Peretick began serving as Commissioner on January 4, though the Senate has sixty days from the appointment announcement to reject the appointment.

MI Power Grid work groups continue to meet. The MPSC announced two new work groups: Distributed Energy Resources Rate Design and Customer Education and Participation. The latter will explore how to help all Michiganders access affordable and reliable energy through increasing awareness and adoption of energy waste reduction, demand response and innovative rates. The kickoff meeting for the New Technologies and Business Models work group was held on January 27.

Additionally, the MPSC has begun work on its energy waste reduction and demand response potential study. Guidehouse is contracted to run the study, which will examine the period of 2021-2040. The MPSC and Guidehouse will hold a series of stakeholder meetings before the research begins. The most recent meeting was on February 4. Guidehouse recently released its proposed surveys to gather data for the residential sector and commercial sector.

How to Get Involved

For more information about Michigan or to get more involved, contact Maddie Wazowicz.

Legislative

The Minnesota legislature began its new biennium on January 5. Many introduced bills touch on energy policy. The Clean Energy First Act (HF10) and the Energy Conservation and Optimization Act (HF164/SF227) were both discussed at length in 2019 and 2020, but ultimately did not pass. CEFA would require utilities to prioritize clean energy resources, including energy efficiency and load management, before asking the PUC to approve fossil fuel generation. ECO would expand and modernize the state’s Conservation Improvement Program by increasing utilities’ energy savings goals, allowing for beneficial electrification and expanding low-income energy efficiency, among other things. ECO has passed both the House and Senate’s Energy committees and will soon be up for floor discussion.

There are several other energy-related bills. HF70/SF543 would create a $15 million revolving loan fund for state facilities to pay for energy efficiency improvements. HF751 would allow the state’s utilities to submit a report to the PUC demonstrating their efforts and progress on building electrification. Additionally, HF831 would require the state to adopt a more efficient commercial energy building code and continue to update that code until all new commercial buildings must be net zero by 2036. Additional proposals would allow the state’s utilities to spend money on natural gas innovations and would require the state to reach carbon neutrality by 2050.

Regulatory

The Department of Commerce issued decisions on the investor-owned utilities’ Conservation Improvement Program triennial plans. These plans outline the utilities’ proposed energy efficiency portfolio for 2021-2023 and provide program-level detail. The DOC approved the proposed budgets, participation targets and energy savings goals for the IOUs. Further detail can be found in the complete rulings linked below:

MEEA is participating in the Department of Commerce’s Electrification Action Plan Technical Advisory Committee. The DOE-funded project aims to study electrification’s opportunities and challenges. Additionally, the project looks to understand the various policy considerations and equity implications of an electrified Minnesota. The TAC presented its findings to stakeholders on February 4. More information on the project can be found here.

Additionally, the PUC held a hearing on its shared-savings financial mechanism (08-133). This long-running docket seeks to determine if and how the Commission should modify its shared-savings mechanism for utilities in the upcoming 2021-23 triennial. The PUC agreed that discussions on the topic should move forward.

How to Get Involved

For more information about Minnesota or to get more involved, contact Maddie Wazowicz.

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Regulatory

On January 29, the comment period for EO-2021-0021, Ameren Missouri’s 2020 Integrated Resource Plan docket, was extended to March 15.

Working case AW-2020-0356 was initially opened to explore best-practices for addressing past-due utility bill payment and is now active in gathering and reporting disconnections data. Monthly reports are expected by the 22nd of each month beyond December 2020. On December 22, the PSC staff filed an updated report.

Legislative

Three bills related to Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) were filed. Both HB 697 and HB 814 received a hearing on February 10 and passed the House Financial Institutions Committee on February 17. The bills were referred to the House Administrative Oversight Committee. SB 105, the Senate version of HB 697, will receive a hearing on March 2 in the INsurance and Banking Committee.

  • HB 697 (SB 105) was introduced by Representative DeGroot and Senator Crawford. The bill adds requirements for submittal and approval of PACE assessment contracts including through expanded regulatory authority of the Division of Finance.
  • HB 814 was introduced by Representative O’Donnell on January 13. The bill would add a loan-to-value requirement for residential PACE assessments.
  • HB 145, also introduced by Representative DeGroot, has yet to be referred to a committee. The bill shifts assessment collection to city collectors when a county has not joined the PACE program. It also expands regulatory authority of the Division of Finance.

Executive

The Missouri Department of Natural Resources’ (MO DNR) Division of Energy published a resource to aid small- to medium-sized cities (defined as population >2,000 and <50,000) in resilience planning. The Roadmap to Resilience guide and case studies of its application on Missouri communities are available on the Roadmap to Resilience site. 

MO DNR initiated a State Energy Planning (MoSEP) process. The planning process will include an ongoing series of stakeholder engagement workshops to identify and address topics critical to Missouri’s current and future energy needs. The process began with a Virtual Energy Stakeholder Kickoff Workshop on October 29, and the recording and slides are now available. A follow-up workshop has yet to be scheduled.

How to Get Involved

For more information about Missouri or to get more involved, contact Samarth Medakkar. 

Municipal

The city of Lincoln recently released its Climate Action Plan. The city hopes to improve its resiliency and reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 80% by 2050. The report concludes that increasing energy efficiency of its residential and commercial buildings and its municipal utility, the Lincoln Electric System, will be the most important factors in reducing city emissions. In addition to dramatically ramping up energy efficiency through incentives, programs and municipal action, the report mentions benchmarking, electrification, energy disclosures and building energy code updates as possible near-term solutions.

Legislative

The Nebraska Unicameral began its new legislative biennium on January 6, 2021. A few introduced bills touch on energy. LB 306, introduced by Sen. Brandt, would expand eligibility requirements for LIHEAP and dedicate 10% of LIHEAP funds to weatherization. Additionally, Sen. McCollister introduced a bill (LB 266) that would require the state’s public utilities to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 through renewable energy and demand-side management. The legislature recently held a hearing on LB 483, which would direct the University of Nebraska to develop a plan for the state to mitigate coming effects of climate change.

How to Get Involved

For more information about Nebraska or to get more involved, contact Maddie Wazowicz.

Legislative

Ohio’s legislative session convened on January 4. There have been four HB 6-related bills introduced in the House during this legislative session. HB 18, HB 57, HB 58 and HB 10 all include repeal provisions. For reference, HB 6 was the 2019 law that directed funding extending coal and nuclear plant viability and repealed the energy efficiency and renewable energy resource standards. HB 18 (Lanese) is a reintroduction of HB 746 (Lanese/Greenspan). HB 57 (Skindell/O’Brien) is a reintroduction of HB 738 (Skindell/O’Brien). Both bills would fully repeal HB 6 and allow the pre-HB 6 energy efficiency resource standard to resume at a 2% annual savings requirement for electric utility energy efficiency programs beginning in 2021, with a utility-specific cumulative savings target of at least 22% by 2027.

HB 58 (Skindell/Denson) repeals the provisions in HB 6 regarding the Significantly Excessive Earnings Test (“SEET”) but does not restore the other components. There has also been a new energy waste reduction bill, HB 10 (Leland), that would repeal the OVEC decoupling provisions of HB 6 and create “market-based” energy waste reduction programming funded through retail marketers.

In the Senate, there has been a nuclear subsidy repeal bill, SB 44, which would repeal only the nuclear subsidy included in HB 6 while leaving the rest of the law in place, failing to restore the Energy Efficiency Resource Standard. There was a Senate Energy Committee hearing on the bill on Feb. 9th. A decoupling bill, SB 10, which aims to repeal the HB 6 decoupling provision and the FirstEnergy Significantly Excessive Earnings Test (“SEET”) provision, was introduced in late January and has since passed the Senate. This bill would also not restore the EERS.

Lastly, there have been some noteworthy legislative developments related to electric vehicles in Ohio. SB 32 (Rulli) and HB 47 (Loychik) would establish a rebate program for EV chargers run by ODOT, funded with $10 million each in FY 2022 and 2023. Eligibility for rebates would be limited to non-profits, state agencies and political subdivisions, schools and business with Ohio addresses, and to DC fast chargers for highway corridor and rural charging or level 2 chargers for public, workplace, fleet and multifamily use. The Senate bill has been referred to the Senate Transportation Committee.

In the last legislative session, there were opportunities for proponents, opponents and interested parties of the proposed bipartisan repeal and revive bill—SB 346—to testify, in addition to the alternative partial repeal bill, HB 772. MEEA submitted testimony to the Senate Energy and Public Utilities Committee on November 30th in advance of a Dec. 1st hearing on HB 346. All testimony can be accessed here.

Regulatory

On November 20, Public Utility of Ohio (PUCO) Chairman Sam Randazzo resigned effective immediately. Per statute, PUCO Vice Chairman M. Beth Trombold will be the acting PUCO chairman until a new chairman is named. The PUCO Nominating Council, a 12-member panel that screens and evaluates candidates, made recommendations to Governor DeWine for who to nominate for the vacancy. The four candidates submitted by the Nominating Council were Angela Amos, Anne Vogel, Greg Poulos and Judith French. Governor DeWine was expected to announce his choice in late January but instead announced on January 20th that he would not appoint any of the four candidates.

His statement explaining this decision and asking for a new list can be found here. A new list of four candidates has been submitted for the Governor’s consideration and includes the following: Virginia King, Jenifer French, Daniel Shields and Melissa Shilling. The Governor has 30 days to accept or reject the candidates from either round of nominations.

Recently, PUCO approved a FirstEnergy request to set the decoupling rider to zero per the FirstEnergy settlement with AG Yost (21-0101-EL-ATA). For context, Ohio AG Yost has filed lawsuits, alongside Cincinnati and Cleveland, to block FirstEnergy from receiving the profit rider and bailout included in HB 6. The PUCO decision to eliminate the rider is a result of the settlement with AG Yost. On February 8th, there was a virtual public hearing regarding AEP’s application to increase its rates (20-0585-EL-AIR). Settlement discussions are ongoing.

How to Get Involved

For more information about Ohio or to get more involved, contact Reine Rambert.

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Executive

Governor Evers’ Task Force on Climate Change, chaired by Lieutenant Governor Mandela Barnes, published its final report of policy recommendations. MEEA’s comments to the Energy, Housing and Infrastructure subcommittee can be found here.

The Office of Sustainability and Clean Energy is currently working on developing a clean energy plan that will help Wisconsin adapt to future changes in the climate, as mandated by Governor Evers’ August executive order. Additionally, this plan will outline ways for the state to achieve its goal of carbon neutrality by 2050. MEEA is participating on the plan’s advisory council.

Legislative

The Wisconsin legislature began its new biennium on January 4, 2021.  Sen. Cowles will chair the Senate Committee on Natural Resources and Energy, and Rep. Kuglitsch will chair the Assembly Committee on Energy and Utilities. AB27/SB47 was introduced to require the state’s IOUs to fund a consumer advocate.

How to Get Involved

Additional information on the Governor’s Task Force on Climate Change can be found here. For more information about Wisconsin or to get more involved, contact Maddie Wazowicz.

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Regulatory

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) is holding a Commissioner-led workshop on the creation of the Office of Public Participation to recieve input on considerations for the function and structure of the office, with a focus on equity assessement and participation of marginalized communities in the Commission's regulatory processes.

On December 8, Democrat-pick for FERC Commissioner, Allison Clements, was sworn in. Mark Christie, the Republican-pick for FERC Commissioner was sworn in on January 4. 

Legislative

Democrat lawmakers reintroduced the Clean Energy and Sustainability Accelerator Act that would establish a National Climate Bank and fund $100 billion towards financing clean energy infrastructure investments, including energy efficiency.

On December 29, the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 was signed. It incorporates the Energy Act of 2020, the Grid Modernization Act and the Clean Industrial Technology Act, all of which include several energy efficiency provisions. The bill maintains funding for the DOE Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy while slightly increasing budgets for the Weatherization Assistance Program and Buildings Technology Office. See the Alliance to Save Energy, American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy and the Combined Heat and Power Alliance for summaries on key energy efficiency programs and initiatives in the bill.

How to Get Involved

For more information about Federal issues or to get more involved, contact Nick Dreher.

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