Energy measure passes

Erin Neff

Monday, June 4, 2001 | 11:41 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- After two losing efforts in the Assembly, the GOP has come out on top of a renewable-energy issue that has dogged the Legislature for months.

Gov. Kenny Guinn returned Senate Bill 372 at the Senate's request for some "technical changes" to help improve the bill and possibly stave off a gubernatorial veto.

As a result, Senate Commerce and Labor Committee Chairman Randolph Townsend and Assembly Select Energy Committee Chairman Doug Bache worked with energy lobbyists and the governor's staff to develop a workable bill.

"Everybody now that has been a part of it thinks it's a much better bill," Guinn said. "Things came up along the way after it passed that they felt would make it better, and they did."

The amended bill -- which passed the Senate and Assembly in its new form on Saturday and Sunday -- is similar to what Assembly Republicans twice tried to amend into renewable energy portfolio measures.

"The changes that were just described sound a lot like what the Minority Leader (Lynn Hettrick) proposed," Bob Beers, R-Las Vegas, said during the Assembly's discussion of the measure Sunday.

Senate Bill 372, introduced by the Senate Commerce and Labor Committee, requires that the state's overall energy portfolio include an increasing amount of renewable energy by a certain date.

The measure requires that the state's utilities receive 5 percent of power from renewable sources by 2003; it would have to increase that amount 2 percent per year until 2013. Renewable sources include wind, biomass, solar and geothermal.

Assembly Republicans previously failed to amend SB372, in addition to a related Assembly bill that passed the Assembly but was thrown out for duplication.

The amended version of SB372 reduces the amount of the solar portfolio from 10 to 5 percent and adds the current geothermal resources in Northern Nevada to the portfolio. Sierra Pacific Power receives roughly 9 percent of its power from geothermal sources.

The new version of SB372 also allows the Public Utilities Commission to reject the standard if it is not "in the public's interest."

Republicans had previously argued that renewable energy, though an important generation source, could result in higher prices for consumers.

Tom Collins, D-North Las Vegas, had been the only Democrat who sided with Republicans in their previous amendment attempts. On Sunday he said he had to vote against the original version of the bill because it reminded him "of Jimmy Carter days."

The Assembly unanimously approved the amended version of the bill Sunday and forwarded it to Guinn. Guinn is expected to sign the amended version.