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Senate approves sweeping energy bill to expand climate credits, finance wildfire fund and tighten utility oversight
Summary
SB 254 combines affordability reforms, wildfire-fund capital, financing rules and transmission incentives. Supporters said it will lower bills and improve wildfire resilience; critics urged alternative solutions and warned of costs and complexity.
The State Senate voted to concur in amendments to SB 254, an expansive energy affordability and resilience bill that combines measures to increase climate bill credits to households, recapitalize the Wildfire Fund and require stricter scrutiny of investor-owned utilities.
Senator Becker, presenting the bill, described SB 254 as “California's most ambitious energy affordability bill in decades,” saying it combines the senator's original SB 254 proposal with the Assembly’s affordability measure and elements of the administration’s wildfire fund proposal. Key features described on the floor include:
- Wildfire fund recapitalization: the bill would add $18 billion in capital to a wildfire fund, split evenly between utility shareholders and ratepayers,…
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