California Governor Gavin Newsom signs climate, energy bills

From the article:

Newsom and fellow Democrats faced a bevy of challenges as they negotiated the climate package in the waning hours of the legislative year. Voters remain anxious about rising energy costs. Two refineries, Phillips 66 in Los Angeles and Valero in Benicia, announced plans to close, threatening a spike in gas prices. And wildfires made more intense by climate change have devastated California communities and driven up insurance and electricity costs.

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Under Assembly Bill 1207, companies will face more strict pollution limits each year until 2045 — that’s the “cap” in the renamed Cap-and-Invest program. State regulators will more closely monitor the financial help oil companies get to follow the program’s rules.

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But a separate bill, Senate Bill 237, eases regulations on oil drilling in Kern County and gives the governor new powers to loosen clean fuel standards if gas prices spike.

The compromise is an attempt to appease both environmental advocates and oil companies and address the upcoming refinery closures. The state’s demand for gas has consistently declined in recent years, peaking in 2017, according to California Energy Commission data. But supply of both crude and refined oil from California is dropping far faster, leaving a yawning gap that is concerning to state leaders.

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Senate Bill 254 adds $18 billion to the state’s Wildfire Fund, which utilities can tap into to stave off bankruptcy if their equipment has been found to spark a wildfire. With Southern California Edison facing potential exposure from the Eaton Fire, lawmakers leveraged the desire from utilities to replenish the fund to include reforms that aim to lower electricity rates.

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Senate Bill 254 will allow the state to issue bonds to finance the construction of transmission lines at a cheaper price than utilities. The legislation also gives regulators more tools to rein in the money power companies spend to prevent wildfires, a key driver of higher electricity rates.

The new cap-and-invest program will shift the biannual “climate credit” rebate that appears on customers’ bills to the hottest months of the year when Californians are using the most electricity. It will also boost the credit on electric bills by reducing it on gas bills — further incentivizing the energy transition at a household level.

“You’ve got these too-high electricity prices distorting consumer incentives,” Fowlie said. “So when I’m choosing between a heat pump and a natural gas furnace, electricity sure looks expensive. It would be really nice to bring the differences and those prices closer to the true differences in costs.”

The other bills not mentioned:

AB 825 is described here:

AB 825 amends California law to enable the California Independent System Operator (CAISO) to transition the governance of its markets to an independent regional organization envisioned by the multistate West-Wide Governance Pathways Initiative. This will level the playing field across all energy entities with centralized planning and dispatch of energy, ultimately giving ratepayers long-term access to affordable energy across the West. This is a significant step toward a full-service regional transmission organization (RTO), which will include centralized transmission planning, providing a unified approach to grid expansion and upgrades across a larger Western footprint.

SB 352 seems to be about more community air monitoring.