Energy: appliances: local requirements.

Existing law requires the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission to gather or develop, and publish on its internet website, guidance and best practices to help building owners, the construction industry, and local governments overcome barriers to electrification of buildings and installation of electric vehicle charging equipment that include one or more specified topics. This bill would require the commission to gather or develop, and publish on its internet website, the guidance and best practices by July 1, 2023, and would require the guidance to include all of those specified topics and additional topics. The bill would require the commission to update annually the guidance and best practices. The bill would require a city, including a charter city, or county, when adopting an ordinance requiring the replacement of a fossil fuel-fired appliance with an electric appliance upon the alteration or retrofit of a residential and nonresidential building, to consider any guidance published by the commission. The bill would require the commission, upon request by a local government considering the adoption of that ordinance, to provide technical assistance to the local government. The bill would require a local government, within 60 days of adopting that ordinance, to submit to the commission a copy of the ordinance, and other specified information and would require the commission to provide written comments on the ordinance based upon the commission's guidance published at the time the ordinance is adopted. If the commission determines that the local government did not consider the guidance, the bill would require the local government to consider the guidance or portion of the guidance that the commission determines the local government did not consider, make any modification of the ordinance deemed necessary by the local government, and resubmit the ordinance and other information to the commission. The bill would specify that the commission is to implement the requirements of the bill upon appropriation by the Legislature. The bill would include findings that changes proposed by this bill address a matter of statewide concern rather than a municipal affair and, therefore, apply to all cities, including charter cities.