This bill would expand revise the definition of “renewable electrical generation facility” to include a facility that uses fuel cells or linear generators that use specified fuels.
Legislative Tracker Database
Now that the 2024 legislative session has come to a close, the California Climate & Energy Collaborative (CCEC) and the Local Government Sustainable Energy Coalition (LGSEC) are pleased to announce the publication of its 2024 Legislative Update! This annual update covers all new legislation related to climate change and energy issues, in order to help practitioners stay up-to-date with a constantly changing legislative landscape. This fact sheet provides a brief overview of relevant new laws, with a high-level description of the contents of each bill, as well as a link to the full text on the legislature’s website. For anyone involved in the fields of climate change and renewable energy, this is one resource you won’t want to miss!
Additionally, below you will find the legislative tracker used throughout the year that shows the bills signed into law as well as the other bills that were tracked that did not get signed! Please note that descriptions are pulled directly from the bill text in the Legislative Counsel’s Digest without any analysis, and some descriptions only include a portion of the summary. If you are interested in a particular bill, we encourage you to follow the link in the bill number to read the full text.
To follow bills related to climate change adaptation please follow the ARCCA legislative tracker here.
Last updated: 12/17/2024
Electricity: surcharge exemption: industrial process heat recovery
This bill would specify that the enhancement or increased efficiency of equipment occurring in the normal course of business includes industrial process heat recovery technology that meets prescribed requirements. The bill would prohibit nonbypassable or departing load surcharges from applying to a reduction in kilowatt-hours kilowatthours of electricity that an electrical corporation customer consumes from the electrical grid in a metered interval due to industrial process heat recovery technology technology, up to a cap established by the commission, that meets those prescribed requirements. The bill would also require the commission to minimize the cost impacts to all nonparticipating customers by prohibiting the costs that are directly attributable to the nonbypassable or departing load charges of customers using industrial process heat recovery technology from being paid by residential or small commercial customers, as defined. technology, as provided.
Latest Activity:
09/27/24 - Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 700, Statutes of 2024.
Status: Active
| 100% Signed by Governor and chaptered into law
Electrical transmission facilities: certificates of public convenience and necessity
This bill would repeal the provision requiring the CPUC to consider cost-effective alternatives to transmission facilities, as specified, in an application for a certificate of public convenience and necessity for an electric transmission facility.
Latest Activity:
09/27/24 - Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 709, Statutes of 2024.
Status: Active
| 100% Signed by Governor and chaptered into law
Electric vehicle charging stations: permitting: curbside charging
This bill would require local agencies to, among other things, develop a checklist that includes all of the information required for a complete application for a permit or other authorization to install an electric vehicle charging station within the public right-of-way, as defined. As part of that process, this bill would require local agencies to consider the Electric Vehicle Charging Station Permitting Guidebook from the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development. The bill would require local agencies with populations of 250,000 or more to comply with these provisions by January 1, 2027, and local agencies with populations of fewer than 250,000 residents to comply with these provisions by January 1, 2029. The bill would define various terms for these purposes. By imposing additional duties on local agencies, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program.
Existing law requires the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission (Energy Commission) to develop and adopt an investment plan to determine priorities and opportunities for the Clean Transportation Program. As part of the development of the investment plan, existing law requires the Energy Commission, in consultation with the State Air Resources Board, to assess whether electric vehicle charging station infrastructure is disproportionately deployed by population density, geographical area, or population income level, including whether direct current fast charging stations are disproportionately distributed and whether access to these charging stations is disproportionately available, as specified.
This bill would require the Energy Commission to additionally assess curbside charging needs by income level, population density, multifamily housing density, renter density, and geographical area to support equitable overnight charging access and the state’s 2035 electric vehicle adoption goal. The bill would require the commission, as part of the assessment, to identify barriers and solutions to support the installation of curbside charging stations, as provided.
Latest Activity:
09/25/24 - Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 567, Statutes of 2024.
Status: Active
| 100% Signed by Governor and chaptered into law
Public Utilities Commission: written reports: energy
This bill would require that the report also contain recommendations that may take longer than 12 months to implement, but could lead to substantial reductions in monthly electricity and natural gas utility bills, and considerations of how the adoption of decarbonization policies, including electrification, may impact total energy costs borne by consumers, as provided.
Under existing law, a violation of the Public Utilities Act or any order, decision, rule, direction, demand, or requirement of the commission is a crime.
Latest Activity:
09/25/24 - Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 569, Statutes of 2024.
Status: Active
| 100% Signed by Governor and chaptered into law
California Alternate Rates for Energy program: public housing authority owned or administered Homekey housing facilities
This bill would require that the CARE program include public housing authority owned or administered Homekey housing facilities where the residents of the facility substantially meet the CARE program’s income eligibility requirements, as determined by the commission, and the account is in the name of Homekey or Homekey, a nonprofit funded by Homekey. Homekey, or the public housing authority that owns or administers the facility. The bill would require the commission to authorize electrical corporations and gas corporations to offer discounts to those facilities and to establish a feasible process for certifying that the assistance is used for the direct benefit of the residents of those facilities.
Latest Activity:
09/27/24 - Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 732, Statutes of 2024.
Status: Active
| 100% Signed by Governor and chaptered into law
Transportation electrification: electric vehicle charging infrastructure
AB 2697, as amended, Irwin. Transportation electrification: electric vehicle charging infrastructure. stations: network roaming standards.
This bill would require the commission to apply any network roaming standards it adopts only to major electric vehicle charging network operators, as defined. The bill would require that those network roaming standards require major electric vehicle charging network providers to accept payment for charging made by users from multiple other major electric vehicle charging network providers and automakers.
Latest Activity:
09/27/24 - Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 735, Statutes of 2024.
Status: Active
| 100% Signed by Governor and chaptered into law
Electricity: renewable energy resources
Existing law establishes the Independent System operator as a nonprofit, public benefit corporation to manage the transmission grid and related energy markets, as provided.
This bill would require the Independent System Operator, upon approval of each transmission plan, to report to the Public Utilities Commission and to the relevant policy committees of each house of the Legislature any new use of any grid enhancing technology that is deemed reasonable by the Independent System Operator in that plan and the cost or and efficiency savings of the deployment of that grid enhancing technology.
Latest Activity:
09/27/24 - Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 741, Statutes of 2024.
Status: Active
| 100% Signed by Governor and chaptered into law
Electricity: transmission capacity: reconductoring and grid enhancing technologies
This bill would require each transmission utilities, utility, as defined, on or before January 1, 2026, and every 2 years thereafter, to prepare a study of the feasibility of projects using grid-enhancing technologies to achieve, among other purposes, increased capacity to connect new renewable energy and zero-carbon resources, as provided. The bill would require each transmission utility, on or before January 1, 2026, and at least every 4 years thereafter, to prepare a study of which of its transmission lines can be reconductored with advanced conductors to achieve, among other purposes, increased capacity to connect new renewable energy and zero-carbon resources, as provided. The bill would, upon completion of those studies, require the each transmission utilities utility to submit the studies to the Independent System Operator, as specified, and would require the each transmission utility to request that the Independent System Operator review the results of the studies as part of the annual transmission planning process for economic, reliability, and policy goals. The bill would, upon submission to the Independent System Operator, require the transmission utilities to make their studies publicly available. The bill would specify that information in the studies that is determined by the Independent System Operator Operator, in consultation with the transmission utilities, to be necessary to protect the security of the electrical transmission system is to be withheld from public disclosure.
Latest Activity:
09/25/24 - Chaptered by Secretary of State. Chapter 597, Statutes of 2024.
Status: Active
| 100% Signed by Governor and chaptered into law
Mobilehomes: solar energy systems
This bill would make any covenant, restriction, or condition contained in any rental agreement or other instrument affecting the tenancy of a homeowner or resident in a mobilehome park, in a subdivision, cooperative, or condominium for mobilehomes, or in a resident-owned mobilehome park that effectively prohibits or restricts the installation or use of a solar energy system, as defined, on the mobilehome or the site, lot, or space on which the mobilehome is located void and unenforceable. The bill would make it unlawful for the management or the ownership to prohibit or restrict a homeowner or resident from installing or using a solar energy system on the home or the site, lot, or space on which the mobilehome is located or to take other specified actions in connection with the installation or use of a solar energy system, except as specified. The bill would exempt imposition of reasonable restrictions on solar energy systems, as defined. The bill would require a solar energy system to meet applicable health and safety standards and requirements imposed by state and local permitting authorities. The bill would make any entity that willfully violates these provisions in a subdivision, cooperative, or condominium for mobilehomes, or a resident-owned mobilehome park liable to the homeowner, resident, or other party for actual damages occasioned thereby, and for a civil penalty paid to the homeowner, resident, or other party in an amount not to exceed $1,000. $2,000.
Latest Activity:
07/18/24 - Chaptered by Secretary of State. Chapter 162, Statutes of 2024.
Status: Active
| 100% Signed by Governor and chaptered into law
Gas corporations: priority neighborhood decarbonization zones: pilot projects
This bill would authorize a gas corporation to cease providing service in an area within its service territory if the commission determines that adequate substitute energy service is reasonably available to support the energy end uses of affected gas corporation customers, as provided.
This bill would require each gas corporation, on or before July 1, 2025, and annually thereafter, to submit to the commission a map containing certain information, including the location of all potential gas distribution line replacement projects identified in its distribution integrity management plan and other foreseeable gas distribution pipeline replacements. The bill would require the commission, on or before January 1, 2026, to designate priority neighborhood decarbonization zones considering, among other things, the concentration of gas distribution line replacement projects identified in the maps. The bill would require the commission, on or before July 1, 2026, to establish a voluntary program to facilitate the cost-effective decarbonization of priority neighborhood decarbonization zones, as defined, not to exceed 30 pilot projects across the state and affecting no more than 1% of each gas corporation’s customers within its service territory, except as provided. The bill would prohibit the commission from establishing pilot projects on or after January 1, 2030. The bill would require the commission to establish various processes, criteria, methodology, and requirements in administering the pilot projects, including by establishing the criteria and methodology for determining the cost-effectiveness of zero-emission alternatives, as defined, and establishing the appropriate rate of return and recovery period that a gas corporation is eligible to receive for their costs to implement zero-emission alternatives. The bill would, if the commission approves a pilot project proposed by a gas corporation, authorize the commission to relieve the gas corporation of its obligation to provide service within the pilot project boundary, as specified. The bill would authorize a gas corporation to cease providing, and would require the commission to relieve the gas corporation of its obligation to provide, service in an area within the gas corporation’s service territory where a pilot project has been implemented if the commission determines that adequate substitute energy service is reasonably available to support the energy end uses of affected gas corporation customers, as provided. The bill would also require the commission to submit various reports to the relevant committees of the Legislature regarding the pilot projects, as provided. The bill would, except as provided, repeal the above-described provisions on January 1, 2031.
Latest Activity:
09/25/24 - Chaptered by Secretary of State. Chapter 602, Statutes of 2024.
Status: Active
| 100% Signed by Governor and chaptered into law
To help users visually see the status of each bill, CCEC launched a new progress status under each bill that simplifies the legislative process into 10 key steps. However, it should be noted that the percentages used in the visual tracker do not correspond with the actual amount of time it takes for bills to move through the legislative process.
| 10% | Introduction / First reading in the house of origin |
| 20% | Committee hearings |
| 30% | Second reading |
| 40% | Third reading |
| 50% | First reading in the other house |
| 60% | Committee hearings |
| 70% | Second reading |
| 80% | Third reading |
| 90% | Resolution of differences |
| 95% | Enrolled and presented to the Governor |
| 100% | Signed by Governor and chaptered into law |
Using the filter functions below, you may search for bills sponsored by specific authors, or set at a specific status.
Feel free to use any or all of these filters to find the most relevant bills!
Filtered results will include opportunities that meet at least one filter selected within a category, and will also show opportunities that meet 2+ filters across multiple categories.
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Electricity: certificate of public convenience and necessity: transmission lines
This bill would require the CPUC to issue a decision on an application for a certificate of public convenience and necessity within 18 months of the filing of a completed application for building or upgrading an electrical transmission line that is reasonably necessary to facilitate the achievement of the above-described state policy under those same circumstances.
Latest Activity:
01/29/24 - Referred to Com. on U. & E.
Status: Held
| 20% Committee hearings
Electricity: fixed charges
This bill would repeal the provisions described in the preceding paragraph. The bill prohibit modifications to the amount of the income-graduated fixed charge from exceeding changes in inflation, as provided. The bill would make the provisions authorizing the income-graduated fixed charge inoperative on July 1, 2028. The bill, commencing July 1, 2028, would instead permit the commission to authorize fixed charges that, as of January 1, 2015, do not exceed $5 per residential customer account per month for low-income customers enrolled in the California Alternate Rates for Energy (CARE) program and that do not exceed $10 per residential customer account per month for customers not enrolled in the CARE program. The bill would authorize these maximum allowable fixed charges to be adjusted by no more than the annual percentage increase in the Consumer Price Index for the prior calendar year, beginning January 1, 2016.
The bill would require the commission to adopt any modification to an existing fixed charge for the collection of a reasonable portion of the fixed costs of providing electrical service to residential customers in a stand-alone proceeding. The bill would prohibit a fixed charge from resulting in an increase to an electrical corporation’s revenue requirement. The bill would require the commission, on or before July 1, 2027, but no sooner than 2 years after the adoption of the income-graduated fixed charge, to submit a public report to the relevant policy committees of both houses of the Legislature on the electrical corporations’ implementation of the income-graduated fixed charge and other cost-saving options, as specified.
Latest Activity:
05/16/24 - In committee: Set, first hearing. Referred to suspense file.
Status: Held
| 20% Committee hearings
Reliable Energy Needs for Everyone in the West Program
This bill would require the commission, upon appropriation by the Legislature for the bill’s purpose, to establish and implement the Hard to Decarbonize Program Reliable Energy Needs for Everyone in the West Program to provide financial incentives for purchasing renewable propane, renewable hydrogen, or renewable dimethyl ether to customers in heating dominant climate zones in California where combustion fuels will continue to be the lowest cost and most effective means for providing space and water heating to buildings, as provided.
Latest Activity:
03/07/24 - Re-referred to Com. on U. and E.
Status: Held
| 20% Committee hearings
Electric vehicle charging stations assessment
This bill would require the Energy Commission, beginning January 1, 2025, to biennially conduct a study on electric vehicle charging stations, as provided. The bill would require the study to adhere to certain criteria, including, among other things, that the study include information on whether electric vehicle charging stations have a feature to call or prompt an attendant to assist the customer with the operation of the electric vehicle charging station equipment and whether electric vehicle charging stations have attendants present to provide assistance. The bill would require the commission to incorporate the information and recommendations required to be included in the study into the statewide assessment of the electric vehicle charging infrastructure described above and to concurrently provide a report of the study to the Legislature, as provided. an assessment, in consultation with applicable state and federal agencies, of the abidance of electric vehicle charging stations, as defined, with electric vehicle charging station-related accessibility requirements and related guidance from relevant state and federal agencies, as provided. The bill would require the biennial assessment to include a biennial report, and would require the Energy Commission to submit the report to the Legislature concurrently with the Energy Commission’s updates to the statewide assessment of the electric vehicle charging infrastructure. The bill would repeal these provisions on January 1, 2036.
Latest Activity:
05/16/24 - In committee: Held under submission.
Status: Held
| 20% Committee hearings
Energy: employment, gifts, and rates
(1) The California Constitution establishes the Public Utilities Commission (PUC), with jurisdiction over all public utilities, and provides for the composition and appointment of the PUC. Existing law prohibits an executive of a public utility from serving as a commissioner on the PUC within 2 years after leaving the employment of the utility.
This bill would prohibit a PUC commissioner from being employed by an entity subject to regulation by the PUC for a period of one year after the end of the commissioner’s term of office. The bill would prohibit a PUC commissioner from accepting a gift from an entity subject to regulation by the PUC.
(3)
(2) Existing law establishes within the PUC the independent Public Advocate’s Office of the Public Utilities Commission to represent and advocate on behalf of the interests of public utility customers and subscribers within the commission’s jurisdiction. Existing law requires the director of the Public Advocate’s Office to be appointed by, and serve at the pleasure of, the Governor, subject to confirmation by the Senate.
This bill would prohibit the director of the Public Advocate’s Office from being employed by an entity subject to regulation by the PUC for a period of one year after the end of the director’s term of office. The bill would prohibit the director from accepting a gift from an entity subject to regulation by the PUC.
(4)
(3) Existing law authorizes the PUC to fix the rates and charges for every public utility, and requires that those rates and charges be just and reasonable.
This bill would, in any instance where the PUC authorizes a forecast for a category of costs in a ratesetting proceeding and authorizes the recording of costs in an existing or new balancing account for potential rate recovery above the authorized forecast, authorize the PUC to further review any costs above the authorized forecast to be allocated between ratepayers and shareholders. forecast. The bill would require all proposed electrical corporation spending for wildfire expenses mitigation capital costs that is are eligible for rate recovery to include a cost-benefit analysis of the proposed expenses and at least one credible alternative, as specified.
(4) Existing law requires the PUC to annually provide the Legislature with an update on the status of its review of public utilities’ balancing accounts as part of a specified annual report or by posting it on its internet website, as provided.
This bill would require the PUC to include specified information as part of that annual update, including, among other things, the number of balancing accounts that have recorded costs above their forecast by public utility, the number of balancing accounts the PUC has reviewed in the past year, and the dollar amount, by public utility, of costs that have been approved and denied.
Latest Activity:
08/15/24 - In committee: Held under submission.
Status: Held
| 60% Committee hearings
Industrial facilities’ heat application equipment and process emissions
This bill would require the commission, on or before July 1, 2026, to evaluate opportunities to increase electrification of industrial heat processes to meet the state’s industrial emissions reduction goals, as provided. The bill would, as part of its the state board’s next update to the scoping plan occurring on of or after January 1, 2025, require the state board to assess the potential for the state to reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases from the state’s industrial facilities’ heat application equipment and processes, as specified. The bill would require the state board to incorporate the commissions’ evaluation required by the bill into the assessment and to identify potential emission reductions associated with the recommendations provided in the commission’s evaluation.
Latest Activity:
08/15/24 - In committee: Held under submission.
Status: Held
| 60% Committee hearings
Energy: small modular reactors: feasibility study
This bill would require the PUC, in collaboration with the Independent System Operator, PUC to conduct a feasibility study on the impact of permitting the building of use of small modular reactors, as defined, for energy generation in the state, including an evaluation including, among other things, an evaluation of the minimum feasible capacity and quantity of small modular reactors necessary to achieve reliability, ratepayer, employment, and decarbonization benefits. benefits of small modular reactors in comparison with other renewable resources used, or planned for use, in the state. The bill would require the PUC to submit a report on the results of the feasibility study to the Legislature on or before January 1, 2027.
Latest Activity:
05/16/24 - In committee: Held under submission.
Status: Held
| 20% Committee hearings
California Environmental Quality Act: expedited judicial review: infrastructure projects: hydrogen
This bill would authorize the Governor to certify energy infrastructure projects that use hydrogen as a fuel for streamlining benefits related to CEQA.
Latest Activity:
03/19/24 - In committee: Set, first hearing. Hearing canceled at the request of author.
Status: Held
| 20% Committee hearings
California Ports Development and Offshore Wind Infrastructure Bond Act of 2024
AB 2208, as amended, Zbur. Offshore wind energy projects: bond act. California Ports Development and Offshore Wind Infrastructure Bond Act of 2024.
Existing law requires the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission to evaluate and quantify the maximum feasible capacity of offshore wind generation to achieve reliability, ratepayer, employment, and decarbonization benefits and to develop a strategic plan for offshore wind energy developments installed off the California coast in federal waters, as specified.
Article XVI of the California Constitution requires measures authorizing general obligation bonds to specify the single object or work to be funded by the bonds and further requires a bond act to be approved by a 2/3 vote of each house of the Legislature and a majority of the voters.
This bill would enact the California Ports Development and Offshore Wind Infrastructure Bond Act of 2024, which, if approved by the voters, would authorize the issuance of bonds in the amount of $ 1,000,000,000, pursuant to the State General Obligation Bond Law to support activities related to the development of offshore wind energy generation, as provided.
This bill would provide for the submission of the bond act to the voters at the next statewide election.
Existing law requires the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission, in coordination with specified agencies, to develop a strategic plan for offshore wind energy developments installed off the California coast in federal waters, and requires the commission to submit the strategic plan to the Natural Resources Agency and the Legislature on or before June 30, 2023, as specified. Existing law requires the strategic plan to include, among other things, a plan to improve waterfront facilities that could support a range of floating offshore wind energy development activities, as provided.
This bill would declare the intent of the Legislature to enact legislation to submit to the voters an act authorizing the issuance of general obligation bonds in the amount of $1,000,000,000 for seaport infrastructure improvements to facilitate offshore wind energy projects off the California coast.
Latest Activity:
04/08/24 In committee: Set, first hearing. Hearing canceled at the request of author.
Status: Held
| 20% Committee hearings
Net energy metering
Existing law requires the commission to have developed a 2nd standard contract or tariff for each large electrical corporation, as defined, to provide net energy metering to additional eligible customer-generators in the electrical corporation’s service territory and imposes no limitation on the number of new eligible customer-generators entitled to receive service pursuant to this 2nd standard contract or tariff. Existing law requires the commission, in developing the 2nd standard contract or tariff, to ensure that customer-sited renewable distributed generation continues to grow sustainably and to include specific alternatives designed for growth among residential customers in disadvantaged communities. Existing law authorizes the commission to revise the 2nd standard contract or tariff as appropriate. Pursuant to that authorization, the commission has instituted rulemakings and issued decisions relating to the 2nd standard contract or tariff.
This bill would require the commission, as appropriate, to revise the above-described standard contract or tariff to, among other things: ensure that customer-sited renewable distributed generation continues to grow at a pace identified by the state as needed to meet the state’s climate goals, rather than sustainably; ensure that the standard contract or tariff is based on an independent assessment of the cost of service analysis and the total benefits of the renewable electrical generation facility, including quantifiable nonenergy benefits, as defined; and, ensure that the total benefits of the standard contract or tariff to all customers and the electrical system are approximately equal to or greater than the total costs. The bill would prohibit that cost consideration from compromising the state’s climate goals or quantifiable nonenergy benefits, as specified. The bill would require every large electrical corporation to make the standard contract or tariff, as revised, available to all new eligible customer-generators upon that revision.
This bill would require the commission to conduct an independent cost-of-service analysis evaluating the standard contract or tariff developed by the commission in a specified decision.
Latest Activity:
05/16/24 - In committee: Held under submission.
Status: Held
| 20% Committee hearings
Greenhouse gas emissions: state board: report
This bill would require CARB, by December 31, 2030, to evaluate and report its findings and recommendations to the Legislature on the feasibility and tradeoffs of achieving the policy goal of ensuring that by 2045 statewide anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions are reduced to at least 85% below the statewide greenhouse gas emissions limit, relative to alternative scenarios that achieve the policy goal of achieving net zero greenhouse gas emissions as soon as possible, but no later than 2045, and achieving and maintaining net negative greenhouse gas emissions thereafter.
Latest Activity:
02/26/24 - Referred to Com. on NAT. RES.
Status: Held
| 20% Committee hearings
Williamson Act contracts: cancellation: energy projects
This bill would authorize a landowner landowner, if their land is located in the Counties of Fresno, Kern, Kings, Madera, Merced, San Joaquin, Stanislaus, or Tulare, with a water basin in condition of critical overdraft, to petition the board or council to cancel a Williamson Act contract or a farmland security zone contract if the land meets specified criteria, including, among other things, not having permanent access to sufficient water to support commercially viable irrigated agricultural use on the land, and the landowner would be subject to a land use entitlement for specified energy projects. The bill would authorize a board or council to approve the cancellation if the board or council finds that the land does not have permanent access to sufficient water to support commercially viable irrigated agricultural use and the landowner would be subject to a land use entitlement for the specified energy projects that would use less water than the agricultural use on the land. The bill would require special energy projects to provide a community benefits package, as specified. The bill would prohibit the imposition of a cancellation fee. impose a cancellation fee equal to 6.25% of the fair market value of the property without the restriction of the Williamson Act contract for cancellation of a Williamson Act contract, and would impose a cancellation fee equal to 12.5% of the fair market value of the property without the restriction of the contract for cancellation of a farmland security zone contract. The bill would require the cancellation fees to be collected by the county treasurer, remitted to the Controller, and, upon appropriation by the Legislature, allocated to the Department of Conservation, and for community benefits packages within the county, as specified.
Latest Activity:
05/16/24 - In committee: Held under submission.
Status: Held
| 20% Committee hearings
Net energy metering
This bill would require all eligible customer-generators of large electrical corporations receiving service under the 2nd standard contract or tariff to be subject to a specified version of the tariff developed by the CPUC in a specified rulemaking. It would require the CPUC to develop a new standard contract or tariff providing for net energy metering for eligible customer-generators of large electrical corporations, and would require every other electric utility to revise its standard contract or tariff providing for net energy metering. The bill would also require every electric utility to make the standard contract or tariff available to all new eligible customer-generators beginning on January 1, 2027. Lastly, it would require the CPUC to design the standard contract or tariff for large electrical corporations to achieve an annual rate of installation of solar renewable electrical generation facilities that is sufficient to meet the state’s anticipated need for customer-side solar generation resources, as provided.
Latest Activity:
04/17/24 - In committee: Set, first hearing. Hearing canceled at the request of author.
Status: Held
| 20% Committee hearings
Electricity: fixed charges: repeal
This bill would repeal the provision allowing the CPUC to authorize fixed charges for any rate schedule applicable to a residential customer account for the purpose of collecting a reasonable portion of the fixed costs of providing electrical service to residential customers, as well as for the CARE program.
Latest Activity:
03/04/24 - Referred to Com. on U. and E.
Status: Held
| 20% Committee hearings
Energy: electrical demand forecasts
This bill would require the Energy Commission, on or before July December 1, 2026, and in consultation with the Public Utilities Commission, Independent System Operator, load-serving entities, and resource aggregators, to adopt a set of upfront technical requirements and load automation standards modification protocols, as defined, to provide the option for a load-serving entity to reduce or modify its electrical demand forecast upon aggregated system operation, as specified.
Latest Activity:
05/16/24 - In committee: Held under submission.
Status: Held
| 20% Committee hearings
Residential developments: building standards: review
This bill would require the department to no later than December 31, 2025, perform a review of construction cost pressures for certain residential construction as a result of new or existing building standards requirements in the code and provide a one-time report of its findings to the Legislature in the annual report described above. The bill, commencing with the next triennial edition of the code, and every 3 years thereafter, would require the department to perform additional reviews of construction cost pressures for single-family and multifamily residential construction, as described, and propose revisions or updates to the code, as needed, with a goal of maintaining or reducing by 30 percent the cost of construction for new residential development.
This bill would require the department to convene a working group no later than December 31, 2025, to research and consider identifying and recommending amendments to state building standards allowing residential developments to be built, as specified. The bill would require the department, no later than December 21, 31, 2026, to provide a one-time report of its findings to the Legislature in the annual report described above. The bill, if the report identifies and recommends amendments to building standards, would require the department to research, develop, and consider proposing such standards for adoption by the commission, as specified.
Latest Activity:
08/15/24 - In committee: Held under submission.
Status: Held
| 60% Committee hearings
Electrical corporations: definition
(1)Existing law vests the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) with regulatory authority over public utilities, including electrical corporations. Existing law defines “electrical corporation” for purposes of the Public Utilities Act to include every corporation or person owning, controlling, operating, or managing any electric plant for compensation within this state, except as provided.
This bill would revise and recast the definition of “electrical corporation” to, among other things, eliminate certain existing exceptions to the definition of “electrical corporation,” thereby expanding the scope of that term and the entities over which the PUC has regulatory authority. The bill would additionally exempt from that definition a corporation or person employing one or more distributed energy resources, as defined, that has the capacity to be coupled with one or more energy storage systems for the generation of electricity primarily for specified uses. The bill would also exempt from the definition of “electrical corporation” a microgrid, as defined, that primarily serves the included load of the microgrid, as provided. The bill would also make various conforming changes.
Existing law requires the Public Utilities Commission, in consultation with the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission (Energy Commission) and the Independent System Operator, to take specified actions by December 1, 2020, to facilitate the commercialization of microgrids for distribution customers of large electrical corporations, including, among other actions, by developing methods to reduce barriers for microgrid deployment without shifting costs between ratepayers.
This bill would require the Energy Commission to conduct a study on the benefits of microgrids for local governments and communities and would require the Energy Commission, on or before January 1, 2027, to submit a report on that study to the Legislature. The bill would repeal its provisions on January 1, 2031.
Latest Activity:
05/16/24 - In committee: Held under submission.
Status: Held
| 20% Committee hearings
Memorandum and balancing accounts: reports to the Legislature
This bill would require the commission to include, as part of its annual update to the Legislature on the status of its review of balancing accounts, the amount of funds in, and the expenditures from, the memorandum accounts and balancing accounts of each public utility. The bill would require the commission to conduct a comprehensive audit, with specified criteria, of each wildfire- or emergency-related memorandum account or balancing account of each electrical corporation on or before July 1, 2025, or, on or before January 1, 2027, if the commission is unable to review all those accounts by July 1, 2025, as provided. The bill would require the commission, if it determines that any actual costs recorded in those electrical corporation accounts have already been authorized and collected from customers, to deny the electrical corporation a 2nd recovery of those costs and to close the account after granting the electric corporation recovery of any just and reasonable costs that have not been collected from customers. costs. The bill would require the commission to make those determinations and take those actions in a manner that ensures that the rates are sufficient to enable the public utility to recover a just and reasonable rate of return.
Latest Activity:
08/15/24 - In committee: Held under submission.
Status: Held
| 60% Committee hearings
Electrical corporation: definition: exclusion of certain solar or wind generating technologies
This bill would revise the definition of “electrical corporation” to exclude a corporation or person employing certain solar or wind generating technology if electricity is transmitted exclusively and directly through private electrical lines to a single facility owned by a different corporation or person that uses the electricity only for new load, not for departing load, and for an electrolytic hydrogen production facility, as defined, or a facility using the electricity to provide industrial process heat, or both.
This bill would require private electric lines located on property other than the property on which a single electrolytic hydrogen production facility or industrial process heat facility or solar or wind generating technology is located to be subject to all applicable General Orders, as determined by the commission, except as provided, and would require corporations or persons employing private electric lines that are subject to those requirements to file wildfire mitigation plans if any part of the private electric lines are located in high fire threat districts, as specified.
This bill would require the commission, on or before July 1, 2026, in a new or existing proceeding, to evaluate and, if just and reasonable, establish a tariff for qualified self-generation projects with a generating capacity exceeding 80,000 kilowatts. The bill would require the commission to structure the tariff so that an electrical corporation serves as a contractual an intermediary between the electrical generation and energy storage facilities providing the electricity and the customer. qualified self-generation project. The bill would require the commission to structure rates for qualified self-generation projects to administer the purchase and resale of the electricity from the electrical generation and energy storage facilities solely at cost, as specified. The bill would also require a customer to meet various requirements to be considered a qualified self-generation project, including, among other requirements, that the customer uses electricity from specified sources and the electricity is transmitted exclusively and directly through private electric lines to the customer’s facility. The bill would require any cost associated with the tariff to be paid solely by participating customers such that nonparticipating customers bear no additional costs, and would require private electric lines located on property other than the property on which a single electrolytic hydrogen production facility or industrial process heat facility or solar or wind generating technology is located to be subject to all applicable General Orders, as determined by the commission, except as provided.
Latest Activity:
08/15/24 - August 15 hearing: Held in committee and under submission.
Status: Held
| 60% Committee hearings
Natural gas: customer credit.
This bill would require the Energy Commission, in consultation with the Department of Community Services and Development, to develop and supervise the Climate Pollution Reduction in Homes Initiative to require gas corporations to jointly award grants for local service providers, as defined, nonprofit organizations, and regional collections of local governments to provide financial assistance to low-income households for the purchase of zero-carbon-emitting appliances. The bill would require the Energy Commission, as part of developing and administering the initiative, to develop guidelines, as specified, and authorize local service providers, nonprofit organizations, and regional collections of local governments to use those grant moneys for outreach and technical assistance, rebates, loans, installation, educational information, and other support services to assist low-income households. The bill would repeal the above-described provisions on January 1, 2029. The bill would also require the Energy Commission, on March 1 of every year from 2026 to 2030, inclusive, to submit a report to the relevant policy committees of the Legislature on the implementation of the initiative, as specified.
This bill would require the PUC commission to direct the balance of the revenues received by a gas corporation as a result of that allocation to be credited directly to the residential customers of the gas corporation, except that, until January 1, 2029, the bill would authorize the PUC to require gas corporations to annually use up to 15% of the revenues received as a result of that allocation to fund the Climate Pollution Reduction in Homes Initiative, as specified.
Latest Activity:
08/15/24 - August 15 hearing: Held in committee and under submission.
Status: Held
| 60% Committee hearings
Planning and Zoning Law: electric vehicle charging stations
This bill would make non-substantive changes to provisions in the Planning and Zoning Law regarding zoning regulations that require every city, county, and city and county to administratively approve an application to install electric vehicle charging stations and, until January 1, 2030, hydrogen-fueling stations that meet certain requirements, through the issuance of a building permit or similar non-discretionary permit, as prescribed.
Latest Activity:
02/29/24 - Referred to Com. on RLS.
Status: Held
| 20% Committee hearings
GO-Biz: next generation batteries
This bill would, until January 1, 2030, authorize GO-Biz to undertake measures that are necessary or useful to prepare and submit an application to receive funding from next generation battery hub programs, as defined. The bill would require that grants made from any funding received from next generation battery hub programs under its provisions support projects in California, including, but not limited to, in the San Francisco Bay area and the Sacramento Valley, California that advance progress toward resource adequacy goals and the targets of the scoping plan and the California Renewables Portfolio Standard Program. The bill would also require that grants made from any funding received from next generation battery hub programs under its provisions prioritize projects that meet any of the specified conditions, including that the project help reduce costs and increase access to batteries. Prior to the submission of any applications to receive funding from next generation battery hub programs, the bill would require a partnership entered into pursuant to the above-described provisions to adopt a community benefits plan that includes specified elements. The bill would require GO-Biz to submit a report to the relevant budget and policy committees of the Legislature on or before March 1, 2030, January 1, 2026, and annually thereafter, regarding the status of any partnership entered into pursuant to the above-described provisions.
Latest Activity:
05/16/24 - May 16 hearing: Held in committee and under submission.
Status: Held
| 20% Committee hearings
Electricity: virtual power plant procurement
This bill would require each load-serving entity to procure from virtual power plants, defined as actively coordinated aggregations of behind-the-meter distributed energy resources that can perform certain functions, sufficient capacity to meet specified minimum capacity requirements by certain dates, as provided. The bill would require capacity procured from a virtual power plant by a load-serving entity pursuant to these provisions to be used to meet the resource adequacy requirements established for the load-serving entity. The bill would authorize the commission to postpone, in one-year increments, the deadlines for compliance with these requirements for a particular load-serving entity if the commission makes certain findings. The bill would require, on or before January 30, 2026, and each year thereafter, each load-serving entity to submit a report to the commission showing the load-serving entity’s progress toward complying with the virtual power plant capacity requirements.
This bill would require the PUC, in coordination with the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission and the Independent System Operator, to take specified actions in relation to virtual power plants, as defined. The bill would require the PUC, on or before March 1, 2026, to begin a proceeding to determine targets for each electrical corporation to procure generation from cost-effective virtual power plants, and would require the PUC, on or before October 1, 2026, to finalize its proceeding and issue a decision adopting virtual power plant procurement targets to be achieved by each electrical corporation on or before December 31, 2028, and on or before December 31, 2033. The bill would, upon the PUC adopting virtual power plant procurement targets, require each electrical corporation, beginning January 30, 2028, and each year thereafter, to file a report with the PUC on its progress toward complying with the virtual power plant procurement targets.
Latest Activity:
04/18/24 - April 22 hearing canceled at the request of author.
Status: Held
| 20% Committee hearings
Energy: reliability planning assessment: integrated energy policy report
This bill would require that the CEC and CPUC’s quarterly joint Reliability Planning Assessment include the status of utility transmission upgrades and electrical grid infrastructure capacity, CPUC approvals of applications for certificates of public convenience and necessity and permits to construct utility and independent projects, and applications for permits for projects from the CEC and the queue of projects from CAISO, include the expected completion dates for both system and local resources, and report on the use of fossil fuel by certain facilities constructed by, purchased by, or under contract with the Department of Water Resources, as specified. It would also require the CEC to quarterly publish on its internet website and update a tracking energy development dashboard that synthesizes and publishes the information included in the assessment and reported on California energy resources in the energy almanac. The bill would require the CEC to ensure that the demand forecasts in the integrated energy policy report and wind and solar energy generation profiles account for increased weather variability, interactive weather effects, and increased likelihood of heat events, including multi-day events, due to climate change, and to use the demand forecasts and those energy generation profiles to inform its energy planning, as specified.
Latest Activity:
05/16/24 - May 16 hearing: Held in committee and under submission.
Status: Held
| 20% Committee hearings
Williamson Act: cancellation: solar energy projects
This bill would authorize a county board of supervisors or city council to grant a petition for cancellation where the land subject to the contract is located in a basin under the jurisdiction of an adjudicated watermaster or the groundwater sustainability agency. It would require the landowner to commit to limiting the amount of water rights to a specific solar energy project, as defined, that uses less water than the agricultural use. It would also prohibit the imposition of a cancellation fee when a contract is canceled pursuant to the bill’s provisions. Lastly, it would exempt from CEQA the cancellation of a contract pursuant to the above-described authorization.
Latest Activity:
02/21/24 - Referred to Coms. on L. GOV. and E.Q.
Status: Held
| 20% Committee hearings
Clean energy development incentive rate tariff
This bill would require the CPUC, on or before July 1, 2026, in a new or existing proceeding, to evaluate and, if just and reasonable, establish a clean energy development incentive rate time-of-use tariff to encourage the development of new commercial or industrial electrical loads that contribute to the state’s efforts to reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases. It would require the tariff to offer lower rates for customers and to meet specified requirements, including, among other things, that the program only be open to new electrical customers that did not establish service before January 1, 2025, or to existing electrical customers that are expected to increase their total annual electrical demand by more than 50% after beginning service under the tariff. Finally, it would require that the tariff only be open to customers with certain uses, including producing hydrogen using an electrolysis of water and using electricity to provide industrial process heat.
Latest Activity:
05/16/24 - May 16 hearing: Held in committee and under submission.
Status: Held
| 20% Committee hearings
To help users visually see the status of each bill, CCEC launched a new progress status under each bill that simplifies the legislative process into 10 key steps. However, it should be noted that the percentages used in the visual tracker do not correspond with the actual amount of time it takes for bills to move through the legislative process.
| 10% | Introduction / First reading in the house of origin |
| 20% | Committee hearings |
| 30% | Second reading |
| 40% | Third reading |
| 50% | First reading in the other house |
| 60% | Committee hearings |
| 70% | Second reading |
| 80% | Third reading |
| 90% | Resolution of differences |
| 95% | Enrolled and presented to the Governor |
| 100% | Signed by Governor and chaptered into law |
Using the filter functions below, you may search for bills sponsored by specific authors, or set at a specific status.
Feel free to use any or all of these filters to find the most relevant bills!
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State building standards: solar-ready and photovoltaic and battery storage system requirements: exemption
This bill would exempt a building that is constructed in the service territory of a public utility district and that receives all of its electricity pursuant to a preference right adopted and authorized by the United States Congress, if that electricity is carbon free, from the building standards adopted by the CEC and the California Building Standards Commission that require new residential and commercial buildings to be solar ready. It would make legislative findings and declarations as to the necessity of a special statute for the Trinity Public Utilities District.
Latest Activity:
09/22/24 - Vetoed by Governor.
Status: Inactive
| 95% Enrolled and presented to the Governor
Energy: Voluntary Offshore Wind and Coastal Resources Protection Program: community capacity building grants
This bill would create the Offshore Wind Community Capacity Funding Grant Account in the fund, and would continuously appropriate the moneys in this account to the commission to fund capacity funding activities and award capacity funding grants, thereby making an appropriation, as specified. The bill would require California an offshore wind leaseholders holding a lease executed on or after July 1, 2022, entity, as defined, to provide financial assistance to fund those activities and grants for the 3-year period after the leaseholder offshore wind entity executes an offshore wind lease, as provided. The bill would make that financial assistance subject to the reporting requirement described above. The bill would authorize the commission to use up to 5% of the total amount deposited into the Offshore Wind Community Capacity Funding Grant Account, grant account, if needed, to administer that the grant account. The bill would require the commission to annually prepare and submit a report, on or before March 1 of each year, to the Legislature on the implementation and effectiveness of those activities and grants. The bill would require the commission to develop guidelines, as provided, for the use of those moneys, and would require the guidelines to be subject to review and revision every 3 years.
Latest Activity:
09/22/24 - Vetoed by Governor.
Status: Inactive
| 95% Enrolled and presented to the Governor
Solar on Multifamily Affordable Housing Program
This bill would provide that property that is owned by a tribe is not required to be deed restricted to be eligible for the program. program, but is required to meet the income requirements of the program, as specified. The bill would also require a property that is owned by a tribe that is not deed restricted to have received public financing to fund affordable housing, as provided.
Latest Activity:
09/22/24 - Vetoed by the Governor.
Status: Inactive
| 95% Enrolled and presented to the Governor
Electrical service: multifamily dwellings and local government buildings
This bill would add an exception from the requirement that every residential unit be individually metered for electrical service for a multifamily dwelling that includes a microgrid, site, as defined, that includes deployment of an electrical generation and energy storage facility and that meets specified requirements, including, among other things, that deployment of the electrical generation and energy storage facility is capable of providing backup electricity to the multifamily site using renewable energy resources, that the owner of the multifamily site does not increase rent in association with the costs of the deployment’s components or lease agreement, that each tenant’s electricity costs are less than what the tenant would have paid without the deployment of the microgrid, that the multifamily dwelling uses electricity generated from renewable energy resources, that all construction workers employed in the construction of the dwelling are paid at least the general prevailing rate of wages, as specified, and that the owner of the dwelling bills tenants using one of 3 specified methods. effective fully bundled rate would have been if billed by the relevant load-serving entity, and that the owner bills the nonresidential meters and residential tenants for electricity usage directly, as measured by private submeters installed by the owner for each individual unit at the site, as specified.
Latest Activity:
04/23/24 - Set for second hearing. Failed passage in committee. (Ayes 6. Noes 6.)
Status: Inactive
| 20% Committee hearings
Electricity: fixed charges: report
This bill would require the commission, on or before January 1, 2028, but no sooner than 2 years after the adoption of the income-graduated fixed charge for residential rates, to submit a report to the relevant policy committees of both houses of the Legislature on the electrical corporations’ implementation of the fixed charge, as specified. The bill would prohibit the commission from authorizing a new residential fixed charge other than those authorized before July 1, 2024, until 30 days after the report is submitted.
Latest Activity:
09/22/24 - Vetoed by the Governor.
Status: Inactive
| 95% Enrolled and presented to the Governor
Net Energy Metering
This bill would require, no later than July 1, 2025, the commission to ensure that any contract or tariff established by the commission pursuant to the above-described provisions for renewable electrical generation facilities configured to serve multiple customers with meters at one or more apartment buildings on a single property, or configured to serve multiple meters of a single customer on a public school property, or a set of contiguous public school properties owned, leased, or rented by the public school customer, meets certain requirements, as specified. The bill would require the commission, no later than July 1, 2026, to ensure that any contract or tariff established by the commission pursuant to a specified commission decision meets specified requirements, as provided. The bill would make these provisions inoperative on July 1, 2033, or 7 years after the last effective date of any adjustments the commission makes to certain tariffs, whichever is later, as specified. 2033.
Latest Activity:
09/27/24 - Vetoed by the Governor.
Status: Inactive
| 95% Enrolled and presented to the Governor
Electrical and gas corporations: rate recovery: political activities and advertising
This bill would prohibit, except as provided, an electrical or gas corporation from recording various expenses associated with political influence activities, as defined, or with advertising, as defined, to accounts that contain expenses that the electrical or gas corporation recovers from ratepayers. The bill would require an electrical or gas corporation to provide the commission with all information deemed necessary to monitor compliance with that prohibition. The bill also would require an electrical or gas corporation, for each business unit of the corporation that performs work associated with political influence activities or advertising, to annually file with the commission a report containing specified information. The bill would require the commission to make the report publicly available.
Latest Activity:
04/23/24 - Set for second hearing. Failed passage in committee. (Ayes 9. Noes 3. Page 3700.)
Status: Inactive
| 20% Committee hearings
Energy: gasoline stations and alternative fuel infrastructure
This bill would require the commission, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to form the Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Taskforce to conduct a study on retail gasoline fueling stations and alternative fuels infrastructure, as provided. The bill would require the taskforce, on or before January 1, 2027, to submit to the Legislature a report on the study with information and recommendations.
Latest Activity:
09/22/24 - Vetoed by the Governor.
Status: Inactive
| 95% Enrolled and presented to the Governor
To help users visually see the status of each bill, CCEC launched a new progress status under each bill that simplifies the legislative process into 10 key steps. However, it should be noted that the percentages used in the visual tracker do not correspond with the actual amount of time it takes for bills to move through the legislative process.
| 10% | Introduction / First reading in the house of origin |
| 20% | Committee hearings |
| 30% | Second reading |
| 40% | Third reading |
| 50% | First reading in the other house |
| 60% | Committee hearings |
| 70% | Second reading |
| 80% | Third reading |
| 90% | Resolution of differences |
| 95% | Enrolled and presented to the Governor |
| 100% | Signed by Governor and chaptered into law |
Using the filter functions below, you may search for bills sponsored by specific authors, or set at a specific status.
Feel free to use any or all of these filters to find the most relevant bills!
Filtered results will include opportunities that meet at least one filter selected within a category, and will also show opportunities that meet 2+ filters across multiple categories.