CA Current

The Department of Energy proposed June 7 to drive down the cost of “clean hydrogen” by 80% over the coming decade. DOE’s Energy Earthshots Initiative aims to cut the cost of zero- and low-carbon hydrogen to as low as $1 per kilogram. The fuel’s current cost is between $4-$7 per kg. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm […]

State regulators require the private utilities to offer to sell renewable portfolio resources to community energy and other providers. Each aggregator and other entity will be offered a proportional share of the resources bought by the utility for its ratepayers that later joined a non utility. But the California Public Utilities Commission 5-0 vote declines […]

A coalition promoting the development of a hydrogen industry based on renewable resources in California grew significantly with the addition of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power this week. Green hydrogen also gets a big boost in the Governor’s revised budget announced May 14, assuming it gets approved by the legislature. The revised […]

Gov. Gavin Newsom announced May 10 that $2 billion in relief will be distributed among Californians having difficulty paying their electricity, gas, and water bills–an estimated 800,000 customers. A moratorium on utility disconnections for failure to pay is set to expire next month, but many residents continue to struggle financially largely because of the pandemic. […]

State regulators agreement with Pacific Gas & Electric that issuance of $7.5 billion in ratepayer bonds will improve its ratings will be put to the test again. Intervenors will seek rehearing of the controversial California Public Utilities Commission decision. A major rating agency is non plussed because the big utility securitization will not affect its […]

Southern California Gas subverted an effort designating ratepayer funds for energy efficiency to do the opposite: oppose local, state, and federal energy efficiency efforts. But there will be no penalty. That is according to a California Public Utilities Commission proposed decision. The proposal confirms the findings of the CPUC’s Public Advocates’ Office that for seven […]

A week after a national report found that the City of Los Angeles could be powered fully by renewables by 2035, the City Council gives SoCalGas’ Playa del Rey underground gas storage field the thumbs down. It’s a gesture welcome by clean energy advocates but holds little clout. Environmentalists call on the city council to […]

The Los Angeles City Council voted unanimously April 7 to close the Playa del Rey underground natural gas storage facility owned by Southern California Gas. The Playa del Rey field is smaller but considered riskier than the Aliso Canyon gas storage field. The Playa facility, which is near the LA International Airport, is located in […]

By the end of this decade, the Los Angeles Department of Water & Power can reliably, equitably, and affordably provide power that is 98% carbon free. That is according to a National Energy Renewable Laboratory study commissioned by the City of Los Angeles released March 24. NREL analyzed multiple scenarios developed over several years to […]

SoCalGas’ 2020 energy efficiency programs helped save more energy than any other natural gas utility in the U.S, the utility claimed March 17. “By using less energy, SoCalGas customers saved more than $44 million in energy costs last year alone and reduced greenhouse gas emissions linked to climate change by more than 211,000 metric tons–equal […]

The latest edition of the California Energy Commission’s influential energy efficiency code does not include a mandate for all-electric new buildings. That is despite a new joint agency report on the path to a 100% clean energy concluding that decarbonizing energy use in new and existing buildings “is a key climate-fighting strategy.” The 2022 Title […]

In his State of the State, Gov. Gavin Newsom pointed to climate driven wildfires and the necessity of curbing greenhouse gas emissions, particularly from the transportation sector. It is the largest source of state emissions. During his evening March 9 address, Newsom highlighted his executive order banning the sale of gasoline powered cars and passenger […]

The California Public Utilities Commission plans to expeditiously handle some $600 million in energy utility bill arrearages that have accumulated since the beginning of the pandemic. The full commission would make a decision on how to address the late payments by June 24. That would be just days before a moratorium on service shutoffs is […]

The 2020 and quarterly earnings of the parent corporations of the four investor-owned utilities are a mixed bag. Annual net income for Edison International and PG&E Corp. drops while fourth quarter earnings rise. Sempra Energy’s reported income goes the opposite direction. While utility leaders sing the praises of increased investments and revenue to analysts, economists, […]

Edison International’s earnings for 2020 fell, but its fourth quarter net income was higher than in 2019. For Sempra Energy, the reverse was true. Edison International–Annual earnings for Southern California Edison’s parent company dropped to $700 million in 2020, or $1.98 per share. That compares to $1.3 billion in 2019, or $3.78 per share. Fourth […]

The burden of continually rising utility bills will derail California’s decarbonization work if left unaddressed, regulators, economists and ratepayer advocates warn. The rising costs are bearing down on struggling customers who’ve been hit hard by pandemic-driven job losses and sheltering at home. Higher bills undermine California’s equity policy goals and jeopardize the state’s clean energy […]

Despite the state’s legal commitment to decarbonize the energy sector, staff at the California Public Utilities Commission have concluded the large Aliso Canyon natural gas storage field in Los Angeles needs to remain open. There has been a forceful effort to close the field since a months-long eruption of methane gas from a failed well […]

The ever-growing tab from months of unpaid utility bills will soon come due. Who gets saddled with that debt, currently $1.15 billion, remains to be seen? The California Public Utilities Commission will look at repayment options. Unpaid bills of $1 billion and climbing gets dwarfed by the $15 billion in additional spending the private utilities […]

The California Public Utilities Commission is exploring options for paying off the more than $1.15 billion in unpaid utility bills that has accumulated during the pandemic. “The numbers are pretty horrendous,” CPUC President Marybel Batjer said Feb. 11 of the arrearages for Pacific Gas & Electric, Southern California Edison, San Diego Gas & Electric and […]

After numerous speakers objected to the California Public Utilities Commission increasing electricity and gas rates because of the shelter in place orders, higher winter utility bills and loss of jobs, a rough estimate of the big increases in the investor-owned utility bills starting next year was presented Dec. 17.  Rate hikes are driven largely by […]