Hawaii On-Bill Financing Not Happening This Year
On-bill financing will have to wait until next year.
House Energy Committee Chair Denny Coffman told Civil Beat Tuesday that the bill won’t be scheduled for a conference committee meeting before this week’s deadline unless it’s changed to merely call for a study of the clean energy financing model.
“Nothing has caused me to want to lean forward to actually hear the bill,” Coffman told Civil Beat in a phone interview Tuesday afternoon.
On Monday, Coffman said he had “unanswered questions” about , which would allow people to pay to install clean energy technology at their homes through their monthly electric bills.
The bill has drawn support from clean energy advocates and even Hawaiian Electric Company. But the Public Utilities Commission — chaired by Coffman’s predecessor as House Energy Committee chief, Hermina Morita — has opposed its passage. Coffman cited updated information from the PUC as part of the reason he won’t schedule a hearing for Wednesday — at least for the bill as it’s currently structured.
“The reason I don’t say ‘no’ is that I certainly talked to my counterpart on the Senate side,” Coffman said. Senate Energy Committee Chair Mike Gabbard proposed a compromise CD1 version and said Monday he was optimistic it would pass.
But Coffman will only consider a bill that calls for a study of on-bill financing. Earlier in the session, HB 1520 was amended from directing the PUC to implement the program to directing the PUC to consider implementing the program.
“If (Gabbard) comes to my office tomorrow and plops down a study for the PUC to do something, I could certainly support that, because that’s a position that the PUC and other folks have taken,” Coffman said.
He added that the PUC can take action on its own to move on-bill financing forward and does not need a directive from the Legislature.
Read Civil Beat’s earlier coverage of on-bill financing:
- ‘Unanswered Questions’ Hold Up On-Bill Financing
- On-bill Financing Would Make Clean Energy Accessible to Everyone
- Solutions to Up-Front Costs for Energy Efficiency
