How They Voted: Suzio Votes Against New Clean Energy Program

The 2018 regular session of the State Legislature has come to a close. There were a number of bills that were controversial. This is the fourth of a series of brief reports on how those who represent our city voted in the capitol.  The description of the bill is from a State publication, Major Public Acts.

Previous posts: Gun Safety Measure, Educational Assistance for Undocumented Residents, Greenhouse Gas Emissions.
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New legislation requires the Department of Energy  and Environmental Protection (DEEP) and the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (PURA) to develop new tariff-based renewable energy programs that generally require electric distribution companies (EDCs, i.e., Eversource and United Illuminating) to develop a procurement plan and 20-year tariffs (detailed rate schedules) for purchasing energy and renewable energy credits (RECs) from certain low-emission, zero-emission, shared clean energy, and residential Class I renewable energy sources.

The new law sets various requirements and  conditions for the programs, including eligibility criteria for participants and caps on the aggregate total megawatts annually available under certain programs. Customers in certain programs will also be able to choose between a (1) “buy-all, sellall” tariff under which the EDC will purchase all energy and RECs generated by the customer's system or (2) “net export” tariff under which the EDC will purchase any energy the customer produced but did not consume during a PURA-determined time period, plus all RECs generated by the customer’s system (PA 18-50, § 7, effective upon passage).

The Senate vote was 29 to 3 (4 absent), The House passed the bill 100 to 45 (5 absent).

S.B. No. 9: AN ACT CONCERNING CONNECTICUT'S ENERGY FUTURE. 

• Paul Doyle (Senate District 9)    YES
• Len Suzio (Senate District 13)     NO 

• Joseph Serra (House District 33)    YES
• Matthew Lesser (House District 100)  YES