Committee backs Erwin27s AB 825 to tackle electric affordability with securitization and public transmission financing

The Assembly Committee on Utilities and Energy voted to send AB 825 to the floor after a prolonged hearing in which the bill’s author and supporting witnesses outlined a multi-part plan to address rising electric rates.

Assemblymember Erwin presented AB 825 as a suite of measures focused on three cost drivers: wildfire mitigation and undergrounding expenses, transmission financing, and permitting delays. She said the state and utilities are facing “historic investments” and argued changes in financing and oversight can reduce costs for ratepayers.

Key provisions described to the committee included: authorizing securitization of up to $15,000,000,000 of future undergrounding capital expenditures to replace higher-cost utility equity financing with lower-cost bonds; creating an optional public transmission financing program that could use about $325,000,000 in Proposition 4 funds and…