Huffman Watch: Our Assemblyman at Work

Date February 29, 2008

Ice Cream Can Save Our Planet

First of all, congratulations to our favorite ice cream store ever, Three Twins Ice Cream, for earning Assemblyman Huffman’s Sustainable 6 Award for their earth-friendly business practices in January. Besides making their own fabulously tasty certified organic ice cream at their Terra Linda and Napa stores, they use organic ingredients, offset their emissions, use compostable serving dishes, compost their waste, and are proud member of One Percent for the Planet. Three twins sells their deliciousness wholesale by the tubs to restaurants, pints at grocery stories (ie. Scotty’s) and various sizes at the Berkeley Farmers Market.

There Oughta Be A Law…Or Not

On February 12, 2008, Assemblyman Jared Huffman awarded eight of his constituents winners of the 2008 “There Oughta Be A Law…Or Not” Contest. This contest is a way ordinary citizens from Assembly District 6 can propose new legislation or a repeal of an old. For this year’s contest the office received over 100 ideas. The winners this year consisted of eight constituents who had almost identical idea. The winners were: Bruce Gustin of Petaluma; Jim Lammers of San Anselmo; Steven Kunkel of Fairfax; Jared Babula of Sausalito; George Davidson of Larkspur; Peter Berkhout of San Rafael; Tome Faust of Corte Madera, and Ray Gallian of Sonoma.

Their idea was to require utilities to pay individuals for the excess solar and other forms of renewable energy they produce at their homes, schools, small businesses, or farms. Currently, a resident with solar panels on their home can reduce their utility bill to $0, but the electricity they produce beyond what they use goes back to the grid for free without the homeowner being compensated.

This legislative idea was unveiled at SPG Solar’s Novato headquarters. SPG Solar is the largest solar producer in California.

AB 1920 is the resulting bill. This bill will enable residents who produce renewable energy for their homes, small businesses, schools, or farms to get paid by their utility company for excess electricity they produce that goes back to the grid. The bill is open to all renewable energy technologies that qualify for net metering such as solar, small wind, small scale geothermal, fuel cells, etc. The level of compensation for the renewable energy producing customer would be determined by the Public Utilities Commission and would help the utility meet their renewable energy goals mandated by state laws.

1920 also removes the “size to load” restriction in state law that limits a persons ability to install the maximum number of solar panels on their home. Currently Californians can only install the amount of solar panels that equals their energy usage, even if they have extra room on their roof and they want to purchase additional solar panels.

We urge passage of this bill because this bill has the ability to make the investment of renewable energy more cost effective if homeowners and business owners know that they can get money back. It will encourage current renewable producers to expand their use. The utilities win because they can boast that a bigger percentage of their energy production is clean and renewable.

AB 1920 may be heard in committee on March 13th. The bill’s co-authors are Laird, Portantino, and Migden.

Catherine Rucker of Novato was also named winner. Her legislative idea was to extend the exemption from payment of higher education tuition and fees to surviving spouse or child of a fallen firefighter who was employed by the federal government.

Assemblymember Huffman is now excepting entries for the 2009 “There Oughta Be A Law…Or Not” contest. I dunno about you, but I am sending mine in.

Bookmark and Share
[del.icio.us] [Digg] [Google] [LinkedIn] [StumbleUpon] [Windows Live] [Yahoo!] [Email] More »
Powered by Bookmarkify™

Category Posted in AB1920, Jared Huffman, Marin Politics, california politics, environment, global warming