Known as the Polluters Pay Climate Superfund bills, SB 684 (Menjivar) and AB (Addis) 1243, will direct CalEPA to complete a climate cost study to quantify total damages – including health damages and costs - to the state caused by past fossil fuel emissions and then CalEPA will identify responsible parties and assess compensatory fees on the largest fossil fuel polluters proportional to their fossil fuel emissions from 1990 through 2024, to address damages quantified in the cost study. 

Fees collected will fund projects and programs to mitigate, remedy, or prevent climate change costs and harms. The aim of the bill is to dedicate at least 40% of the funds to benefit communities hit hardest by fossil fuel pollution and prioritize strong labor and job standards. It will provide much needed resources to the state for programs and projects we need to protect Californians, including investments in a clean energy transition, community resilience, and climate disaster response.

AB 740 (Harabedian) will accelerate the use of virtual power plants (VPPs), which are networks of clean, distributed energy resources like smart thermostats, home batteries, smart plugs, electric water heaters, and electric vehicles. When aggregated, these resources can deliver energy during peak demand hours, creating savings for the VPP participants and for all electricity customers by avoiding reliance on the strained electrical grid. 

AB 740 would require the California Energy Commission to include virtual power plants in its modeling of energy supplies and adopt a strategy to enable virtual power plants to be deployed at scale.

A recent Brattle Group study found that VPPs could save Californians $550 million per year, $50 million of which would flow directly to ratepayers. VPPs can help reduce costs for all ratepayers by reducing the need to build poles and wires to accommodate growing electricity demand.

The Investor-Owned Utility Accountability Act, Sb 3332 (Wahab) is a multi-prong approach that will:

Cap IOU rate increases for residential customers to no more than the Consumer Price Index

Prohibit the shut-off of utilities for specified vulnerable ratepayers to ensure their health and safety needs are met

Reduce ratepayer contributions to the Wildfire Fund, and increase IOUs responsibility for the fund

Require annual audits of equipment and the replacement of equipment that’s outlived its usable life  in high fire risk areas

Require proposed executive compensation be contingent on safety metrics

Require undergrounding for replacement equipment

Fund resilience hubs and community infrastructure to meet power needs during emergencies

Fund a feasibility study to determine what form of utility best serves ratepayers