Assembly Natural Resources Committee advances bill to create power fund, change climate credit timing and streamline permitting; sends measure to appropriations

The California State Assembly Committee on Natural Resources voted to give a due‑pass recommendation to a bill by Senator Becker that would establish a “power fund” to shift certain state policy costs out of utility rates, change how and when climate‑credit payments from the cap‑and‑trade program reach customers, and streamline environmental review for groups of similar utility projects. The committee sent the measure to the Assembly Appropriations Committee with a due‑pass recommendation.

Senator Becker, the bill’s author and presenter, told the committee the bill contains multiple pieces that are intended to balance clean‑energy goals and cost impacts for customers, including changes to rate setting, climate credit timing and wildfire spending oversight. Becker said the measure aims to ensure “we're getting the bang for the buck on our wildfire spending.”

The bill would create a power fund intended to remove some state‑mandated program costs from utility rates and hold money outside of rate base until the Legislature appropriates it. Becker and proponents described the fund as a mechanism to stabilize customer bills by using appropriations to cover certain mandated expenditures rather than leaving all costs in utility rates. Becker said the bill would direct 100 percent of the cap‑and‑trade proceeds received by electric…