Energy Bills in California 2025-2026
So many bills, so little time
This post has a selection of energy bills in the 2025-2026 legislature.
Main Topics
I grouped the bills into several topics:
Below I expand on these topics.
Overall Status
As a reminder, this is the flow of a bill (also see this cheatsheet).
To influence the legislature, reach out to your representative.
Key Bills
Regional Day Ahead Electrical Market
SB-540 (Becker) enables the creation of a regional Extended Day Ahead Electrical Market (EDAM) following the Pathways Initiative. I wrote a long post on this topic explaining why I am in favor of this bill.
Status: hearing in the Senate EUC scheduled for April 21st,
Related Bills
NEM Tariffs will Sunset in 10 years
AB-942 (Calderon) would change the duration of the NEM 2.0 tariff from 20 years to 10 years, or to the sale of the property. The rationale behind the change is that NEM 2.0 compensation is too high and it is impacting customers that do not have residential solar.
I oppose this bill on several grounds. One, the contract says 20 years (see sheet 31 in tariff book). Two, the reason why NEM 2.0 compensation is high is because the rates are high, not the other way around. Three, this will not really address the real cause for our high retail rates, which is mostly the very high Transmission and Distribution fees that the IOUs are charging. And, finally, this bill does nothing to encourage current NEM 2.0 customers to share their rooftop wealth. We can do much better than this bill.
Status: first reading and amended.
Related Bills
Additional bills also build on Governor Newsom’s executive order from October 2024:
SB-810 (Dahle) mandates the CEC and the CPUC to submit, by July 1, 2025, a report containing information on how to reduce electric retail rates.
Status: no hearing yetAB-1295 (Patterson) requires public utilities to provide to their customers information on costs attributable to state requirements or programs.
Status: no hearing yetAB-286 (Gallagher) started as a mandatory rate reduction bill but has mutated into a bill like the ones above.
Status: second reading in the AEU
Licensed HVAC and HPWH Contractors can Self-Certify Installations
SB-282 (Wiener) requires the CEC to establish a statewide certification and training program for licensed contractors of residential HPWH and HP HVAC and it authorizes a licensed contractor to self-certify that installation.
Status: passed SEUC 13/0/0 (bill analysis); next is SLCL.
Moratorium on Changes to Residential Buildings Standards
The LA Palisades fires exacerbated the chronic housing deficit in California and are encouraging different ways to improve housing affordability. AB-306 (Schultz & Rivas) would impose a moratorium on the adoption or modification of new state and local building standards affecting residential units for six years. The bill would stop Title 24 changes by the CEC and would also disallow local REACH codes.
Status: The bill has elicited opposition from multiple fronts but it passed easily in AHCD (bill analysis), APPR, and the Assembly floor (71/0/9). The bill is now being considered by the Senate where I expect it will also pass, perhaps with amendments.
Related Bills
AB-368 (Ward) would allow the use of Passivhouse as a building standard. I am not sure if AB-306 conflicts with AB-368.
Status: passed AUE 18/0/0; next is ANR.
Load Shifting, DERs and more
There are several bills that address Load Shifting, DERs and VPP.
SB-541 (Becker) (Fact Sheet) will require retail suppliers of electricity to look for cost-effective ways to reduce electricity demand during the highest peak periods of the year.
Status: hearing in SEUC scheduled for April 21st.
AB-44 (Schultz) tells the CEC to define and publicize methodologies for load modification protocols to be used by a load-serving entities to reduce or modify their electrical demand forecast.
Status: first reading in AEU, no hearing scheduled yet.AB-1260 (Ward) describes a new renewable energy subscription program that includes solar and storage. I need to dig into the details but it looks promising.
Status: second reading in AEU, no hearing scheduled yet
Affordability of Electric Rates
There are several bills focused on the energy affordability problem caused by our high electrical rates (EnergyBot):
AB-1273 (Patterson) would prohibit the CPUC from placing General Rate Cases on its consent calendar. Items in the consent calendar are passed on a vote as a whole without any discussion and many of our rate increases happen that way.
Status: passed AEU 18/0/0 (bill analysis); next is APPR
Also
SB-254 (Becker) mandates reports on efforts to enroll customers on FERA, the Family Electric Rate Assistance program.
Status: second reading in SEUCAB-1342 (Soria) changes the months where climate credits apply to maximize their benefit to households.
Status: second reading in AEUSB-618 (Reyes) requires a reimbursement credit when there are deenergizing events
Status: second reading in SEUC
Improved Oversight by CPUC
The legislature has several bills specifically intended to strengthen the ability of the CPUC to regulate IOUs with an emphasis on two areas: Transmission and Distribution (T&D) and Wildfire mitigation.
SB-620 (Stern) requires the CPUC to prioritize the gathering, analysis, and independent verification of utility data used to justify general rate case proposals.
Status: not yet heard.AB-745 (Irwin) Over 64% of the $4,400 Billion expended in T&D between 2020 and 2022 were self-approved and were not formally reviewed for cost or need. AB-745 requires the commission to review and approve or deny these projects.
Status: not yet heard.SB-330 (Padilla) authorizes the Governor to establish pilot projects to reduce the cost to develop, finance, or operate electrical transmission infrastructure using different tools including competitive bidding.
Status: second reading in SEUC
More Bills
Bills Related to Data Centers
AB-222 (Bauer-Kahan) Energy usage reporting of model training.
Status: passed EUC 13/5/0. The bill analysis is educational; GPT-4 required over 50 GWh to trainAB-388 (Rogers) New Tariff for Self Generation with a focus on Data Centers and high load industries
Status: first reading in AEU
Bills Related to how the CPUC Operate
Two bills are addressing parts of the CPUC structure (Article XII of our Constitution) and interactions with the legislature.
AB-13 (Ransom) requires 4 of the CPUC members to represent California BOE districts, plus one at large.
Status: passed AUE 18/0/0 (bill analysis)ACA-9 (Boerner) requires consent by both Senate and Assembly of CPUC appointees. It also requires the commission to consider the affordability of rates when fixing rates.
Status: no movement so far.
Aside- my personal preference would be to borrow the process used in the CEC.
Bills Related to BESS Fire
There are several bills related to the Moss Landing fire in January 2025.
AB-434 (DeMaio) and AB-303 (Addis) are related to battery energy storage facilities.
Status: AB-434 seems to be moving ahead.SB-283 (Laird) is also related to battery energy storage facilities
Status: hearing in SEUC scheduled for April 21st.AB-841 (Patel) and AB-1285 (Ransom) require the State Fire Marshal to develop recommendations for fire protection and storage of BESS facilities.
Status: both bills passed their AEM hearings.
Even More Energy Bills
SB-567 (Limon) A pilot program to explore converting oil and gas wells for use as gravity-based energy storage wells.
Status: passed SNRW 7/0/0 (bill analysis). Next is SEQAB-1372 (Papan) Caltrain’s new electrical trains feed electricity into the grid when braking. This bill sets the billing and metering machinery to get compensation from that.
Status: second reading in SUESB-698 (McNerney) would re-codify and expand the Solar Equipment List Program under the CEC
Status: passed SEUC (bill analysis), next is APPR.AB-1347 (Carillo) would require the CPUC to authorize an electrical corporation that serves a customer within one of six pilot electrical infrastructure modernization zone to expedite cost recovery and to manage microgrids.
Status: not sure; it’s being re-referred to different committees.AB-1167 (Berman) IOUs cannot expense political contributions and ads on ratepayers costs.
Status: second reading in AEUSB-332 (Wahab) seems to be an open investigation on the fundamentals of an IOU-based electrical system.
Status: hearing in SEUC scheduled for April 21st.
Bills Directly Related to Climate Crisis
SB-684 (Stern) Polluters Pay Climate Superfund
Status: passed SEQ (5/3/0). No hearing currently scheduled.
Thank you for this comprehensive summary Eduardo. However, I do not share your supportive views regarding solar power, Previously, I was a solar advocate. California has the greatest amount of solar. Per CAISO, as of January 10, 2025, California had 20,725 MW. Solar power is not dispatchable. The solar generation peak is about six hours away from the load peak. Storage is not cost-effective. To store California's electricity requirement for a mere 24 hours would cost twice the TOTAL state budget - and there would be a constant replacement cycle since the batteries last only 10-15 years. And, as Moss Landing established, batteries have a nasty habit of bursting into flame. From a power engineering perspective, solar, wind, and batteries fail to provide significant amounts of synchronous grid inertia. For details see "Why is Grid Inertia Important?" https://greennuke.substack.com/p/why-is-grid-inertia-important
Sadly, California's irrational electricity policies are a great example of the effectiveness of lobbying expenditures. In a quote attributed to Mark Twain, "We have the best government that money can buy."
California has an analog to the National Academy of Sciences which has been given a charter to advise the state government regarding science and technology issues. This nonprofit is named the California Council on Science and Technology (CCST). In 2011, the California Energy Commission tasked their eminent scientists and engineers to recommend the most cost-effective way to remove air and water pollution from the generation of California's electricity. The answer was to build about 30 new Diablo Canyon Power Plants throughout the state. https://tinyurl.com/CCST-Nuclear-1 That rational solution did not align with the desires of various deep-pocketed special interests, so the 2011 CCST reports were ignored.