Sen. Charles W. Carrico, Sr.

Directs the Boards of Dentistry and Medicine to adopt regulations for the prescribing of opioids and products containing buprenorphine. The bill requires the Prescription Monitoring Program at the Department of Health Professions to provide an annual report to the Joint Commission on Health Care on the prescribing of opioids and benzodiazepines in the Commonwealth. The bill contains an emergency clause.

Exempts any natural gas utility serving fewer than 2,000 residential customers and fewer than 350 commercial and industrial customers in the year in which the utility makes an investment for qualifying projects from the provision that limits the amount of investment that a natural gas utility may make in qualifying projects to one percent of its net plant investment that was used in establishing base rates in its most recent rate case. The existing exemption to the one percent cap was enacted in 2013 and applies to any natural gas utility serving fewer than 1,000 residential customers and fewer than 250 commercial and industrial customers in such year. Legislation enacted in 2012 established a mechanism for natural gas utilities to recover the eligible infrastructure development costs of a qualifying project through future rates. A qualifying project is an economic development project for which, among other things, the utility has received a binding commitment from the developer or occupant of the proposed project regarding capacity or a financial guaranty from the developer or state or local government in the amount of at least 50 percent of the estimated investment to be made in the proposed project. This bill is identical to

Authorizes an investor-owned electric utility to petition the State Corporation Commission for approval of a rate adjustment clause for recovery of the costs of one or more pumped hydroelectricity generation and storage facilities that utilize associated on-site or off-site renewable energy resources as all or a portion of their power source and such facilities and associated resources are located in the coalfield region of the Commonwealth. The measure provides that the requirement that a utility demonstrate that it has considered and weighed alternative options, including third-party market alternatives, in its selection process applies only to a generation facility that is described in clauses (i) and (ii) of subdivision A 6 of § 56-585.1.

Directs the Secretary of Health and Human Resources (the Secretary) to convene a work group to study barriers to treatment of substance-exposed infants in the Commonwealth. Such work group shall include representatives of the Departments of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services and Health and Social Services and such other stakeholders as the Secretary may deem appropriate and shall (i) review current policies and practices governing the identification and treatment of substance-exposed infants in the Commonwealth; (ii) identify barriers to treatment of substance-exposed infants in the Commonwealth, including barriers related to identification and reporting of such infants, data collection, interagency coordination and collaboration, service planning, service availability, and funding; and (iii) develop legislative, budgetary, and policy recommendations for the elimination of barriers to treatment of substance-exposed infants in the Commonwealth. The Secretary shall report his findings to the Governor and the General Assembly by December 1, 2017. The bill contains an emergency clause.

Requires the Board of Health to adopt regulations to include neonatal abstinence syndrome on the list of diseases that shall be required to be reported. This bill is identical to

Adds conservation officers retired from the Department of Conservation and Recreation to the list of retired persons eligible to carry a concealed handgun without a permit. This bill is identical to