Craig Daily Press

Denver — Rural electric co-operatives, which lost a major battle about energy efficiency measures in the Colorado House this week, reversed their long held opposition to net metering Thursday and testified in support of a compromise bill to boost acceptance of home-grown energy.

Sen. Jack Taylor, R-Steam­boat Springs, joined the rest of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Natural Resources and Energy in a unanimous endorsement of House Bill 1160 after the coops agreed to the compromise.

“There are a number of tradeoffs we have agreed to,” said Ray Clifton, executive director of the Colorado Rural Electric Association. “This recognizes the diversity of the 22 co-operatives and strikes the right balance.”

Clifton said the compromise bill shows the co-operatives “are willing to bend without breaking.”

A breakthrough on H.B. 1160 occurred when the influential chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, Sen. Jim Isgar, D-Hesperus, agreed to drop his competing net metering bill and sign on to the legislation introduced by Rep. Judy Solano, R-Brighton, and Sen. Brandon Shaffer, D-Longmont.

“Co-ops move at the speed of democracy because they are owned by the members,” Isgar said. “It is difficult to have a standard policy because the co-operatives don’t have the same rate structure.”

The compromise calls for rural electric co-operatives to accept and give credit for up to 10 kilowatts of home-grown energy from residential customers and 25 kilowatts from commercial and agricultural customers.

The governor’s energy czar, Tom Plant, coined a new term for the compromise bill, which creates a specific statewide policy on net metering but gives the co-operatives the flexibility they wanted in how to implement it.

“I call it speciflexity,” Plant said.

The compromise bill still must pass the Senate and be returned to the House for approval of the Senate amendments before it reaches the governor’s desk.

Clifton said the association, which includes the Steamboat Springs-based Yampa Valley Electric Association, will continue to fight House Bill 1107, which barely passed the House Wednesday on a 33-32 vote and now goes to the Senate for consideration.

The measure, sponsored by Rep. Claire Levy, D-Denver, would require rural electric co-operatives and municipally-owned utilities with more than 5,000 customers to spend at least two percent of their retail sales on energy efficiency programs by 2010.

Rep. Al White, R-Hayden, joined the solid block of Republicans and seven Dem­ocrats in opposing the bill on grounds the utilities already are investing in energy saving programs.

“This mandate is absolutely the wrong way to go,” said Rep. Ray Rose, R-Montrose. “This says you are going to have to spend more of the customers’ money to educate customers who already are” saving energy.

A Colorado Springs lawmaker said his city’s municipally-owned utility would have to spend an additional $14 million per year to comply with provisions of H.B. 1107.

“That is going to come out of the rate-payer’s pockets,” said Rep. Larry Liston, R-Colorado Springs, adding that the utility’s conservation measures already are nationally recognized. “They already are doing the very thing that this legislation mandates.”

Levy called her bill “consumer-friendly.” She argued that for every dollar spent on efficiency measures, such as compact florescent light giveaways or pickup drives for second refrigerators, two dollars are saved in energy costs.

“Yes, it’s a cost that may very well be added to the (electric) bill, but overall it will lower people’s bills,” Levy said. “It’s not just spending money. It only works if consumers take advantage of the programs.”

Levy said the goal of all energy conservation measures is to save 1.5 billion kilowatt hours of electricity per year by 2020.

“We project a savings of $600 million savings in avoided energy costs,” Levy said. “It’s time the whole state gets on board with using less energy and avoids the need for new power plants. This is playing defense against the volatile wholesale energy market.”

Levy said the bill gives the utility companies complete control over how to implement the so-called demand-side management programs required by the measure.

However, it also requires the 21 rural electric cooperatives and 9 municipally owned utilities affected by the bill to make an annual report to the Governor’s Energy Office that details program expenditures as a share of retail revenue and the estimated energy savings.

Plant said his office has not taken a position on Levy’s bill.

“We are neither supporting it nor opposing it,” he said.

Another rural lawmaker said the cooperatives are being backed into a corner in the push for more use of wind, solar and other renewable energy sources.

“The REAs came on board with net metering because they took a look at the political realities and may not be in a position to get any more concessions,” said Rep. Cory Gardner, R-Yuma.

He said another bill awaiting House debate dealing with the reorganization of the Public Utilities Commission also could hurt the REAs.

“The PUC bill starts to draw the rural electric associations into the PUC regulations for the first time,” Gardner said. “There will be another big floor fight over that one.”

House Bill 1227, sponsored by House Majority Leader Alice Madden, D-Boulder, passed the House Transportation and Energy Committee on an 8-4 straight party-line vote and is awaiting a hearing before the House Appropriations Com­mittee before it reaches the House floor for debate.