Comprehensive Energy Legislation Approved by Iowa Senate

Late Tuesday night, members of the Iowa Senate approved SF 2311, an omnibus energy bill. Several amendments were added to the bill on the floor, and many more were debated.

The legislation contains provisions that:

• Allow a customer to opt out for energy efficiency and demand response programs provided by utilities
• Increase transparency as to cost-of-energy efficiency programs
• Allow municipal utilities to use joint financing for natural gas infrastructure
• Allow a public utility to automatically adjust rates to recover costs related to transmission consistent with a tariff or agreement subject to the jurisdiction of the federal energy regulatory commission
• Allow a rate regulated utility to file at any time for expedited approval of new tariffs or rates that are optional for customers and for which costs are all borne by the participating customers

Many stakeholders–including utilities, municipal utilities, RECs, solar companies, large energy users and environmental groups–are interested in and working on this legislation. The bill passed by a vote of 27-23 and has now been referred to the House Commerce Committee.