R.I.P. SB 546 and All Its Passengers
Published: May 31, 2009
Yesterday there was a faint glimmer of hope for SB 546, the Fraser/Anchia energy efficiency bill carrying most of the session's remaining environmental legislation. But today it seems the bill's passage would be nothing short of a miracle.
"It would require too many things to go right," said Rep. Rafael Anchia, the bill's House author.
Too many things, indeed. For the bill to pass at this point, conferees from both chambers would have to reach an agreement, sign the bill, and then the House would have to suspend its rules with a 2/3 vote in order to override procedural barriers to bringing it to the floor ... before the legislators could even vote on the final version ... all before midnight tonight.
The procedural barriers would not have been a problem if Anchia and Senate author Troy Fraser could have reached an agreement on the bill's provisions in the first place.
The orginal bill was meant to increase the stringency of an existing energy efficiency program passed by the 80th Legislature. Under the existing program, the state's goal is to meet 20 percent of increased energy demand through energy efficiency measures. Anchia and Fraser couldn't settle on how high the new goal should be, or how much money could be spent on energy efficiency per megawatt hour.
According to Anchia, Fraser's version of the bill would have actually decreased the efficacy of the state's energy efficiency program
"I would prefer to let the bill die rather than adopting something that would undermine the existing program," Anchia said.
But giving up on SB 546 means that several other bills, which died in the House chubfest, die with it - including the solar incentives bill authored by Fraser in the Senate and sponsored by Rep. Mark Strama in the House.
"I'd love to see all those things pass," Anchia said. "But we can't even get an agreement on energy efficiency."
Anchia said House staffers have been working around the clock to come up with a compromise, but that Fraser's office hadn't returned calls in over 20 hours.