| At its June 23 hearing, the Transportation, Infrastructure, Energy and Environment Committee of the Prince George’s County Council voted to hold CB-26-22 indefinitely. The Committee’s action effectively kills the legislation, which would have established BEPS for the following building types: * Multifamily residential or mixed-use covered buildings equal to or exceeding 250,000 square feet * Non-residential buildings equal or greater than 50,000 square feet, but less than 250,000 square feet * Non-residential buildings that equals or exceeds 10,000 square feet, but less than 50,000 square feet. * Multifamily residential or mixed-use covered buildings equal to or exceeding 250,000 square feet * Multifamily residential or mixed-use covered buildings equal to or exceeding 10,000 square feet, but less than 250,000 square feet Montgomery County Interpretation The decision was based on a legal interpretation by the Montgomery County Office of the County Attorney (OCA) that the legislation is preempted by the Climate Solutions Now Act of 2022 (S.B. 528), a statewide climate bill that establishes similar requirements. AOBA submitted a statement for the hearing raising the preemption issue. The statement read in part: “Finally, there is an open question of law related to the viability of both the proposed Prince George’s legislation, as well as the recently passed Montgomery County Bill, specifically, whether the local legislation is pre-empted by Maryland Senate Bill 528, The Climate Solutions Now Act of 2022. The Office of the County Attorney (OCA) in Montgomery County has offered an interpretation of the pre-emption of state legislation. However, the County Attorney leaves open the potential of the local legislation being challenged in the courts. AOBA has concluded that the pre-emption issue will likely be resolved in court. It is imperative that AOBA ensure that members are not ensnared in a conflicting battle between a state and county law when the State law pre-empts the local legislation.” AOBA’s Impact In a big win for AOBA members, the Prince George’s County Office of Law investigated the matter and made the appropriate finding. The decision means Prince George’s County members will not have to comply with two sets of energy efficiency standards, saving housing providers staff resources, time, and money. |
DC Annual Renewable Energy Portfolio Standards Report Published
Attached is the Annual DC REPS report for CY 2021
Some hi-lights
- Added 2,337 new solar energy systems including 82 community renewable energy facilities (“CREFs”)
- CREFs now have 26.5 MWs of capacity installed in the District
- In total, DC added 37 MWs of Solar capacity for a year end total of 191.8 MWs of Solar
- Wards 5,7 and 8 are the highest solar producing Wards
- The total cost of compliance was $99.1 million for all suppliers (who in turn collect from members and residents in the commodity portion of the bill)
- The average price for one DC Solar Renewable Energy Credit was $430 in 2021- the highest in the nation which helps explain why RPS charges on your energy supply charges now comprise ~10% of the total cost
Maryland Passes Senate Bill 528
The Maryland General Assembly approved an amended SB 528, the Climate Solutions Now Act of 2022, during the 2022 General Assembly.
Maryland Governor Hogan, who opposed SB 528, with amendments, allowed the legislation passed by the General Assembly to become law without his signature on April 8, 2022. The Climate Solutions Now Act of 2022 takes effect June 1, 2022.
Montgomery County Passes BEPS Bill
On April 19, 2022, the Montgomery County Council unanimously passed Bill 16-21- Environmental Sustainability- Building Energy Use Benchmarking and Performance Standards. The Department of Environmental Protection has until December 2023 to issue the regulations that will govern building energy performance standards.
This bill comes on the heels of the State legislature passing Senate Bill 528, Climate Solutions Bill – which addresses similar issues at the state level. The original state bill included language that would have exempted buildings from the State law if their local county enacted similar legislation, i.e. local county regulations would trump the state regulations. However, this language was stricken from the final state law and there is a question of whether the intent of the General Assembly was to preempt any local legislation by this language change.
The Office of the County Attorney (OCA) believes that this was not a clear preemption and that this does not impact the County’s ability to proceed with its own benchmarking and performance standard measures.
AOBA staff continues to monitor the State and County’s development of BEPS regulations and is working County officials to ensure industry representation on the regulation advisory taskforce.
D.C. BEPS Compliance and Enforcement Guidebook Published
The final version of the Building Energy Performance Standards Compliance and Enforcement Guidebook has been fully approved for buildings in the District.
Additional documents related to the public comments can be found on the DOEE website here:
If you have any questions about BEPS Compliance, please contact Kevin Carey at [email protected]
Energy Market and Utility Update
August 2021
AOBA Alliance and Constellation held an Energy Market and Utility Update for Alliance participants on August 5, 2021 to inform members of energy market trends and utility rate cases that effect participants’ costs. A link to the presentation is below.
COVID-19
“The COVID-19 health emergency has disrupted life in the District of Columbia, and the Commission is committed to ensuring access to essential utility services for all District residents and businesses. In response, we have launched a resource page to keep our consumers and stakeholders informed of all utility related response efforts and Commission actions,” stated Willie L. Phillips, Commission Chairman.
For more information, visit the Commission’s COVID-19 resource page at https://dcpsc.org/Coronavirus.aspx
Contact: Kellie Didigu, [email protected], 202-626-5124
The Public Service Commission of the District of Columbia is an independent agency established by Congress in 1913 to regulate electric, natural gas, and telecommunications companies in the District of Columbia.
Washington Gas Files $35.2 Million Rate Case in the District
Washington Gas is requesting an overall rate of return of 7.56%, to meet the cost of Washington Gas is proposing a Revenue Normalization Adjustment (“RNA”), which is a monthly billing adjustment that reflects the difference between actual revenues earned by Washington Gas and the level of revenue that the Company is authorized to receive. Washington Gas states that this RNA is needed and will provide customers with more stable and predictable invoices. AOBA challenged WG’s RNA proposal in its last rate case (Formal Case No. 1137 and the PSC agreed with AOBA and declined to implement such a charge.
Washington Gas filed its last rate case in the District on February 26, 2016 (Formal Case No. 1137) with rates effective March 24, 2017, but had agreed not to file any rate cases since that time as one of the Commitments in the Washington Gas Alta Gas merger settlement in May 2018 (Formal Case No. 1142). As part of that settlement, Washington Gas agreed that it would not file a rate case for 34 months (i.e. no earlier than January 3, 2020).
AOBA has intervened in this rate case proceeding and will keep our members informed as the case progresses.