Juice runs out for energy efficiency bill

A bill that would have required power providers across Colorado to invest in energy efficiency measures was weakened today, then thrown into legislative limbo during a state Senate committee hearing.

House Bill 1107 would have required municipal utilities and most rural electric associations to invest 2 percent of their annual revenues in energy efficiency programs. Such a requirement for energy efficiency investment already exists for Xcel Energy and the state’s other large investor-owned utility.

The bill passed out of the House last month by a single vote.

In the Senate State, Veterans and Military Affairs Committee today, power providers largely spoke out against the bill, though some members and customers of those organizations said they support it. Environmental and clean-energy groups support the bill, as well.

After about an hour of testimony, Sen. Chris Romer, D-Denver, successfully amended the bill to take out the municipal utilities and all rural electric associations with fewer than 85,000 members. That effectively made the Intermountain Rural Electric Association, which covers areas south and west of Denver, the only power provider the bill would have applied to.

But the committee then deadlocked 2-2, with one member absent, over the bill, meaning it could neither be passed nor killed.

Sen. Abel Tapia, D-Pueblo, said many small power providers are already investing in energy efficiency and said he worries about the effects of the regulation on poor customers.

“That’s another burden you’re placing on the people who could least afford it,” Tapia said later.

Afterward, a clearly disappointed Sen. Jennifer Veiga, a Denver Democrat who sponsored the bill in the Senate, said she was surprised at the vote.

“I just thought I had the votes to get it out,” she said.

However, Tapia said, because the bill is in limbo, it is possible it could return if he is convinced it is needed to force the biggest rural electric associations to invest in energy efficiency.

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