The Agriculture, Environment, and Natural Resources (AENR) Policy
Committee oversees a wide range of issues including energy
policy. CSAC continues to support efforts to ensure that
California has an adequate supply of safe and reliable energy
through a combination of conservation, renewables, new generation
and new transmission efforts. CSAC also supports funding
mechanisms, including grants, loans and incentives to help
implement programs.
This year, there are several legislative proposals regulating the
energy space with potential impacts to counties. The AENR team is
currently soliciting feedback from counties on the following
bills:
AB 50 (Wood) Public utilities: timely service: timely electrical
interconnection
CSAC is supporting AB 50, which would establish interim timelines
for large electrical corporations to provide customer
energization following a written commitment to serve by the
utility. A failure to energize customers by the date provided on
a commitment to serve will entitle a customer to a utility bill
credit.
AB 914 (Friedman) Electrical infrastructure: California
Environmental Quality Act: exemptions: review time period
To address the increased demands of electrification, this bill
proposes to streamline the permitting process of upgrading
utility infrastructure. The measure proposes to establish a
two-year time limit, from the date the application is submitted,
for a lead state agency to complete California Environmental
Quality Act (CEQA) review and approve or deny an application for
an electrical infrastructure project.
This bill would require that when a county or city is adopting or
revising a general plan between January 1, 2025 and January 1,
2028, a climate action electrification element be included as
part of the general plan.
This would mean identifying strategies and enforceable
commitments, policies, and proposed ordinance changes to meet
California’s greenhouse gas reduction goals requiring increased
electrification of transportation and buildings; setting goals
for the implementation of passenger vehicle electric charging
stations; identifying areas where electric charging
infrastructure may be needed; among other criteria.
AB 1373 (Garcia) Energy
Creates a central procurement entity at the Department of Water
Resources and capacity payments for load-serving entities and
local publicly owned electric utilities that are deficient in
their reliability obligations.
