New Year, new energy bills to review. On January 3rd, the legislature returned for the 2018 session, presenting several new energy bills that may impact you and your business.

House

H.588: This bill will provide that the economic benefits of the energy efficiency charge will appear on a customer’s electric bill. It will appear as a dollar value of the total resource benefits of the energy efficiency charge, that already appear on a customer’s electric bill.

Senate

S.171: This bill requires wind projects over 150 KW to setback the wind project 10 times the height of the proposed wind turbine. It also requires a nighttime interior sound limit of 30 dBA.

S.176: This bill would authorize changing the definition of the term “plant” used for renewable energy programs. The term broadens the definition and provides the Commission the power to make decisions as they think prudent.

S.270: This bill requires the Joint Fiscal Office to prepare a fiscal note for any bill that proposes to cause an increase or decrease in consumption of electric, thermal, or transportation energy. The fiscal note shall include a calculation for the monetized value of change in carbon emissions that’s estimated to result from the bill.

S.271: This bill would authorize investigation by the PUC into reduced rates on charging of EVs by electric customers. Also, this bill would exempt the motor vehicle purchase and use tax for the first $30,000 of an all-electric vehicle and the first $15,000 of the taxable cost of a plug-in hybrid. It would instead require a supplemental registration fee for these vehicles to be paid into the Clean Energy Development Fund or the Transportation Fund.

S.274: This bill seeks to clarify that utility lines in Lake Champlain are subject to taxation by towns that adjoin a portion of the lake in which the utility lines are located.

S.288: This bill would require electric companies to provide third-party’s who provide demand-side services, access to customer energy use data to from smart meters.

S.284: This bill would require a charge on the carbon content of fossil fuels to address climate change and reduce Green House Gases.  Returned revenues from the charge will be credited to customers’ electric bills.

Please contact Eli Emerson at eemerson@primmer.com or Heather Calderwood at hcalderwood@primmer.com, (603) 444-4008 with any questions.