This year’s state legislative session was unusual in many respects, with some notable bright spots amidst the gloom of new leadership instituting more opaque backroom deals and the continuing specter of federal governing malpractice.
Some 800 bills made it to the Governor’s desk, to be decided upon by October 12. While that may seem like a lot, it is actually less than average: most years average 1,100 and only the COVID years of ‘20-’21 saw less. The new rule limiting legislators to 35 bills may have something to do with it.
Two bills, SB 840 (Limón) and AB 1207 (Irwin), combined to transform the soon-to-expire Cap and Trade Program to Cap and Invest. Offsets are limited, emission reductions are increased and dedicated long term funding continues to 2045.
Senate Energy Committee Chair Josh Becker succeeded in pushing through significant reforms with his SB 254 (grid transmission financing and wildfire mitigation) and 540/825 (western grid market expansion). Taken together, these technical bills promise billions of dollars in annual long-term savings through lower electricity costs.
Unfortunately, Gov. Newsom failed to complete the cost-savings trifecta by vetoing SB 541 (peak grid load shifting), citing redundancy, disruption and additional cost. We disagree. California has been a notable laggard in this area, operating without a unified, coherent vision and choosing “death by a thousand pilot projects” over decisive implementation. For similar reasons, the Governor also vetoed AB 740, Assemblymember Harabedian’s virtual power plant bill seeking to institute VPP load shifting into the CEC’s integrated energy policy report.
In more disappointing news, the Governor vetoed Assemblymember Wilson’s AB 524 (farmland access and conservation) which looked to provide financial and technical assistance to support small farm agricultural land acquisition and protection.
Other legislation of note recently signed: Assemblymember Ward’s AB 368 (passive house standards) and AB 1423 by Assemblymember Jacqui Irwin (electric vehicle charging stations payment methods).
As of this writing, we await word from Gov. Newsom on many bills of import. Assemblymember Marc Berman’s AB 1167 (utility lobbying funds), Senate Transit Chair Dave Cortese’s SB 30 (diesel locomotive decommissioning), Senator Scott Wiener’s high-profile SB 63 (Bay Area transit funding) and SB 79 (transit oriented housing), Senator McNerney’s SB 279 (compost operations), Assemblymembers Kalra and Connolly’s AB 806 (mobile home cooling) are among a few deserving bills sitting in the pile.
