Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Air Emissions Generators topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Committee advances bill to change air‑emission fee calculations and exempt certain emergency and backup generators
Summary
Representative Derek Lewis introduced a committee substitute for House Bill 346 that would exempt some emergency and backup generators from emission fees and remove a 4,000‑ton per‑source cap used to calculate per‑ton air‑emission fees.
Representative Derek Lewis introduced a committee substitute for House Bill 346 to address how the Division of Air Quality calculates emission fees. Lewis said the bill would carve emergency generators out of fee calculations, exempt backup generators run 100 hours or less for nonemergency uses (including maintenance and testing), and remove an existing 4,000‑ton per‑source cap used in fee calculations.
Lewis and a witness, Adam Goble of Stahl, Kean & Ogden, told the Committee on Natural Resources and Energy that the provisions are intended to correct an anomaly created by the cabinet’s regulatory interpretation that in some cases produced very large fees for organizations that operate emergency or backup generators alongside other permitted sources.
"The division of air quality requires if so if you have an emergency generator and it's it's stationary ... they were charging some of these organizations anywhere from 12,000 to 611,000 a year," Goble said, describing the cabinet's prior interpretation.
Lewis and Goble further said the cabinet's analysis showed roughly 708 of 712 permitted sources would see their fees stay the same or be reduced under the change; a small number of larger utilities could see increases absent other emission reductions.
Several committee members pressed for details about how costs might be passed through to utility ratepayers. Representative Bridges said the approach could concentrate costs on a few utilities and asked for caps; he later recorded a no vote in committee on the measure, citing concerns for his constituents. Representative Smith described past instances where fuel‑adjustment or environmental surcharges produced sudden increases on household bills and urged continued monitoring of passthroughs to consumers.
Lewis and supporters said the change would lower the per‑ton fee for nearly all sources and would in fact encourage continued emissions reductions. The bill was debated in committee, adopted on the committee substitute, and the committee voted to advance it with a favorable expression.
