Orange County Register
As Assemblymember Cottie Petrie-Norris puts it: Now is a pivotal moment for California’s ambitious clean electricity and carbon neutrality goals.
And to her, that means the Legislature needs to focus on an increase in transparency and accountability in the California Public Utilities Commission’s ratemaking process, as well as an acceleration in clean energy development and grid upgrades.
The Irvine Democrat is behind three bills now up for consideration in the state Senate that she said will do just that.
One, passed by the Senate Energy, Utilities and Communications Committee last week, would require the CPUC — appointed by the governor, the commissioners on this body regulate privately owned electric, natural gas, railroad, telecommunications and water companies — to disclose the financial models used when determining return on equity for utility shareholders. Referred to more simply as ROEs, it’s the amount of profit utilities can earn on shareholder-funded infrastructure.
Assembly Bill 2463, which has received bipartisan unanimous support from legislators, would require the CPUC to relay what data sources were used in the financial models used to determine an ROE, as well as any qualitative adjustments made by the commission, the basis for those adjustments and any mathematical derivation of the final ROE.
It may sound a bit convoluted, Petrie-Norris said, but the goal is to make what is a complicated process more transparent.
“It’s super important that the Public Utilities Commission that we entrust to ensure this system works and this system is fair, it’s super important they’re doing that job effectively and representing ratepayers effectively,” Petrie-Norris said.
“It’s super wonky and in the weeds,” she said, “but the bills that make for good bumper stickers don’t usually make for real results.”
The state Senate is also set to consider two more related bills this week.
Assembly Bill 2493 is meant to speed up projects to upgrade and modernize the grid, so the state can deliver on clean energy goals and avoid delays. It would require investor-owned utilities to retain an independent third-party auditor to look into their interconnection progress. The bill would also allow the CPUC to factor in poor performance with grid interconnection and upgrades into an investor-owned utility’s ROE.
And Assembly Bill 2516 is meant to identify supply chain delays for critical grid infrastructure projects and incentivize in-state manufacturing through public-private joint ventures.
While both passed the Assembly last month, neither has the widespread bipartisan support that the transparency bill did.
But Petrie-Norris said some of the Trump administration’s actions have also underscored the need for her legislative package, including the massive tax cuts and spending bill last year that narrowed the window for tax incentives for new solar projects.
“We are at a pivotal moment for California,” Petrie-Norris said. “We have an incredibly ambitious clean energy and carbon neutrality goals. We are building California’s clean energy future, and we are making generational investments.
“Achieving these results depends on being able to connect new power to the grid quickly and affordably,” she added. “We want to make sure to achieve our clean energy goals, but we also know that time is money. Every one of these delays ends up costing ratepayers.”
AB 2493 and AB 2516 are expected to be heard in the Senate Energy, Utilities and Communications Committee this week.
