VALLEY CLEAN ENERGY ALLIANCE
Staff Report - Item 18
____________________________________________________________________________________ TO: Board of Directors
FROM: Mitch Sears, Interim General Manager
Mark Fenstermaker, Pacific Policy Group
SUBJECT: Recommendation to the Board on legislative position: SB 833 DATE: January 27, 2022
Recommendation:
Support SB 833 (Dodd)
Background and Analysis
The 2022 legislative session commenced on January 3, 2022, and legislators are in the process of introducing bills, some of which are reintroductions of bills that died in the 2021 session. Staff, working with VCE’s lobbyist Mark Fenstermaker of Pacific Policy Group and the Community Advisory Committee’s Legislative and Regulatory Task Group, will identify bills as they are introduced to review, analyze, and discuss potential positions to recommend to the Board as appropriate. At the most recent meeting between Staff, the Legislative and Regulatory Task Group, and Mr. Fenstermaker, the group discussed SB 833 (Dodd) and identified the bill as one to support.
Staff is recommending the Board adopt a support position on SB 833 based on the following analysis:
(Note: VCE supported Senator Dodd’s attempt in 2021 to enact similar policy with SB 99, but that bill was held in Assembly Appropriations)
SB 833 (Dodd) Community Energy Resilience Act of 2022
Summary: This bill adds new sections to the Public Resources Code to create a new program to be administered by the California Energy Commission (CEC) to award grants to local governments for the development of community energy resilience plans and for expediting local governments’ review of permits for distributed energy resources.
Specifically, the bill will:
1) Require the CEC to develop and implement a grant program for local governments to develop community energy resilience plans and expedite permit review of distributed energy resources by local governments
2) Require a plan to, among other things, identify critical facilities, locations and facilities where the construction of microgrids or other distributed energy sources could meet local resilience needs, and potential funding sources for implementing projects in the plan. 3) Require a local government to submit its plan to the commission within 6 months of adopting the plan. 4) Require each IOU to transparently solicit interest from legacy resource contract holders in renegotiating, buying out, or otherwise reducing costs from these contracts.
VCE supported Senator Dodd’s attempt in 2021 to enact similar policy with SB 99, but that bill was held in Assembly Appropriations.
This bill is consistent with the VCE Legislative Platform, specifically provision 7 regarding legislation regarding community resilience.
Additional Information
• The Climate Center is the sponsor of this bill
• Next hearing: The bill is awaiting referral to a policy committee. • Bill language: SB 833