- The state legislature has appropriated an amount not to exceed $131,500,000 from the Clean Energy Fund for transfer to the General Fund as state revenue for FY 2013. This will require the Board of Public Utilities to revise its budget and program descriptions.
- The Office of Clean Energy has developed a straw proposal to address the funding level for 2013 through 2016, and is accepting comments until mid-September. This proposal initially addresses the potential transition from a majority of rebate incentive programs to a balance of rebates and financing programs such as revolving loans.
- In addition, there is currently a Request for Proposal for a new program administrator that would combine the two Market Manager contracts with Honeywell and TRC and the Program Coordinator contract with Applied Energy Group into one contract (in other words, one administrator for all commercial/industrial, residential and renewable energy programs).
- According to a summary of the proposal on the Clean Energy website, there would be a re-evaluation and reduction of the suite of measures currently incentivized under the commercial and industrial retrofit program.
- Bottom line: if this proposal is enacted into law, commercial and industrial facilities with obsolete lighting may soon be unable to defray the costs of upgrading those lights with the help of utility rebates.