THE NET-ZERO BLOG
Climate policy analysis and updates from Sacramento
SB 254 Catastrophe Resiliency study emphasizes need for new wildfire mitigation financing strategies
California’s escalating wildfire crisis poses multiple serious risks to the state. Recognizing the need for new approaches, the Legislature and Governor authorized a Catastrophe Resiliency study to evaluate policy options to reduce damages to life and property, accelerate post-disaster recovery, and improve the allocation of wildfire-related costs in California. In this blog, we summarize the report’s main findings before highlighting near-term opportunities to implement priority recommendations.
California’s data centers should be models of affordable, clean electricity
California’s sky-high electricity rates risk making monthly bills unaffordable for families and the state less economically competitive and less of a global hub for technological innovation. Last year, policymakers made progress on reforms aimed at improving energy affordability. But the expansion of energy-intensive data centers to fuel the current boom in AI is challenging those gains.
How California can deliver another milestone year on climate despite a budget deficit
Despite strong progress in recent years, California still risks falling well short of its 2030 and 2045 climate goals. And now, as the state faces a projected $18 billion budget deficit, a key question relates to what climate action might look like in 2026. In this blog, we show there is no shortage of no- and low-cost policy reforms that could make for another milestone year of pragmatic climate action in California. We highlight nine opportunities focused on improving the efficiency of existing programs and processes as well as leveraging small amounts of funding to establish key standards that are essential to meeting the state's climate goals.
State leaders deliver transformational package of climate, energy affordability bills
After intense negotiations going right until the final moments of the legislative session, the Legislature and Governor successfully delivered a comprehensive package of reforms to drive down energy costs, stabilize markets, and accelerate clean energy deployment. In this article, we provide a high-level summary of the main policies in the package. We also highlight additional policies related to carbon management and forest and agricultural biomass that passed outside of this core set of bills.
Will California leaders deliver on their affordability promise?
Exactly 12-months ago, negotiations between the Legislature and Administration regarding a suite of new energy affordability policies broke down. Now, following dozens of introduced bills and committee hearings and a lot of talk about affordability, the question remains: will the Governor and Legislature deliver on their promise to address the state’s energy affordability crisis?
Public financing of transmission would not damage the financial health of California IOUs, new analysis shows
Energy affordability is a central issue before the Legislature. One strategy in particular - reducing costs to build a modern transmission system by changing how this infrastructure is financed - would reap significant savings. However, a key concern that has consistently been raised by investor-owned utilities is that any attempt to change how the grid is financed, would result in credit downgrades for the utilities, and ultimately higher costs to ratepayers. This blog summarizes a new research note from the Center for Public Enterprise which addresses this knowledge gap.