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.
The troubled state of wildfire prevention in California
California is rapidly running out of time to address its wildfire crisis in wildlands and urban communities. The crux of the problem is that California remains locked into a largely reactive wildfire spending paradigm – one that prioritizes fighting fires, managing liability, and paying for losses after they occur, rather than investing in prevention to reduce risk upfront. In this blog, we summarize the current status of wildfire spending in California before identifying reforms that could generate new funding to increase the pace and scale of wildfire prevention.
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?