CA AB 168

Description

Existing law establishes the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission (Energy Commission) , consisting of 5 members appointed by the Governor. Existing law requires the Governor to designate one of those members as the chair and another member as the vice chair. Existing law establishes an annual salary for the commission members and a higher annual salary for the chairperson, as prescribed. This bill would require the vice chair of the Energy Commission, operative July 1, 2027, to receive an annual salary that is at the midpoint between the annual salary of the other commission members and that of the chairperson. Existing law establishes the California membership of the board of directors of the Western Climate Initiative, Incorporated (WCI, Inc.) as part of the state's implementations of the California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006. Existing law requires certain procurement and contracts proposed by the WCI, Inc. to meet requirements that include, among others, notification to the Joint Legislative Budget Committee. The State Contract Act generally provides a contracting process for state agencies and exempts specific state entities from its provisions relating to contracts for the acquisition of information technology goods and services. This bill would exempt the Western Climate Initiative, Incorporated from provisions of the State Contract Act relating to the acquisition of information technology goods and services and consider a certain type of contract with WCI, Inc. as a membership agreement. Existing law establishes various incentive programs that are administered or funded by the State Air Resources Board to provide financial assistance for the purchase of vehicles by individuals and fleet purchasers. This bill would, with funds provided in the 2026 Budget Act, require the state board to establish a new zero-emission electric vehicle incentive program for first-time zero-emission vehicle buyers and, as part of that program, to enter into grant agreements with light-duty passenger vehicle original engine manufacturers to provide incentives for consumers for the purchase or lease of new, and the purchase of used, light-duty passenger electric vehicles at the point of sale and registered to California residents. This bill would make these provisions inoperative on September 1, 2031, and would repeal them as of January 1, 2032. Existing law establishes the Continuation Account in the Wildfire Fund, to be administered by the Wildfire Fund Administrator, and continuously appropriates moneys in the account for purposes of payment of eligible claims arising from wildfires ignited on or after September 19, 2025, as provided. Existing law requires each large electrical corporation to provide to the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) a written notification of its election to participate, or not to participate, in the account, and requires the PUC, if all participating electrical corporations have provided their election to participate in the account, to provide the administrator and other entities notification of their elections. Existing law authorizes the administrator, on or after the date the PUC provides that notification, but not later than December 31, 2028, to determine if additional annual contributions from large electrical corporations are needed to enable the account to fund the timely payment of eligible claims, as provided. Existing law requires the PUC, within 15 days of receiving notification from the administrator that additional annual contributions are required, to initiate a rulemaking proceeding to consider using its authority to require the large electrical corporations to collect a nonbypassable charge from ratepayers to support the account, as provided. If the PUC imposes the nonbypassable charge to support the account, existing law requires the large electrical corporations, from calendar years 2029 to 2045, inclusive, to provide to the administrator their annual contributions, as specified, for deposit into the account. This bill would instead authorize the administrator, on or after the date the PUC provides that notification, but not later than December 31, 2028, to determine if those annual contributions, instead of the additional annual contributions, are needed. The bill would make additional technical and conforming changes. Existing law requires the PUC to prohibit a large electrical corporation from including in its equity rate base its share, as determined pursuant to a specific allocation metric, of the first $6,000,000,000 expended in aggregate by large electrical corporations on fire risk mitigation capital expenditures approved by the commission on or after January 1, 2026. This bill would modify the allocation to be used for purposes of the above-described prohibition. Existing law requires the Energy Commission to implement and administer the Distributed Electricity Backup Assets Program to incentivize the construction of cleaner and more efficient distributed energy assets that would serve as on-call emergency supply or load reduction for the state's electrical grid during extreme events, and the Demand Side Grid Support Program to incentivize dispatchable customer load reduction and backup generation operation as on-call emergency supply and load reduction for the state's electrical grid during extreme events, as provided. Existing law, the Budget Act of 2021, appropriates $495,000,000 from the General Fund to the Energy Commission to support the implementation of the Distributed Electricity Backup Assets Program and provides that this amount is available for encumbrance or expenditure by the Energy Commission until June 30, 2026, and for liquidation until June 30, 2030. Existing law, the Budget Act of 2024, reverts $308,700,000 of that amount to the General Fund. This bill would specify that the moneys appropriated in the Budget Act of 2021 to support the implementation of the Distributed Electricity Backup Assets Program is also available to be used for the Demand Side Grid Support Program, thereby making an appropriation. The bill would make that appropriation available for encumbrance or expenditure until June 30, 2027. Under existing law, a violation of the Public Utilities Act or any order, decision, rule, direction, demand, or requirement of the PUC is a crime. Because certain of the above-described provisions would be part of the act and a violation of a PUC action implementing the above-described provisions would be a crime, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as a bill providing for appropriations related to the Budget Bill.

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