Call Today! Strengthen clean energy legislation in Frankfort

TAKE ACTION!

Please call 1-800-372-7181 today. Ask the operator to leave a message for your own representative and senator, Rep. Rocky Adkins, and all the members of the House Natural Resources Committee (the operator can look up your representative and senator if you aren’t sure of their names). The Legislative Message Line is open from 7 a.m. until 11 p.m. Thanks for making the call today.

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Installing solar water heaters on the roof of a home.

Make HB 3 better!

<!--[if !supportLists]--><!--[endif]-->Add provisions to help low income Kentuckians save energy!

<!--[if !supportLists]-->Add a solar energy requirement to create jobs!

<!--[if !supportLists]--> <!--[endif]-->Don’t lower the standards for Rural Electric Co-ops!

A strong clean energy bill will help stabilize long-term electricity rates and create jobs in every Kentucky community. 

BACKGROUND

KFTC and our allies in the Kentucky Sustainable Energy Alliance are promoting clean energy policies to help Kentuckians save energy and money while creating jobs across the commonwealth. We believe that the ideas contained in House Bill 408, a bill sponsored by Rep. Harry Moberly, provide the best path forward for our state. However, that bill has been assigned to the House Natural Resources Committee, and Chairman Jim Gooch has not allowed testimony on the measure.

Two weeks ago, Rep. Rocky Adkins introduced another energy bill, House Bill 3. It is weaker than HB 408 in many respects, but could be an important step forward if several concerns are addressed. Specifically:

• HB 3 should require utilities to implement weatherization and efficiency programs that directly benefit all Kentuckians. People on low or fixed incomes would be hardest hit by rising energy prices.  Lawmakers need to ensure that utilities invest in programs that will help vulnerable Kentuckians save energy and money.


• HB 3 should contain a minimum requirement for solar energy production. Kentucky should follow the lead of 17 other states, including our neighbors Ohio and Illinois, by requiring utilities to get a small but growing amount of their electricity from solar generation. Such policies have proven to be important for job creation through investment in solar production and local solar manufacturing.


• HB 3’s energy efficiency and renewable energy goals should be increased to better promote green job development, stabilize long-term energy prices, and produce important benefits for public health and the environment. Those goals in HB 3 would need to be doubled to stop the loss of green jobs to Ohio and other neighboring states.


• In addition, it has become apparent in recent days that many rural electric cooperatives in Kentucky oppose HB 3 and may seek to reduce the requirements that apply to them. It would be a grave mistake to allow those non-profit utilities to evade energy efficiency and renewable energy goals. If that happens, their customers will be even more vulnerable to the rising costs of fossil fuel energy.

Additional information, including a side-by-side summary of HB 3 with HB 408 can be found here.

If you would like to contact your legislators with a more detailed statement of your views, you may fax them at 502-564-6543 or call them directly at 502-564-8100.