Kentucky House Leadership Supports On-bill Financing

Last month, Speaker of the House Greg Stumbo, House Majority Leader Rocky Adkins, and House Majority WHIP John Will Stacy submitted a letter to the Kentucky Public Service Commission in support of an on-bill financing pilot program. If approved by the PSC, the program would make funds available to four rural electric co-ops in Kentucky to help 200 households that are most vulnerable to rising electric rates make energy efficiency improvements to their homes. The improvements would save the households money on their electric bill and part of these savings would be used to pay off the improvements.

Representatives Stumbo, Adkins, and Stacy submitted a letter to the Kentucky PSC in support of on-bill financing.

MACED (the Mountain Association for Community Economic Development) is working with the following four co-ops to seek approval for a new tariff mechanism to get the pilot programs off the ground: Big Sandy Rural Electric Cooperative, Grayson Rural Electric Cooperative, Jackson Energy, and Fleming-Mason Rural Electric Cooperative. KFTC has hundreds of members in counties served by these co-ops and several of our members have been working for more than a year to bring "new power"--including new clean energy power in the form of increased energy savings programs--to their co-ops.

Here is the full letter from the Representatives to the Public Service Commission:

We are writing in support of the joint application of the Big Sandy Rural Electric Cooperative, Fleming-Mason Energy Cooperative, Grayson Rural Electric Cooperative and Jackson Energy Cooperative for approval of a pilot "On Billâ€ financing program titled the "KY Energy Retrofit Rider.â€

The proposed pilot project presents an opportunity to test and fashion a utility based program to help Kentucky electric customers access financing for affordable energy efficiency retrofits for their homes and businesses. The resulting reduction in energy consumption will realize savings for the property owners and help slow the demand for new electric generation, a savings for all customers of the participating cooperatives. As proposed it is important that capital for the energy efficiency retrofits will be provided by MACED through various funding sources rather than an expense or liability of rate payers. Reducing demand for energy is an important component of Kentucky‘s energy policy. As a two year pilot with limited participation the proposed program creates an opportunity to refine and improve upon the concept before deployment on a wide spread scale.

We encourage you to approve the proposed program to begin this important undertaking.

KFTC members applaud the strides made toward this program by MACED and the co-ops, and appreciate the support of House Leadership. Doug Doerrfeld, KFTC member and Grayson Rural Electric Co-op member, comments:

KFTC and Grayson Rural Electric member, Doug Doerrfeld

It is encouraging to see Speaker Stumbo, Floor Leader Adkins and House Majority WHIP John Will Stacy acknowledging that energy efficiency programs are needed to help low income Kentuckians struggling to pay constantly rising utility bills. Disconnection rates are souring across Kentucky as this crisis begins to unfold. It is imperative that in the next legislative session these House leaders work to pass energy efficiency standards for Kentucky to increase the benefits of energy efficiency to all Kentuckians struggling to pay their bills.

It is also encouraging to see the Representatives acknowledge that energy efficiency will not only help customers with their bills, but will also reduce "the demand for new electric generation."

The co-ops and MACED are now awaiting the PSC's ruling on the program. Stay tuned to this blog for further developments in this PSC case, clean energy legislation in the 2011 General Assembly, and updates about what's happening with on-bill financing policies on the federal level as well.