Update from Harrisburg

New date set for House bill #1580 hearing

As most of you know, the House Consumer Affairs committee meeting has been rescheduled until Thursday, December 8^th from 10-12 in room G-50 in the capitol building. It is a non-session day which means there is a better chance more committee members will be available to attend. Some of you may be interested in attending the hearing and supporting the solar industry speakers including “our own” Andrew Kleeman. If you come, you may want to wear your company logo or shirt so that you are easily identified as a concerned solar business. We will not have an accompanying lobby day since most of the legislators; accept the “all important” Consumer Affairs committee members may not be in town that day.

Since PASEIA is severely resource constrained, we have enlisted Mike Healy from National SEIA to assist us with some campaign activities. In advance of the hearing, Mike arranged 15 meetings with the House Consumer Affairs committee members for the three days before the hearing. (12/5-6-7) If anyone is interested in accompanying Mike, please email him directly at MHealy@seia.org

We don’t know at this point whether we have enough votes in the committee to call for a vote, but next week will be very telling. We are running up against the legislative clock and would like to get the bill out of committee by Dec. 20^th before they recess for a month. Until the hearing takes place and we get the feedback from our committee visits next week, I don’t have a prediction, but time is running out in 2011. The good news is this is not the end of the legislative session so the bill will NOT have to be reintroduced in mid-January when they return to Harrisburg. If you’re not coming to Harrisburg at this time, spend a few minutes and call the House members on the committee. The list was posted on November 1^{st .} Ask for their support. We DO have 111 co-sponsors but we still have to get it through this committee first and don’t have many co-sponsors on the committee.

Maureen Mulligan

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