With the 2025-26 legislative session underway, AECA has been engaged on some priority bills to help keep energy rates low. Check back for more information on bills AECA is currently actively engaged on and for letters further detailing AECA’s positions on these bills. 

AB 99 (Ta, R) Electrical corporations: rates.Summary: Current law authorizes the Public Utilities Commission to fix the rates and charges for every public utility and requires that those rates and charges be just and reasonable. This bill would prohibit an electrical corporation from proposing a rate increase above the rate of inflation, as defined, as a systemwide average for any general rate case cycle, except the bill would expressly authorize the commission to approve a rate increase above the rate of inflation if the commission determines that the costs underlying the rate increase are directly related to safety enhancements and modernization or to higher commodity or fuel costs. (Based on 03/28/2025 text)  AECA Position: SUPPORT   AB 286 (Gallagher, R) Electricity: mandatory rate reduction.Summary: Current law authorizes the Public Utilities Commission to fix the rates and charges for every public utility and requires that those rates and charges be just and reasonable. This bill would require the commission to generate a report outlining recommendations to decrease the kilowatt-per-hour rate for electricity charged to ratepayers by not less than 30% by January 1, 2027. The bill would require the commission, in making those reduction recommendations, to take certain actions, as specified. (Based on 04/21/2025 text)  AECA Position: SUPPORT   AB 1017 (Boerner, D) Energy: electrical and gas corporations: general rate cases.Summary: Current law requires the Public Utilities Commission, following the approval of a general rate case of an electrical corporation or gas corporation, to review which costs, if any, differed from the general rate case forecasts and to adjust the revenue requirements in the subsequent general rate case based on the actual past costs in the corporation records. This bill would require an electrical corporation or gas corporation, as a part of its general rate case, to provide to the commission certain information, including, among other things, the authorized and actual rate of return and return on equity for the past 10 years and projects related to the corporation’s distribution capacity that include the forecast submitted in the prior general rate case of the corporation. (Based on 04/03/2025 text)  AECA Position: SUPPORT   AB 1020 (Schiavo, D) Public utilities: energy: taxpayer funding: reporting.Summary: Current law requires electrical corporations and gas corporations to submit various information to the Public Utilities Commission, and requires the commission to annually report to the Legislature on, among other things, all sources and amounts of funding and actual and proposed expenditures, including any costs to ratepayers, related to entities or programs established by the commission, as specified. This bill would require each utility, defined as an investor-owned electrical corporation or gas corporation, to report certain information for any taxpayer funding, as defined, that the utility has applied for or received. The bill would require the commission, for each application in which a utility is seeking ratepayer funding, to require the utility to report all relevant taxpayer funding the utility is pursuing or has secured, and, if the commission determines that a utility is not in compliance with that requirement, the bill would authorize the commission to impose a penalty against the utility, as specified. The bill would require the commission to require each utility to promptly deliver the financial benefits of taxpayer funding to ratepayers, as provided. (Based on 04/21/2025 text)  AECA Position: SUPPORT   AB 1167 (Berman, D) Electrical corporations and gas corporations: rate recovery: political activities and promotional advertising.Summary: Under current law, a regulated public utility is prohibited from using ratepayer funds for advocacy-related activities that are political or do not otherwise benefit ratepayers. This bill would prohibit, except as provided, an electrical corporation or gas corporation from recording various expenses associated with political influence activities, as defined, or with promotional advertising, as defined, to accounts that contain expenses that the electrical corporation or gas corporation recovers from ratepayers. The bill would require electrical corporations and gas corporations to clearly and conspicuously disclose in all of its public messages whether the costs of the public messages are paid for by the corporation’s shareholders or ratepayers. The bill would require an electrical corporation or gas corporation, on or before April 30, 2026, and annually thereafter, to provide the commission with a report of expenses from the previous calendar year and would require that, for each business unit of the corporation that performs work associated with political influence activities or promotional advertising, the report contain specified information. The bill would require the commission to make the report publicly available and would authorize the commission to redact information that the commission deems to be confidential in the report. (Based on 04/21/2025 text)  AECA Position: SUPPORT   AB 1273 (Patterson, R) Public utilities: electricity rates.Summary: Current law requires all charges demanded or received by a public utility for a product or commodity furnished or to be furnished or a service rendered or to be rendered to be just and reasonable. Current law, except as provided, prohibits a public utility from changing a rate unless there is a showing before the Public Utilities Commission and a finding by the commission that the new rate is justified. This bill would prohibit the commission from placing the consideration of an electrical corporation general rate case proceeding on its consent calendar. The bill would, except as provided, require the commission to provide a public comment period for the application of not less than 30 minutes at the hearing to consider and vote on the electrical corporation general rate case proceeding. (Based on 04/07/2025 text)  AECA Position: SUPPORT   AB 1280 (Garcia, D) Energy.Summary: Would authorize the California Infrastructure and Economic Development Bank (I-Bank) to provide financial assistance in connection with the financing or refinancing of a new category of climate catalyst projects, those that enable the decarbonization of industrial facilities’ use of heat and power, including, but not limited to, industrial heat pump and thermal energy storage projects, as specified, with the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission and the State Air Resources Board as consulting agencies. The bill would specify conditions to be satisfied regarding these projects. (Based on 03/25/2025 text)  AECA Position: SUPPORT   SB 57 (Padilla, D) Electrical corporations: tariffs.Summary: Current law authorizes the Public Utilities Commission to fix the rates and charges for every public utility and requires that those rates and charges be just and reasonable. This bill, the Ratepayer and Technological Innovation Protection Act, would require the commission, on or before July 1, 2026, to establish or modify a special electrical corporation tariff for transmission and distribution service to eligible customers, as defined, that, among other things, ensures just and reasonable rates for customers of electrical corporations and does not result in cost shifts to customers who do not receive the tariff. The bill would authorize the commission to require an eligible customer to site distributed energy storage systems and backup power systems that better enable the state to meet its emission reduction goals. The bill would authorize the commission to establish minimum requirements for zero-carbon procurement on behalf of retail sellers for eligible customers receiving the tariff. (Based on 04/10/2025 text)  AECA Position: SUPPORT   SB 88 (Caballero, D) Air resources: carbon emissions: biomass.Summary: Current law requires the State Air Resources Board, in consultation with the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, to develop a standardized system for quantifying the direct carbon emissions and decay from fuel reduction activities for purposes of meeting the accounting requirements for Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund expenditures, as specified. This bill would require the state board, on or before January 1, 2027, to finalize the standardized system described above. The bill would require the state board, on or before January 1, 2028, to adopt a method of quantification of the life-cycle emissions from alternative uses of forest and agricultural biomass residues. The bill would require the state board, on or before January 1, 2028, to assess the suitability of developing a carbon credit or offset protocol for beneficial carbon removal products, including, but not limited to, biochar that are generated from agricultural biomass resources or forest biomass resources for inclusion in the state board’s compliance offset program. (Based on 04/21/2025 text)  AECA Position: SUPPORT   SB 254 (Becker, D) Electricity: wildfire mitigation: rate assistance: Policy-Oriented and Wildfire Electric Reimbursement (POWER) Program.Summary: Current law establishes the Wildfire Safety Division and requires the division to perform certain regulatory functions related to the wildfire mitigation plans of electrical corporations. Existing law transferred all functions of the Wildfire Safety Division to the Office of Energy Infrastructure Safety effective July 1, 2021. This bill would repeal the Wildfire Safety Division. (Based on 04/22/2025 text)  AECA Position: Support, in Concept   SB 330 (Padilla, D) Electrical transmission infrastructure: financing.Summary: Would authorize the Governor to establish one or more pilot projects to develop, finance, or operate electrical transmission infrastructure that meet the specified criteria, including, among other things, that the transmission line is identified by the Independent System Operator in its transmission planning process as a project subject to competitive bidding and necessary to support clean energy generation to meet the state’s clean energy goals. The bill would require the Governor to designate existing state agencies, local public agencies, tribal organizations, or joint powers authorities to implement the pilot projects. The bill would authorize the pilot projects to develop, finance, operate, and maintain electrical transmission lines and all works, facilities, improvements, and property, or portions thereof, necessary or convenient for the conveyance of electricity, as specified. The bill would authorize the Governor to issue guidelines regarding application and certification of pilot projects. (Based on 03/28/2025 text)  AECA Position: SUPPORT