California AB 2339 Comments

 September 11, 2012

Governor Jerry Brown
c/o State Capitol, Suite 1173
Sacramento, CA 95814

Dear Governor Brown,

 AB 2339 unanimously passed both houses of the California General Assembly, and has arrived at your desk for signature into law. GEO urges you to do so.

As the national trade group for the geothermal heat pump (GHP) industry, the Geothermal Exchange Organization (GEO) believes that AB 2339—a bill that will foster widespread consumer adoption of GHPs and help to achieve the goals of California renewable energy policies—is of vital importance to the citizens of your great State.

According to the U.S. Department of Energy and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, GHPs are our most efficient and cost-effective distributed renewable energy source for heating and cooling buildings, which are one of our largest energy consumers.

GHPs reduce the use of fossil fuels like heating oil, propane and natural gas on-site, and can cut electrical loads for utilities at times of peak demand during the hot summer months experienced in California. GHPs can be a major tool to help the State fight climate change and attain your goal of installing 12 gigawatts of local renewable power generation by 2020.

AB 2339 will ultimately remove regulatory and systemic barriers to GHP technologies created by the CEC and DWR during the history of GHP market development in California. The road to passage of AB 2339 has already fostered substantive discussions among the CEC, DWR and the GHP industry. The result has been mutual support for the bill, and more importantly, understanding of the teamwork necessary to accomplish AB 2339 mandates.

Executive action is needed to ensure that this progress for California continues. GEO urges you to sign AB 2339 into law, to help promote more widespread adoption of GHPs as a vital renewable energy source for California.

Respectfully,

Douglas A. Dougherty
President/CEO