During the short interim between the regular session and the special session, the House and Senate held separate hearings to publicly present and provide comments on the final bill that was agreed upon by leadership and the committee members.

Senate Video: Energy Chair Sen Osmek & Sen Simonson Discuss End of Session Negotiations

House Video: Jobs and Energy Committee Members Discuss End of Session Negotiations

Four days after the regular session ended, a 21-hour one-day special session took place on Friday, May 24^th. During that all-day, all-night session, all ten of the budget omnibus bills were passed. The jobs and energy omnibus bill, known as Special Session House File #2, was pared down from a total of 332 pages to 154 pages overall and for energy provisions the bill went from 87 pages to 10 pages.

The small amount of policy provisions that made it into the final version of the bill were the creation of pilot projects for energy storage systems, the addition of “energy storage systems” in the renewable energy standard definition, the formation of an energy utility diversity stakeholder group and a legislative study for a cost benefit analysis of energy storage systems.

The Jobs and Energy Omnibus Bill passed 65-2 in the Senate and 89-39 in the House.  The Governor signed the bill into law a few days later on May 30^th.