6.2a ERMUSR 09-14-2021 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

The delay in setting a new budget is the main reason so few policy bills were signed coming out of the Regular Session. Thankfully, one of the few bills that was adopted is the 2021 Energy Conservation and Optimization ACT (ECO.) The passage of this bill, which will be summarized below, represents over three years of negotiations and legislative efforts and was MMUA’s primary priority for the 2021 Session. The final version of this bill was approved with a strong bi-partisan vote in both chambers and was signed by the Governor on May 25. ECO modernizes CIP and should be of assistance to municipal utilities across the State. In fact, ECO was deemed such a major accomplishment that a ceremonial bill signing was held. The ceremonial signing can be . watched at https://youtu.be/Ua7JPCqi3s4 The final negotiations on the bill required a concession from all utilities to agree to a two-week extension on both ends of the Cold Weather Rule; however, the CWR language was ultimately carried in the Omnibus Commerce and Energy Bill during the First Special Session and not in ECO itself. Most other energy policy provisions were either included in draft (unofficial and non-binding) conference reports of their underlying policy bills, or were deemed dead for the year. The 2021 Regular Session then petered out early in the afternoon of the last day instead of coming to a raucous end at midnight. Again, the knowledge of the need for a June special session took the urgency out of the normal battle to get things done by midnight of the last day. The First Special Session convened on Monday, June 14 and quickly took on a very secretive feel. In theory, legislative committees were going to meet and act on the draft conference reports left hanging at the end of the Regular Session, plus any recommendations to amend the reports based on the efforts of “working groups” that had been meeting since the end of the Regular Session. By and large these working groups consisted of the chairs of the committees with jurisdiction over a section of the omnibus bill. Sometimes a few extra members joined the working group. However, working groups are not required to give any notice of their meetings and thus it was impossible to know who was meeting, where they were meeting, when they were meeting, or what was decided as a result of the meeting. In the end, bills were drafted based on the work of these elusive working groups, but instead of being sent to the respective policy committees, these bill drafts were sent to the House Ways 2 108