Energy policy has become an issue area where the Delaware Chapter has become known as a key resource for legislators. We have been a part of the Governor’s Energy Advisory Council under Governor Carney, served on Senator Hansen’s Energy Stakeholders Workgroup, and served on Governor Meyer’s transition team on energy and resiliency, also serve on the Renewable Energy Taskforce and participate in the Energy Efficiency Advisory Council meetings. We advise several legislators on energy issues and policies and have been invited to speak at several constituent town halls to address community members directly and answer their questions about energy-related issues.
Here are some of the bills that we worked on this year in the energy policy space to save ratepayers money and protect or advance our clean energy goals.
SB 59- “Prudence Standard” for rate-based costs. This essentially means that the utilities will now have to show that their expenses are in the best interest of their customers, rather than of their shareholders.
Final Status: Awaiting Signature by the Governor
SB 60 w. SA 2- Ratepayers shouldn’t pay for lobbying.
Final Status: Awaiting Signature by the Governor
SB 61 w. SA 1- Transparency in utility votes at PJM
Final Status: Awaiting Signature by the Governor
Sierra Club Work: These three bills came up as a package back in February when energy bills were high as a result of extreme weather. This energy shock led to a number of bills being filed with these three trying to address the root cause of a multi-year history of rate increases by our regulated utilities and energy cost increases in the PJM energy markets.
The Delaware Chapter helped lead the education and support campaign around these bills in the advocacy community and in legislative hall to ensure everyone understood the root causes of the problems and how these bills would help restore balance in the long term. We testified in every committee and held group and one-on-one meetings with legislators to help educate them on our complex energy system and the markets involved. We also spoke at multiple community meetings to help answer questions.
HS 1 - HB50- Create new energy bill assistance program using ACP+ RGGI to fill in LIHEAP gaps
Final Status: Awaiting Governor’s Signature
Sierra Club Work: This bill, on multiple occasions, almost didn’t happen. There was a tremendous amount of back-and-forth negotiation between legislators, state agencies, and advocates on how best to utilize funding from multiple sources to help support families with high energy costs incurred during the winter. The Sierra Club worked together across various parties at the table to help bridge communication divides and policy debates to do our part to make sure the bill passed in a way that was meaningful and helpful to Delaware families and to our state. One key component of this was the mechanism to ensure everyone in the state could benefit from the energy audits offered by Energize Delaware. Enrollment has already started to climb to historic levels this year, and we think this bill will get even more people on the road to reducing their energy usage, saving them and all ratepayers money every month.
HS1 for HB62- Communication for utilities for energy shutoffs- adjust the temperature/date limits Final Status: Signed and enacted
Sierra Club Work: Far too many families struggle to pay their energy bills in Delaware and have to make a decision between paying medical debt, buying food, or paying for their housing or energy needs. Sometimes folks fall behind, but no one should suffer during the extreme temperatures that are becoming increasingly common. On top of that, everyone who does fall behind should know about the resources available and have a fair shake at getting help. That is what this bill does and why we were thrilled to see this come into law. This bill would ensure that utilities provide additional notices prior to shut off, including in-person attempts, and include all available resources for customers to get out of debt and keep their accounts active. It also strengthens the limits on when a utility can be shut off. For example, if the weather is going to be too hot or too cold, the utility has to restore power until the temperatures come back to normal, healthy levels.
We worked to help educate community members about the proposed changes and help get impacted customers to committee meetings to testify in support. We also pushed to ensure key provisions were not removed from the bill and that the shut-off notice requirements and support provisions were meaningful to those who struggle the most.
HS2 for HB116- Low-income utility rate program
Final Status: Awaiting Governor’s Signature
Sierra Club Work: This has been a top priority for the Sierra Club Delaware Chapter for nearly a decade. Almost every state around us, and over half the states in the nation, offer a discount for low-income households to help with affordability issues. For years, every time we argued that this is a necessary policy that will actually save all ratepayers money in the long run, we heard the same response from all those involved. Namely, the Delaware Code prohibited the Public Service Commission (PSC) from passing such a rate. Our past Public Advocates were not in support of this either, which made it more difficult to pursue.
With the high energy bills, the rapid increase in defaults, and the data in the State Energy Plan that showed low-income families were spending 38% of their income just on energy bills, it became clear that the time for this program was now. It was great that the PSC, the regulated utilities, the Public Advocate, other advocacy groups, and the General Assembly finally agreed that we needed to update the Code and join the over two dozen states in the nation to establish a low-income rate. The bill, as drafted, would allow customers of regulated utilities (Delmarva Power or Delmarva Gas and Chesapeake Utilities) to voluntarily enroll in a discount program that offers at least a 20% discount on the distribution portion of their bill. To enroll in the program, customers who qualify can sign up on the utilities’ website, which they would find out about through a flier sent to customers as required by the bill, or they can just sign up when they enroll in a program offered by the Department of Social Services. Those programs include LIHEAP, SNAP, TANF, Medicaid, and Weatherization Assistance. Anyone already on those programs or who qualifies for them, whether they are currently enrolled or not, is eligible for the low-income rate. The program is paid for through the existing low-income energy fund on electric or gas bills and would, according to the utilities, only add about $.60 cents a month to a customer’s bill.
We were able to get community members from across the state out in support of the bill, send over 50 letters from constituents to legislators in support, testify in committee, create fact sheets for legislators, and help draft a last-minute amendment to streamline and clarify the process for low-income families to sign up for this program without facing additional burdens around income verification. As we stated in our testimony on the bill, that $.60 should be viewed as a savings for ratepayers. We know that when folks are given access to energy efficiency programs at Energize Delaware, they actually help lower rates for all ratepayers. We also know that we can help bring down rates in the long run by avoiding defaults which are then paid for by all customers. We look forward to Governor Meyer signing the bill into law.
SB 159 - US Wind substation bill
Final Status: Signed into Law
Sierra Club Work: This bill was admittedly filed late in the session as a way to help move offshore wind on the Delmarva Peninsula forward. We could probably write a full blog post on just this bill alone and why it was needed, but instead, we will link a few articles to help provide some background. Here, here, here. US Wind was previously denied a substation and the permit to build one on a parcel of land they purchased next to an existing substation used for the old coal plant. US Wind is currently appealing that decision, and it is very likely that US Wind will win the appeal. Senate Bill 159 would have overturned the County Council decision and granted the permit, rendering the case moot.
It is unfortunate that every year, for the past six years, the Republicans in the House and this year the Senate, hold up the Bond Bill as a negotiation tactic. As the Republican Minority Leader said in a recent interview, they feel that is the only tool they have. Well, the tool works, because every year they are able to get something from the Majority Party. So we anticipate that until leadership truly stands up to the tactic, they will continue using the tool. This year, they wanted to roll back two bills. One we covered above, HB 222, and the other was SB 159.
Senator Hansen and Representative Snyder-Hall attempted to reach a compromise about the concerns around local control by adding an amendment to sunset the section of Code drafted in SB 159. That was supposed to be enough to get one Republican to vote for the Bond Bill, but negotiations fell apart, and the bill moved forward anyway. It was ultimately signed into law, only to be changed again with Senate Bill 199 about two hours later. This was, to our understanding, the fastest a law has ever been changed after being passed and signed by the Governor. Senate Bill 199 changed the effective date of Senate Bill 159 to January of next year instead of immediately upon the Governor’s signing of the bill.
While this was less than ideal, it still provides a much higher level of certainty for the project's developers, allowing them to start moving forward again with the contracts needed to bring the proposed offshore wind power onto the grid on schedule.
This became a top priority very late in the session, but due to the huge amount of support offshore wind has in Delaware, we were able to get hundreds of advocates from across the state to engage, including over 130 advocates in Sussex County alone. We delivered a sign-on letter that we had neighbors sharing across Sussex County that garnered over 130 signatures and personal letters of support for SB 159 in under 48 hours. We sent over 2,000 unique emails from constituents to legislators in support of the bill. We also had dozens of advocates testify in support and online in both the House and the Senate and held a rally to line the halls of Legislative Hall in Dover with supporters hoisting signs of support as legislators returned to the House Chamber during the last day of session.
In the end, offshore wind will move forward off the coast of the Delmarva Peninsula and our grid will be stronger for it.
HB80- Rollback Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS) to 10% and freeze for 10 years
Final Status: Defeated in committee
Sierra Club Work: The RPS has been a keystone piece of legislation in Delaware for around two decades, promoting clean energy in our state and region. Every state around us has some type of RPS policy on the books, though most of them have stronger clean-energy goals than we do. During the period of surging energy bills over the winter, several members of the Republican Caucus promoted the conspiracy theory that “green energy” was the cause of all the issues multiple states were facing at the time from rising utility bills. We put out a host of information explaining why that wasn’t the case. This included doing numerous interviews with the press, creating a video series about our energy systems in Delaware and the region, doing videos about what the RPS is, and speaking at a town hall organized by two members of the Republican caucus in the House, the Speaker of the House, and Senator Poore. The Public Service Commission, the Public Advocate, the Governor’s office, allies in the General Assembly, experts from PJM, and many others, testified that renewable energy was not the cause of the surge in energy prices over the winter. They all agreed that it was increased usage from prolonged sub-freezing temperatures that caused the problem.
In the end, legislation was still filed to roll back the RPS and freeze it for ten years, despite this expert testimony. During the committee hearing, we prepared and delivered multiple fact sheets and a sign-on letter from over two dozen organizations that articulated why the RPS was important and why rolling it back and pulling out of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative was going to be harmful for Delawareans. The sponsor of the bill was unable to answer any questions from the committee and had no experts there to support the theory that passing the bill would reduce energy costs or prevent further increases. That ultimately led to the bill being tabled by the committee with a unanimous vote from both parties.
SB 65- Pulling out of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI)
Final Status: Withdrawn by Sponsor
Sierra Club Work: The RGGI has been a vital source of funding to help Delaware lower its carbon footprint through investments in energy efficiency and clean energy while reducing carbon emissions across the region. You can read more about RGGI and its impact on Delaware in our fact sheet on the topic, available on our website. Senate Bill 65 would have eliminated the section of the Delaware Code that ensures Delaware's participation in the program and specifies where the funding from the annual RGGI Auction is allocated. Some version of this bill has been filed every session for at least the last five sessions.
This was one of the two focal points for the sign-on letter we mentioned in the RPS section above, and we joined with health advocates from across the region to push back on misinformation that attempted to pin the rising energy costs on RGGI. We spent hours educating legislators on what RGGI is, how it works, and what the money does for our state. We also pointed out that you cannot delete the section of Code without then allocating new funds to the many programs that RGGI supports in Delaware, including the Low-Income Heating and Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) or the many programs from Energize Delaware.
The immense pressure from health and climate advocates was enough to get the bill withdrawn from consideration, although the sponsor has allegedly stated that he would file a new bill during the off session to continue the annual crusade against RGGI.
Senate Concurrent Resolution 18- Delaware Nuclear Energy Feasibility Task Force
Final Status: Passed (Website says no further action required)
Sierra Club Work: The Sierra Club has historically been against expanding our nuclear fleet in the United States over concerns about waste, siting, and safety. The Delaware Chapter has not recently engaged on the issue, but our members were involved in the long history of trying to persuade folks that nuclear is not a panacea and has its own issues. Recently, there have been numerous discussions surrounding small modular reactors (SMR) in the United States, particularly in Delaware, as the next era of nuclear technology. This bill was to initiate a study to produce a report on how we could entice nuclear facilities to be built in Delaware and what subsidies the state should offer to make it happen.
The Chapter was opposed to the resolution for several reasons, but mainly because the technology that the bill sponsors are asking to be studied does not exist outside of a lab. There are currently zero operating SMR facilities in the world at the scale discussed in the bill. There are currently only three facilities in the world, located in China, India, and Russia, respectively, and they are all under 100 megawatts in scale, three times smaller than the SMRs contemplated in the bill. So while we are studying what everyone in labs across the world are studying, we are missing opportunities for technologies that are here and ready to be deployed. Even if an SMR reactor did exist outside a lab, which it doesn’t (over half the companies that have tried to bring them out of a lab have gone bankrupt in the process) we are looking at at least a decade or two before a facility would be built and operational.
Beyond that glaring issue, the bill outlines who will serve on the task force and, of the 25(!) members, only ONE is required to have a background in nuclear technology. That is right, 25 interests in the room from the business community to various state actors, to advocacy groups (not us), but only ONE needs to have a background in the topic being studied. That was a significant point of contention regarding the bill and was raised in committee, but it ultimately was not changed. Because this is a Senate Concurrent Resolution put forward by the Republican Caucus, they will staff and run the task force meetings, so they will certainly be interesting. We will keep folks in the loop as they work to schedule their meetings.
Senate Joint Resolution 3- Battery/ Energy Storage Pilot Study and Pilot Project
Final Status: Awaiting Governor’s Signature
Sierra Club Work: This was not a top priority for the Chapter, but we were supportive of this resolution. Essentially, we recognize the need for energy storage to enhance grid resiliency and reliability. All the states surrounding us have multiple energy storage facilities built and connected to the grid, which have universally saved ratepayers money and helped during emergency situations, such as storms and extreme weather. We successfully advocated for an amendment to include land use and siting recommendations for energy storage, helping local governments draft policies that address zoning, setbacks, buffers, and adjacent land use considerations. The Resolution also establishes a pilot program, funded by Energize Delaware, to initiate the first three energy storage projects in Delaware. We look forward to participating in the stakeholder process outlined in the resolution to develop the components outlined for the study.