Bill Introduction List – House Energy and Utilities Committee of the KS legislature, 2009
January 13, 2009
From a list compiled by the fabulous Renee, who is the assistant for House Energy Committee Chairman Carl Holmes. The House Energy Committee meets at 9:00 a.m. in 783 Docking whenever they are scheduled to do so.
1. Deadline for decisions by state corporation commission (KETA)
2. Deadline for court of appeals to decide appeals from administrative orders of the state corporation commission (KETA)
3. Granting KETA the authority to establish and charge fees
4. Renewable portfolio standards
5. Emission limits for mercury, nitrogen oxide and sulfur dioxide
6. Energy efficiency standards for certain owned and leased property, equipment, and vehicles
7. KDHE rules and regulations
8. Net metering for solar
9. Net metering for wind
10. Retail tariff for commercial wind
11. KCC update projections for electric generation for baseload and peaking and energy efficiency and load management programs
12. Greenhouse gas emission reduction
13. Options for power purchase
14. KCC responsibilities for compressed air storage
15. Deregulation of cooperatives
16. Community wind
17. Repeal of property tax exemption for renewable energy
18. Requirement for utilities to participate in the Climate Registry
19. KCC to convene stakeholders to study energy efficiency and storage ideas
20. Renewable energy incentive program
21. Kansas transmission operator
22. Electric utilities certificate of convenience amendments
23. Fossil-fuel electric generation standards
24. Kansas wind generation promotion plan
25. Energy technology research initiative
26. Broadband assistance
Note: By no means will all these bills be acted on – some might not even make it to committee hearings, depending on the committee’s workload (although the Chair has a reputation for trying very hard to give everyone a hearing).
Nor will those bills that do receive hearings pass the committee vote. Then even fewer will make it past the House, then fewer will make it past the Senate, and then some might get vetoed, and then there might be an override attempt…and keep in mind that during this process, they will all get amended sometimes past the point of recognition. And past the point where you like them anymore – or, maybe to the point where you do like them, after all.
I’m sure you all know the drill. Anyway, the point is that 26 bills (and this list is probably not even comprehensive, things change fast) can get whittled down pretty quick.
Again, if you are interested in specific bill tracking, be sure to check out the KNRC website.
— Maril Hazlett, www.climateandenergy.org
On Monday, everybody got sworn in, and the Governor gave her State of the State. Tuesday (today) was the first meeting of energy folk, a combo platter of JCEEP and House and Senate Energy/ Utilities dishing on cap and trade v. carbon tax.
After that meeting, many of us ran around like chickens with our heads cut off, trying to figure out where all the legislators’ new offices are. As many of you know, the Capitol is being majorly remodeled. The current construction phases entirely blocks off the rotunda (which is like yanking the beating heart right out of the building’s chest) and closes down the south wing and part of others. 90 or so legislators have had to move their offices over to Docking. Finding them is a chore.
Add to that, for some reason someone decided that this week would be a good time to change all the capitol folks’ email addresses – staff, legislators, the whole schmeer. None of said emails are yet updated on the KS legislative website. Given the rest of the workload on the legislative staff this week, I can’t fathom how they are going to find time to update the info.
But no matter. Democracy will march on. Although emails might go astray for a while.
Where the session stands right now: The big story is of course the budget. The general gist, as I gather from the papers and various other sources – Democratic Gov. Sebelius and Republican House and Senate leadership are usually locked in battle over some major issue, and right now that appears to be taxes and the budget. No one wants to increase taxes, but Sebelius wants to revise some parts of the tax code. She also wants to protect funding for K-12 education and Medicaid, and Republicans want to cut across the board. At least at this point – this moment – that’s where it stands.
In recent legislative history, that partisan battle (be it casino gambling, a coal plant, education funding, etc.) has traditionally gummed up everything else. We’ll have to see if that happens this time.
THE SCHEDULE
According to the KS constitution (I think), legislators have 90 working days to git ‘er done (for our out-of-state readers – we are a citizen legislature in an ag state, so people have traditionally needed to get home in time to plant and make a living, somehow).
If they don’t make the 90 days, I forget what happens, maybe someone sends them a sternly worded letter. Regardless, there is a whole lot to do and very little time to get it done.
Here are the deadlines that we know, clipped from the legislative schedule. Obviously February 28 is a REALLY big day. If you don’t get your bill out of committee and the chamber of origin by then, it dies.
Monday, January 26th
Last day for member or members to REQUEST to have bills drafted.
Thursday, February 5th
Last day for Committees, except House Appropriations, Calendar and Printing and Taxation, House and Senate Federal and State Affairs, Senate Ways and Means, or other select committee, when authorized, to REQUEST to have bills drafted.
Wednesday, February 11th
Last day for Individuals to INTRODUCE bills.
Friday, February 13th
Last day for Committees, except by committees listed above, to INTRODUCE bills.
Saturday, February 28th
Last day to CONSIDER BILLS IN HOUSE OF ORIGIN, except by House Appropriations, Calendar and Printing and Taxation, House and Senate Federal and State Affairs, Senate Ways and Means, or other select committee, when authorized.
Wednesday, April 1st
Last day to CONSIDER BILLS NOT IN HOUSE OF ORIGIN, except by committees listed above.
Saturday, April 11th
No bills considered after this date except BILLS VETOED BY GOVERNOR, OMNIBUS APPROPRIATIONS ACT AND OMNIBUS RECONCILIATIONS SPENDING LIMIT BILL.
Veto session approximately two and one-half weeks after last day of regular session.
Sine Die–to be announced
Are you interested in energy and environment issues, and want to know more detail about how the legislature works and how to track information? Then the people you need are the KNRC, the Kansas Natural Resources Council. Jim Mason does a fabulous job, so check out that link.
Live Blogging – Interim Joint Committee on Energy and Environmental Policy (JCEEP) meeting on carbon regulation
January 13, 2009
When: 9:00 a.m. 1/13/09
Where: Memorial Auditorum, which took a little finding
Who: JCEEP, House and Senate Energy and Utilities Committees, Tax, and all of their followers/ lobbyists/ observers
Topic: Carbon regulation – a cap and trade system, and/or a carbon tax (the “and” option is called a hybrid system)
Summary: No state or regional cap and trade no no bad bad no no – federal cap and trade grudgingly do-able, global preferable. But state legislatures shouldn’t even mess with this stuff (remember, that’s a summary).
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I normally try not to over-frame the live blogging, but the cap and trade material that follows will definitely throw you in the deep end, as it did 90% of us sitting in the meeting this morning.
So here’s why these legislators are considering cap and trade at all – KS is a participant in the Midwest Governors Accord, which started out by considering a regional cap and trade system. With the election of Obama it is clear that federal cap and trade will come sooner rather than later so regional systems are a bit redundant.
However, the MGA process (and WGA process, for that matter) are still critical dress rehearsals for how our region’s issues will be addressed in a federal cap and trade system. Ie, if you are an ag state do you want a cap and trade system that doesn’t allow you to do soil sequestration for offsets? Probably not.
So state legislators still need to have a working grasp of cap and trade, so they can best position Kansas for the future federal system.
And it is worth mentioning – last year’s first coal bill had an element of cap and trade to it, which took many industrial interests much by surprise. That will probably not be repeated (although watch, I may have just jinxed it) but this JCEEP meeting provided some educational follow-up in that respect. The definite message of the panel that followed the presentation: states shouldn’t mess with individual cap and trade systems.
Also, let’s define cap and trade and how it works: A government entity sets a cap on the total amount of greenhouse gases emissions allowed per year. (Ideally, the cap is also lowered over time, to give businesses a chance to adjust to restrictions and allow for improvement in technologies.) The government then issues or auctions permits to businesses, allowing them to emit a certain amount of those pollutants. The total amount of permits issued cannot exceed the cap. Businesses who don’t emit a lot of greenhouse gases could then trade (sell) their permits to businesses that do. Carbon credits could be traded as well.
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The JCEEP meeting consisted of a presentation by Dan Chartier of Edison Electric Institute, followed by a panel of Kansas stakeholders – Amy Blankenbiller (KS Chamber), Brad Harrelson (KS Farm Bureau), Nancy Jackson (CEP) (yep that’s us), Tom Thompson (Sierra Club), and Woody Moses (Kansas Cement Council).
If the ppt summary makes your eyes cross, skip to the panel discussion, it should be fairly obviously marked in the notes.
Notes start here
Intro – Chairman McGinn – panel today is about cap and trade and carbon tax, what carbon regulation means to us as taxpayers and businesspeople and citizens
Edison Electric – Dan Chartier, Mgr Air Quality Programs
(this ppt will be available on the JCEEP website)
CAP AND TRADE BASICS
Traditional command and control approach turned out to be very expensive – lots of govt regulation, micromanaging – does bring emissions down, very effective in that respect, but not cost effective.
Newer approaches gave more flexibility to command and control – offsets, credits, etc. – sort of brought cost down, still lots of government involvement case by case basis.
Newest approach – cap and trade schemes of today. Offers incentives for innovations, permits/allowances for emissions, credits/ offsets, early reductions, reducing costs, offers regulatory certainty on emissions via cap, specifies emissions level, fewer administrative costs, sets goals and ensures results
