HOUSE DOCKET, NO. 3492        FILED ON: 1/14/2009

HOUSE  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  No. 3129

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts

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In the Year Two Thousand Nine

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Resolve [Title].

Resolved, that a special commission to consist of the house and senate chairs of the joint committee on telecommunications, utilities, and energy, who shall serve as co-chairs of the commission; 1 member to be appointed by the senate president; 1 member to be appointed by the speaker of the house of representatives; 1 member to be appointed by the senate minority leader; 1 member to be appointed by the house minority leader; the secretary of energy and environmental affairs or his designee; and 1 member to be appointed by the governor is hereby established for the purpose of making an investigation study relative to reducing the fuel costs of cities and towns.

The commission shall investigate and study the establishment of a statewide heating fuel collaborative, whose purpose will be to purchase heating fuel in bulk to sell to the local public school departments in the commonwealth, and to other municipal departments, at a lower cost than said school departments and municipal departments might be able to purchase it for individually.

The commission’s study shall include analysis of the potential reduction in fuel costs to the local public school departments, and to municipalities, and also to the commonwealth as a whole.

The commission shall consider the need for local school departments and to municipalities to purchase heating fuel and the potential savings that local school departments and municipalities might realize if the state is permitted to purchase fuel in bulk at a reduced cost and sell it to the cities and towns of the commonwealth.

The commission shall also make recommendations about procedures for the operation of such a collaborative, including a procedure and time line for the ordering and purchasing of fuel by the local school departments and cities and towns, for the storage and distribution of said fuel by the commonwealth and for the procurement of said fuel by the commonwealth.  The commission shall also evaluate any existing state statutes or regulations that might need to be amended for this collaborative to operate.

The commission shall report to the general court the results of its investigation and study, and its recommendations, if any, together with drafts of legislation necessary to carry such recommendations into effect by filing them with the clerk of the senate and the clerk of the house of  representatives on or before June 30, 2009.  The commission may issue preliminary or interim reports to the general court before that date.