Public Citizen Testimony on SB 1252 — Municipal Regulations for Residential Energy Backup Systems
Public Citizen Testimony on SB 1252 -- Municipal Regulations for Residential Energy Backup Systems
To: Chairman Charles Schwertner and the Members of the Senate Committee on Business & Commerce.
CC: Sen. Phil King, Sen. César Blanco, Sen. Donna Campbell, Sen. Brandon Creighton, Sen. Nathan Johnson, Sen. Lois W. Kolkhorst, Sen. José Menéndez, Sen. Mayes Middleton, Sen. Robert Nichols, Sen. Judith Zaffirini
Via hand delivery and by email.
From: Adrian Shelley (ashelley@citizen.org) and Kaiba White (kwhite@citizen.org), Public Citizen, 512-477-1155
Re: SB 1252, residential energy backup systems – Public Citizen testimony
Dear Chairman Schwertner and Members of the Committee:
Public Citizen appreciates the opportunity to testify on SB 1252, relating to the authority of a municipality to regulate the installation or inspection of a residential energy backup system. We recognize the role that residential energy backup systems can play in providing grid resilience and we appreciate this effort to promote their use. But we have concerns about certain activities this bill might limit.
Cities with municipal utilities may need more latitude to regulate in this space.
We understand that the committee substitute to this bill will add an exemption for municipal utilities. This is a good addition. Utilities should be able to regulate energy sources. Some cities with municipal utilities might also need the authority to regulate energy sources because of how they cooperate with their utilities. There may be some cities with municipal utilities that are themselves responsible for certain aspects of permitting and enforcement. It may be that a city with a municipal utility needs authority to inspect residential energy backup systems, for example, because there is a city department tasked with performing those inspections for the utility.
In addition to municipal utilities, we suggest the bill extend the exemption to any city department that works with its utility on regulation in this space.
Some regulation of residential energy backup systems might be reasonable.
We believe that there are certain restrictions on the use of residential energy backup systems that might be reasonable and should be decided on at the local level. For example, suppose a city would like to curtail air pollution by limiting the use of gas generators where possible. Neighbors in a residential neighborhood might prefer not to be exposed to excessive amounts of diesel exhaust from a gas generator. This is reasonable because, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, “Exposure to diesel exhaust can lead to serious health conditions like asthma and respiratory illnesses and can worsen existing heart and lung disease, especially in children and the elderly. These conditions can result in increased numbers of emergency room visits, hospital admissions, absences from work and school, and premature deaths.”1
Suppose a city would like to limit homeowners to running a diesel generator only when the power is out. That seems like a reasonable restriction that would limit air pollution while still allowing a generator to function as backup power. It is unclear whether this would be permissible under the bill as drafted. We recommend that some latitude be given to cities to regulate in ways that do not interfere with an energy backup system’s purpose in providing reliable electricity to residences.
We appreciate the opportunity to testify on SB 1252 and we hope that you consider our recommendations for the bill.