CALSSA LIST OF BILLS 2024
End of Session Summary
BILLS ALREADY SIGNED INTO LAW
SB 1190 (Laird) – This bill encourages solar on mobile homes by preventing mobile home parks from prohibiting solar on them.
BILLS CURRENTLY ON THE GOVERNOR’S DESK
SB 1374 (Becker) – Restores or opens the door to restoration of self-consumption for multi-meter properties. CALSSA is requesting a signature.
AB 2666 (Boerner) – Increases accountability around utility spending of ratepayer dollars on infrastructure. CALSSA is requesting a signature.
SB 1118 (Eggman) – To expand SOMAH eligibility to projects on tribal land. CALSSA is requesting a signature.
SB 1130 (Bradford) – This bill would allow FERA to expand eligibility to people who have fewer than 3 in a household and would require reporting about FERA to the legislature. CALSSA is requesting a signature.
AB 2787 (Patterson) – This bill would exempt from the solar mandate low income homes being rebuilt after a wildfire. CALSSA asked the author for an exemption for projects for which government subsidies are available to cover all or most of the costs. Other energy efficiency requirements are not similarly waived. CALSSA is requesting a veto.
AB 1918 (Wood) – This bill would exempt from the solar mandate homes built in the Trinity Public Utility District expressly because Trinity gets its power from hydroelectric dams. This is not sound logic for negating building code, it is not done for other energy efficiency requirements (new homes still need to have double paned windows, for example). CALSSA is requesting a veto.
BILLS THAT CALSSA OPPOSED AND HELPED KILL
AB 3121 (Petrie-Norris) – This bill would have stripped away funding for SGIP and SOMAH programs to give ratepayers a one-time bill credit. The bill was amended in the final hours of the legislative session but later was never brought up for a vote.
AB 3111 (Calderon) – This bill would have required customers to attest that they were an electrical corporation even if they weren’t if they added larger solar or storage systems; that provision was removed as a result of our opposition. Then the bill required unnecessary and burdensome reporting requirements on solar installers. CALSSA fought this bill all year and killed it in the Senate Appropriations Committee in August.
AB 2993 (Grayson) – This bill imposed a host of “consumer protection” requirements, some of which were unworkable for either consumers, contractors or financiers. CALSSA worked diligently to get amendments to the bill but ultimately the author held the bill in Senate Judiciary committee.
AB 3246 (Garcia) – This bill that would have made it easier for utilities to justify additional spending for reconductoring. This bill died in Senate Appropriations Committee.
BILLS THAT CALSSA SUPPORTED THAT DIED
AB 1999 (Irwin) – This bill would have capped the residential fixed charge and sunset the existing $24/month charge. The bill failed passage in the Assembly Appropriations Committee.
AB 2054 (Bauer Kahan) – This bill would have strengthened conflict of interest and gift rules for PUC commissioners by imposing good governance rules and stopping the revolving door between utilities and the PUC. The bill was weakened through the process and then ultimately held in the Senate Appropriations Committee.
AB 2256 (Friedman) – This bill would have corrected a flaw in the PUC analysis of costs and benefits for solar, requiring them to consider all costs and benefits including nonenergy benefits like environmental and health benefits of solar. The bill was held in the Assembly Appropriations Committee.
AB 2619 (Connolly) – This bill would have blocked solar taxes and would have required the PUC to develop a new tariff to replace NEM 3. The bill was held in the first committee without even receiving a hearing.
AB 2805 (Essayli) – Similar to AB 1999, this bill would have repealed the fixed charge that unfairly burdens rooftop solar customers. The bill did not even get a hearing.
AB 2891 (Friedman) – This bill would have expanded the use of demand flexibility strategies. It was held in Assembly Appropriations committee.
AB 3107 (Connolly) – This bill would have removed obstacles to the development of microgrids. It was narrowed to study microgrids and then was held in the Assembly Appropriations Committee.
SB 938 (Min) – This bill would have prevented public utilities from using ratepayer money for lobbying and political advertising. The bill failed to pass the Senate Energy committee.
SB 1148 (Blakespear) – This bill would have made it easier for batteries to be used for backup power in multifamily housing. The bill failed to pass Senate Energy Committee.
SB 1312 (Nguyen) – This bill would have repealed the fixed charge. It wasn’t even set for hearing. Same with SB 1314.
SB 1326 (Jones) – This bill would have placed a cap of $10 on the fixed charge. The bill failed passage in Senate Energy committee.
OTHER
AB 2 (Ward) and AB 1238 (Ward) – CALSSA continued to work with product stewardship people, committee staff, regulators, and Ward’s office regarding end of life solar panel recycling. Expect this issue to return next year.
State Budget: This was a challenging budget year, with the Governor and Legislature cutting from many programs. In a major victory, we sidestepped a repeated threat of a new tax on solar self-consumption to add funds for CEC operations. However, the new SGIP low-income residential solar and storage budget was cut by $350 million in planned future funding, leaving only $280 million (these are different funds than what AB 3121 would have stolen from). The CEC’s Demand Side Grid Support (DSGS) program, in which several CALSSA members are currently participating, had over $260 million in existing funding cut, leaving just over $50 million, and the Distributed Electricity Backup Assets (DEBA) program had nearly $400 million cut, leaving about $150 million and halting that program’s first funding opportunity for distributed resources on the eve of its release. In May, DSGS was promised an infusion of $75 million this year from another budget bucket, but when the budget bill was passed in late June, it allowed some or all of that money to be used for DEBA instead. DSGS is also promised another $75 million next year, and DEBA is promised another $380 million between 2025 and 2026.