I guess the big news this week will be the first hearing on SB 1 (Townsend), which seeks to contain excessive healthcare charges from Delaware’s hospitals. That hearing takes place tomorrow at 10 am in the Senate Chamber. The livestream link can be found here. The irony of Townsend, as sponsor, and ChristianaCare’s Ray Seigfried, as co-sponsor, is not lost on me. Both led the way in killing the enforcement authority of the Hospital Health Care Cost Containment Board. I know why Seigfried’s on the bill as he faces an exceedingly-difficult reelection campaign. Meaning, he has to hide who he really represents in Dover from his constituents. Don’t think it’ll work.
More on that tomorrow.
Today’s Senate Agenda features SB 239 (Hansen). Delaware Public Media has a right-on-time description of the bill:
Sen. Stephanie Hansen (D-Middletown), chair of the Environment, Energy & Transportation committee, proposes the state remove its cap on how much energy solar users can send back to the grid.
The process is called net metering and state law currently caps it at 8% – meaning that’s where utilities can draw the line on energy they receive into their systems from solar.
The state raised its cap from 5 to 8% in 2022, as use of solar expanded. When an area hits the cap for net metering, Hansen said it discourages people from investing in a solar energy system.
“A lot of times when people go to make the decision as to whether they’re going to put solar on their home, they’re adding into that decision making process, ‘how long is it going to take me to pay this back?'” she said. “Then also: ‘how much money might I receive from the utility to help pay off this system?'”
While there are concerns with cost shifts for rate payers related to net metering, Hansen said her proposed change is based on a 2025 Sustainable Energy Utility study for Delaware.
According to the study, power generated by individual homes and businesses are an overall benefit to rate payers who don’t use solar.
The study noted for every dollar spent on net-metering, solar generates $1.28 in direct benefits–saving money for rate payers and grid operators on maintenance and transmission.
Hansen said grid operators may still have to operate with limits, and the bill doesn’t force them to accept more energy than it’s able.
“What this does is it removes a kind of artificial state cap,” she said.
Sounds like a real good bill to me. We’ll see what members of the Gas-Guzzler Caucus think about it.
Here is today’s House Agenda. HB 63 (Wilson-Anton) strengthens fireworks regulation by ‘increasing fines, regulating sales through a permit system, ensuring consumer awareness through required safety information, and generating revenue for the Fire Marshal’s office to improve oversight and public education.’ HS1/HB 213 (Griffith) ‘creates a privilege for confidential communications between a victim and a victim advocate.’ HB 293 (Morrison) ‘adds any act that contains the characteristics of a hate crime to the definitions of crimes for the purposes of the Victims Compensation Assistance Program.’
That’s what interests me on today’s House Agenda. There’s only one Committee Meeting taking place today. This one. HS1/HB 200(Chukwuocha) is a whittled-down bill concerning mandatory insurance coverage for AIDS. The bill ‘differs from HB 200 by requiring health insurance coverage only for pre-exposure prophylaxis (“PrEP”) medication and post-exposure prophylaxis (“PEP”) medication… This Act requires individual health insurance plans, group and blanket health insurance plans, the state employee health plan, and state Medicaid insurance to cover medically necessary PrEP medication for the prevention of human immunodeficiency virus (“HIV”) infection before possible HIV exposure and medically necessary PEP medication for the prevention of HIV infection after possible HIV exposure.’
Hey, politics is the art of the possible. Guess this is what’s possible.
Back tomorrow.