What Went Down This Legislative Year: A Public Advocates Office Snapshot
October 14th marked the end of the 2023 Legislative Year. This was the first part of a two-year cycle.
Governor Newsom signed over 900 bills left on his desk – many of which proposed ways to meet the needs and challenges of utility customers while advancing the state’s climate and clean energy goals.
The Public Advocates Office’s role in this process was to provide legislators with fact-based information, cost-effective solutions, and alternative pathways to consider. That way they can make well-informed decisions on energy, water, and communications matters with an eye toward cost-effectiveness.
Ultimately, several bills were enacted that will provide California with more tools and resources to tackle climate change, prioritize utility service reliability, and improve the lives of Californians.
Here’s a snapshot on what happened when the dust settled:
In the area of energy, California built on its progress where it previously allocated about $50 billion to climate and clean energy programs and has shifted its focus toward process changes to expedite the state’s clean energy transition.
Removing delays in permitting, zoning, and siting, and creating new tools to achieve our clean energy future were all top priorities. Accordingly, Governor Newsom enacted bills in the following areas:
Energization – These bills are intended to remove delays in providing electric service to new homes or existing homes wanting to hook up new electric vehicles:
- AB 50 (Wood) – Establishes energization time goals and reporting requirements for electric utilities.
- SB 410 (Becker) – Allows utilities to track and recover costs from ratepayers for unforeseen energization-related work over forecasted levels until January 1, 2027.
Customer solar and storage programs – These bills focus on assisting low-income households, disadvantaged communities and tribal lands by modifying several California Public Utilities Commission’s solar and storage programs:
- AB 102/SB 123 (Budget Committee) – Provides (i) the Self Generation Incentive Program (SGIP) with $280 million for low-income customers to install paired solar and storage systems, or standalone storage systems and (ii) $33 million to support community solar and storage in disadvantaged communities.
- SB 355 (Eggman) – Extends the Solar on Multifamily Affordable Homes (SOMAH), to improve solar uptake on low-income apartment buildings and broaden the types of eligible properties that could participate.
Building new resources and ensuring reliability – These bills focus on efforts to build and deploy more solar, wind and battery storage:
- AB 1373 (Garcia) – Authorizes the Department of Water Resources to directly contract with new clean energy resources (as a “central procurement entity”) for eligible resources including geothermal and offshore wind projects.
- SB 123 (Budget Committee) – Extends the ability of the Department of Water Resources to reimburse utilities for above-market imports that supported California’s grid reliability this summer.
Transmission permitting – These bills aim to accelerate permitting and overall development timelines:
- SB 319 (McGuire) – Improves state coordination and reporting on transmission planning and other topics.
- AB 1373 (Garcia) – Directs the CPUC to assume a transmission project is needed in its permitting process if CAISO finds they are necessary in its own review, aka “CAISO rebuttable presumption”.
In the area of communications, California also built on its previous progress from allocating $6 billion to improve broadband access for unserved and underserved communities to making the following tough decisions – see veto messages below for more information.
- AB 41 (Holden) – Would have made various changes to California's cable video franchise regulation laws – Vetoed
- AB 662 (Boerner) – Would have established requirements for the CPUC to disseminate federal broadband funds – Did not pass Legislature
- AB 1065 (Patterson) – Would have allowed eligible wireless internet service providers to receive certain broadband infrastructure grants from the CPUC – Vetoed
There is no denying that we continue to move the needle towards achieving our clean energy future and bridging the digital divide. But our teamwork is far from done. Luckily, part two of this legislative cycle is right around the block.