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House of Representatives COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES HOUSE CONSUMER AFFAIRS COMMITTEE HEARING STATE CAPITOL MAIN CAPITOL BUILDING MAJORITY CAUCUS ROOM 140 HARRISBURG, PENNSYLVANIA TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 2020 IN RE: HOUSE BILL 531 COMMUNITY SOLAR BEFORE: HONORABLE BRAD ROAE, MAJORITY CHAIRMAN HONORABLE ROB MATZIE, MINORITY CHAIRMAN (V) HONORABLE SHERYL DELOZIER HONORABLE FRANK FARRY HONORABLE ROB KAUFFMAN HONORABLE RYAN MACKENZIE HONORABLE THOMAS MEHAFFIE HONORABLE ERIC NELSON HONORABLE TINA PICKETT HONORABLE CHRIS QUINN HONORABLE THOMAS SANKEY HONORABLE TODD STEPHENS (V) HONORABLE RYAN WARNER (V) HONORABLE MARTINA WHITE ————————— JEAN DAVIS REPORTING POST OFFICE BOX 125 • HERSHEY, PA 17033 PHONE (717)503-6568 1 BEFORE (cont'd.) 2 HONORABLE RYAN BIZZARRO HONORABLE DONNA BULLOCK (V) 3 HONORABLE TINA DAVIS (V) HONORABLE MARTY FLYNN 4 HONORABLE ED NEILSON (V) HONORABLE PETER SCHWEYER 5 HONORABLE PAM SNYDER 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 2 1 STAFF MEMBERS ALSO IN ATTENDANCE: 2 PHIL KIRCHNER, REPUBLICAN CAUCUS, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR HEATHER RODGERS, REPUBLICAN CAUCUS, LEGISLATIVE 3 ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT II MARCUS HUERTAS, REPUBLICAN CAUCUS 4 BETH ROSENTEL, DEMOCRATIC CAUCUS, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 JEAN M. DAVIS, REPORTER 14 NOTARY PUBLIC 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 3 1 I N D E X TESTIFIERS 2 3 NAME PAGE 4 REPRESENTATIVE AARON KAUFER, 8 PRIME SPONSOR OF HOUSE BILL 531 5 LESLIE ELDER, MID-ATLANTIC DIRECTOR 10 6 COALITION FOR COMMUNITY SOLAR ACCESS 7 CHAD FORCEY, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, 21 PENNSYLVANIA CONSERVATION ENERGY FORUM 8 LAUREN BRUNSDALE, ASSOCIATE DEVELOPER, 27 9 COMMUNITY ENERGY 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 4 1 P R O C E E D I N G S 2 * * * 3 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN ROAE: Good morning, everyone. 4 I'm calling this hearing to order. I think we're 5 going to skip the attendance today just in the interest of 6 time. We only have an hour to do this, so we're going to 7 try to get started right away here. 8 The topic today is community solar. There's been 9 quite a bit of interest on this legislation. Representative 10 Kaufer has really been pushing for this legislation and he 11 convinced me to have a hearing on the issue. He'll be 12 talking about it in a little bit here. 13 When we look at our electricity supply in 14 Pennsylvania, we have a very diverse portfolio of electric. 15 It used to be almost all coal. Well, now it's coal and 16 nuclear and natural gas. Solar is up to about one-half of 1 17 percent of all the electricity that's generated -- or 18 purchased in Pennsylvania, I should say. 19 I'm just going to leave my opening comments 20 brief. We do have members that are joining us online today. 21 And we have members present here in the room. So we're 22 going to try to get through the technology hurdles as well 23 as we can. 24 And filling in for the Minority Chairman today is 25 Representative Schweyer. I'll let him make his opening 5 1 comments now. 2 REPRESENTATIVE SCHWEYER: Thank you, Mr. 3 Chairman. 4 This is a topic that has been a number of 5 sessions now in the making. I remember being part of 6 conversations in the 2017-2018 session. So this is an issue 7 that is certainly worthy of this Committee's full 8 consideration. 9 And I think this is a great first hearing on this 10 topic. There's certainly a number of facets to it beyond 11 just what the -- beyond the advocates for it. And there's 12 some things that we're going to need to consider. But I 13 really appreciate where this bill is going. I mean, I've 14 been a prime sponsor of this bill for multiple sessions now 15 -- or a cosponsor, excuse me. 16 I just want to make quick mention for the members 17 and the public and members of the Legislature that are 18 joining us on the Microsoft Teams feed, that is, to my right 19 and in front of me here, that if you're using the chat 20 feature, that will be a matter of public record. 21 It's something for you to kind of keep in mind 22 that it's not like a caucus thing. I know our caucus uses 23 this and sometimes there's conversations that go back and 24 forth. I want folks to know that this is, in fact, all 25 being recorded and all a matter of public record. 6 1 Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 2 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN ROAE: Thank you, 3 Representative Schweyer. 4 And also if Representative -- if Chairman Matzie 5 has the technology and capability, would you like to make 6 any comments? 7 MINORITY CHAIRMAN MATZIE: Thank you, Mr. 8 Chairman. 9 I just appreciate you having the hearing. I know 10 we were supposed to have this back in March. I'm sorry my 11 presence at the Capitol today is not able to happen, but I 12 appreciate you having this. I'll leave it in the capable 13 hands of Representative Schweyer to handle my duties, but 14 I'll be listening and participating via Microsoft Teams. 15 It's an important topic, as I've said many, many 16 times this session. Energy is vital to not only our history 17 but to our economy. And any opportunity we have to have 18 conversations about how energy policy proceeds and how 19 energy policy plays out, it's an important topic. 20 So I appreciate you having this hearing. Thank 21 you. 22 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN ROAE: All right. Thank you, 23 Chairman Matzie. 24 And I would like to remind people, in addition to 25 what Representative Schweyer was saying, remember to please 7 1 mute your microphones when you're not talking. And remember 2 if you have your video camera on, we can all see you. So 3 you might want to have your video camera off as well. 4 So we're going to get started here. 5 Representative Kaufer, you're the prime sponsor of the 6 legislation. You can start with your comments first, if you 7 wish. 8 REPRESENTATIVE KAUFER: Thank you, Chairman Roae, 9 Chairman Matzie, Acting Chairman Schweyer. I appreciate you 10 having this hearing here today to talk about community solar 11 and its impact that it could have here on Pennsylvania. 12 There are about 20 states right now, including I 13 think all of our surrounding states right now, that are 14 doing community solar. Right now there are developers out 15 there trying to do these types of projects all throughout 16 the Commonwealth to the tune of over $2 billion of private 17 investment waiting to happen here in Pennsylvania. I'll say 18 that again. To the tune of over $2 billion of private 19 investment waiting to happen here in Pennsylvania. 20 There are thousands of jobs on the line with this 21 legislation. And I might add that there are no State tax 22 dollar s that are needed for these types of projects as 23 well. So when we're talking about the amount of jobs, the 24 amount the private investment happening here, especially at 25 a time where our budget has been ravished by COVID, there's 8 1 no doubt that the revenue piece of this is not in the back 2 of people's minds as we talk about this because when you 3 have billions of dollars worth of investment, there is 4 revenue that will be produced for our budget as well. 5 I would like to just -- before I turn it over, 6 because I want to let the testifiers speak about the 7 expertise on this besides just being the prime sponsor, I 8 would like to comment about how important this is for our 9 farmers throughout all of Pennsylvania. 10 Our farmers are viewing this type of legislation 11 as their lifeline of keeping their farms up and running, of 12 having property that they're currently not using or unable 13 to use to actually be able to generate revenue to keep 14 family farms up and operating. 15 The Farm Bureau has been very supportive of this 16 legislation. And I think it's something that throughout 17 rural Pennsylvania, suburban Pennsylvania, and urban 18 Pennsylvania, this is a bill that works and something that 19 we should try to highlight moving forward to make sure that 20 we can get this type of investment, these types of jobs, 21 revenue for our budget, and also clean and renewable energy 22 here for Pennsylvania. 23 Thank you, Chairman. I'll pass it over to the 24 testifiers. 25 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN ROAE: All right. 9 1 Thank you, Representative Kaufer. 2 Providing testimony today is going to be Leslie 3 Elder, the Mid-Atlantic Director of Coalition for Community 4 Solar Access; Chad Forcey, Executive Director of 5 Pennsylvania Conservative Energy Forum; and Lauren 6 Brunsdale, Associate Developer, Community Energy. 7 So is Leslie here? We can start with you. 8 You're first on the list here. 9 Make sure that green light is on on your 10 microphone, please. 11 MS. LESLIE ELDER: Thank you. 12 Also thank you, Chairman Roae and Schweyer.
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