Public Comment

The City of Berkeley Rent Board Environmental Sustainability Committee is meeting roughly monthly now. Here's what's up:

Today on the 10th of January 2024 the committee reviewed a Kate Harrison proposed ordinance to require housing operators to disclose to new tenants the past energy use of the unit. Committee members expressed concern that the requirement is at lease signing rather than at advertising time, and concern that the data could be highly inaccurate if the old and new tenants have differing energy habits (work from home, grow lamps, tenant froze but just wore a lot of jackets, etc). The American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy has published renter studies on this topic. 

Igor Tregub reported on changes at the California Public Utilities Commission that make Solar for renters less viable (program name VNEM 3.0). The full rent board will vote on a resolution asking the CPUC to reconsider. 

Your author, Bryce Nesbitt, reported on policy at the California Energy Commission that deems ineligible for grant funding electric vehicle chargers assigned to a given tenant. This means even renters with access to solar can't set up to charge their own vehicles with their own electrons, and it means tenants must pay the owner or service company a markup to use electricity from the building's common meter (program name: Communities in Charge). Condominium, single family and multifamily pay-per-use EV charging setups remain eligible for grant funding. Comments are due to the CEC by 19th January at 4pm.