The chairman of the House Committee on Public Utilities, Transportation and Communications, Rep. Vincent S. Aldan, left, the vice chairman, Rep. Angelo Camacho right, and House legal counsel Joe Taijeron listen to the remarks of Rep. Marissa Flores — not in photo — during a meeting in the House chamber on Tuesday.
THE House Committee on Public Utilities, Transportation and Communications on Tuesday decided to hold a public hearing on House Bill 23-92, which would suspend net energy metering.
Present in the meeting were the committee chairman, Rep. Vincent S. Aldan, the vice chairman, Rep. Angelo Camacho, and the members, House Floor Leader Edwin Propst, Reps. Marissa Flores, Vince Diego Camacho, Manny Gregory Castro and John Paul Sablan.
They unanimously voted to approve Flores’ motion to rescind the committee’s earlier decision to draft a report on a substitute version of H.B. 23-92 and send it to the full House for action. The motion also called for a public hearing to address the concerns and hear comments from members of the community.
Authored by Aldan, H.B. 23-92 would amend Public Law 18-62 to suspend net energy metering.
Aldan said a substitute bill included a provision that protects those currently using net energy metering.
P.L. 18-62 amended P.L. 15-23, which entitles eligible customers who generate renewable energy to receive net energy metering service, and compensation for an excess in electricity generated by their renewable energy system.
Flores said only 535 people were given the opportunity to avail themselves of net energy metering services.
She said according to acting Commonwealth Utilities Corp. Executive Director Betty Terlaje, some of these customers are government agencies.
“I don’t know how that became fair,” Flores added. “If the intent of the law was to … address marginalized individuals, the government surely is not one of them.”
Flores said many of them have received comments regarding H.B. 23-92. She would like to have a “thorough discussion” on the bill so people can have a better understanding of it.
Propst said he has received negative comments regarding H.B. 23-92. The “attacks and criticisms” were “accompanied by some words I can’t repeat here,” he added.
He said members of the public should reach out to the committee and attend the hearing that he hopes will be held soon.
Castro said he, too, has heard the concerns of his constituents in Precinct 2.
He noted that CUC officials have also brought up “some interesting issues” about net energy metering. He said he was told that CUC has not conducted a study on the full impact of net energy metering service. “So the data and numbers are not all there,” he added.
Sablan, for his part, said some of his constituents were told by Micronesian Renewable Energy that H.B. 23-92 would affect them.
MRE is a private company that provides “solar energy solutions” to its clients.
Sablan said once the committee schedules a public hearing, he would like everyone who has concerns, including MRE, to express them.
Flores noted that when the net metering law was enacted, “there was an injustice … because in no way should the Legislature be encroaching into the management of CUC.”
She said H.B. 23-92 needs further investigation, and CUC has to conduct its due diligence.
“We will no longer be in this process of overreaching our authority as legislators and telling agencies how to promulgate the rule,” she added.
Aldan said some of the negative comments about the bill are “scare tactics.” He added that “there is a saving clause in the bill that protects those that are currently in net metering. That was not fully disclosed.”
He said he answered the emails that he received from his constituents. And after he explained the bill’s provisions to them, “they understood what was going on and they knew they would not be affected.”
Nevertheless, he said, “we will go out and do further outreach and education to the public to explain the intent of the bill.”
Annie Pickelsimer, a CUC customer, said she has been a net metering client for seven years now.
After a year, a customer should be compensated for the surplus of electricity generated by renewable energy, she added.
But she said she has not received anything from CUC, and every time she follows up, she is always told that CUC is working on it.
Pickelsimer said she thinks a public hearing will help because the committee has to hear the people’s concerns. “We all have to understand both sides,” she added.
