May 25, 2022
The Honorable Anna Caballero
Chair, Senate Governance and Finance Committee
1021 O Street, Room 7620
Sacramento, CA 95814
RE: SB 1393 (Archuleta) Energy. Appliances. Local Requirements Notice of OPPOSITION (As introduced on February 18, 2022) Dear Senator Caballero,
The City of San Marcos must respectfully oppose SB 1393 (Archuleta), which would create a new statewide review process for local governments to receive approval from the California Energy Commission (CEC) to adopt local ordinances regarding decarbonizing buildings switching from the use of fossil fuels to electricity for heating and other building energy uses.
Climate change is an urgent threat to the health and well-being of California’s residents and economy. California cities and counties are critical partners with the state in achieving our shared climate change, emission reduction, and clean energy goals, including residential and commercial building decarbonization. Per the updated 2022 Energy Code, the California Energy Commission encourages building electrification as consistent with and supportive of important statewide goals for decarbonization. SB 1393 would unnecessarily inhibit the ability of cities to accelerate the reduction of emissions of greenhouse gases through adding additional reporting and approval processes.
The statewide review process described in SB 1393 raises some concerns around consistency as it only requires local electrification ordinances to undergo review by the CEC if they do not include certain exemptions. Local electrification ordinances that include certain exemptions, regardless of how they are drafted, would not be subject to review or oversight. Such a double standard is atypical for statewide review processes, and only serves to add more “green tape” as a barrier to local climate change mitigation initiatives.
Furthermore, SB 1393 conflicts with existing law, as Public Resources Code Section HYPERLINK "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displayText.xhtml?lawCode=PRC&division=15.&title=&part=&chapter=3.&article=" 25233.5 requires the California Energy Commission, in coordination with the Public Utilities Commission, the Department of Housing and Community Development, the California Building Standards Commission, and other relevant state agencies, to gather or develop guidance and best practices to help building owners, the construction industry, and local governments overcome barriers to electrification of buildings and installation of electric vehicle charging equipment.
The City of San Marcos recognizes and shares the Author’s concern regarding any possible impacts to low-income Californians and disadvantaged communities. However, we believe that our city’s existing ordinance development processes would/does take steps to mitigate against disproportionate impacts to disadvantaged communities, which includes but is not limited to, hosting stakeholder meetings, conducting public outreach, engaging with the local business community and environmental leaders, and directing staff to do research and analysis. Thus, making this additional review process duplicative.
Finally, existing California case law establishes that as long as there is no conflict between municipal ordinances and state law, cities and counties may impose additional requirements within their jurisdictions and finds that cities and counties may impose regulatory requirements that are more stringent that state and federal statutes. As such, The City of San Marcos encourages the Legislature to not add additional “green tape,” and make it easy for local governments to have the ability to accelerate the reduction of emissions of greenhouse gases in their communities to meet our shared climate resiliency goals.
For these reasons, the City of San Marcos opposes SB 1393 (Archuleta).
Sincerely,
Rebecca D. Jones
Mayor
cc: The Honorable Bob Archuleta
Catherine Hill, League of California Cities – San Diego and Imperial Counties League of California Cities
HYPERLINK "https://www.energy.ca.gov/programs-and-topics/programs/building-energy-efficiency-standards/2022-building-energy-efficiency" 2022 Building Energy Efficiency Standards PAGE \* MERGEFORMAT 2
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