Summary of Original Version

Amend KRS 164.2807 to provide for the administrative attachment of the Energy Planning and Inventory Commission (EPIC) to the University of Kentucky Center for Applied Energy Research, and the independent functions of EPIC; require EPIC to maintain separate accounts for all funds appropriated to it; provide the executive director of EPIC with the sole authority to hire staff and retain contractors; allow the commission in its sole discretion to set compensation for its professional employees; allow the commission to conduct its own procurements and perform its own bidding and negotiations under KRS Chapter 45A; limit the membership of the EPIC board to no more than 2 members who reside outside of the Commonwealth; amend the membership of the EPIC executive committee to consist of the EPIC commission board chair, the vice chair, 2 appointees made by the Attorney General, and 1 appointee elected by the membership of the board; require, instead of allow, EPIC to employ an executive director; allow the executive director to have the full authority to act on behalf of EPIC in all matters, with the advice of the commission; specify the termination and compensation adjustment procedures for the executive director; provide that all information, records, and data submitted by utilities and produced by EPIC members and staff shall be confidential and exempt from disclosure under KRS 61.870 to 61.884; establish the Energy Planning and Inventory Commission fund and specify the purposes of the fund; make conforming changes; require the Attorney General to make appointments to the EPIC executive committee on or before August 1, 2026, and terminate the terms of the current appointees for those positions on the effective date of the Act; EMERGENCY.

Summary of Amendment: Senate Committee Substitute 1

Summary Retain original provisions; authorize the executive director of the Energy Planning and Inventory Commission (EPIC) to attend all EPIC executive committee and commission meetings and to be privy to all information, records, and data considered at those meetings; limit annual compensation increases for the executive director to 10%; require state agencies to cooperate with EPIC and to submit requested data, records, reports, and other information within 30 days of the request, unless the executive director otherwise grants an extension; require the executive committee to share all information considered in a utility's proposal to retire any existing fossil fuel-fired electricity generating plant with the executive director; allow the executive director to submit his or her own written report, statement of position, or dissenting findings to the Public Service Commission within 180 days of EPIC receiving a proposal from a utility to retire an existing fossil fuel-fired electricity generating plant; allow the executive director to have standing either jointly or separately with the executive committee to intervene in any case before the Public Service Commission; change multiple references to the EPIC commission back to the EPIC executive committee and the executive director.

Summary of Amendment: House Committee Substitute 1

Summary Retain original provisions, except delete the requirement that noncontractual employees of the Energy Planning and Inventory Commission (commission) are subject to the benefits and requirements of KRS Chapter 18A; provide that the executive director of the commission shall seek commission approval for the annual budget and annual work plan; specify that any information, records, data, files, documents, or correspondence submitted by a utility to the commission that the utility has designated as confidential business information shall be exempt from disclosure under KRS 61.870 to 61.884.

Summary of Amendment: Conference Committee Report 1 -- C. Aull

Summary Do not agree.

Summary of Amendment: Free Conference Committee Report 1 -- C. Aull

Summary Retain provisions of SB 100/HCS; direct the Energy Planning and Inventory Commission to conduct a comprehensive assessment of coal resource viability and energy affordability in eastern Kentucky; direct that EPIC report to the Legislative Research Commission by December 1, 2026; EMERGENCY.

Statutes affected:
Introduced: 164.2807
Senate Committee Substitute 1: 164.2807
House Committee Substitute 1: 164.2807
Current: 164.2807