Existing law declares that electrical energy is essential to the health, safety, and welfare of the people and the economy of this state, and it is the state’s policy to promote all feasible means of energy conservation.
This bill would require electric and gas utilities, as defined, on and after January 1, 2009, to maintain records of the energy consumption data of all nonresidential buildings to which they provide service, in a format compatible for uploading to the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s Energy Star Portfolio Manager (Energy Star Portfolio Manager), for at least the most recent 12 months. Upon written or secured electronic authorization of a nonresidential building owner or operator, on and after January 1, 2009, an electric or gas utility would be required to upload all of the energy consumption data for a building to the Energy Star Portfolio Manager in a manner that preserves the
confidentiality of the customer. The electric and gas utilities would be encouraged to work with the United States Environmental Protection Agency and their customers to develop reasonable reporting options that would maximize efficiency and minimize overall program cost.
The bill would require, on and after January 1, 2010, that a nonresidential building owner or operator disclose Energy Star Portfolio Manager benchmarking data and ratings, for the most recent 12-month period, to a prospective buyer, lessee, or lender. After the benchmarking data and ratings are disclosed, the property owner, operator, or his or her agent would not be required to provide additional information regarding the benchmarking data and ratings. The information disclosed would be considered adequate to inform the prospective buyer, lessee of the entire building, or lender that would finance the entire building of the benchmarking data and ratings for the building.