California
California Climate & Energy Update
Buildings
Building code delivers: The California Energy Commission (CEC) approved a new building energy code that ensures the vast majority of new homes in the Golden State will be built without fossil fuel connections by 2026. Additionally, spurred by NRDC analysis on the opportunity to replace burnt out AC units with heat pumps that can cool and heat, the new code includes provisions to strongly encourage the replacement of gas rooftop HVAC (heating ventilation air conditioning) units for existing commercial buildings with two-way heat pumps. These units account for roughly 25% of the commercial market in California. A heat pump is nearly identical to an air conditioner with one small but important difference: a reversing valve that allows it to provide heating or cooling. This no brainer is becoming the norm for commercial buildings and needs to be the standard for residential homes too.
Stop investing in fossil fuel infrastructure: There is a growing consensus that it doesn’t make sense to keep investing in the gas pipeline system in California. NRDC commissioned analysis showing that targeted electrification, which equips homes served by aging gas pipelines with energy-efficient electric appliances, can save utility customers more than $20 billion in gas infrastructure costs by avoiding costly pipeline replacements.
Last week, Governor Newsom signed SB 1221 (Min) into law, a bill sponsored by NRDC, Earthjustice, and Building Decarbonization Coalition designed to avoid pipeline replacements. SB 1221 will help ensure that utility spending is aligned with an affordable, clean energy future by increasing transparency into gas utilities’ planned fossil fuel investments and authorizing cost-saving “zero-emission alternative” pilot projects to take place across the state. With this bill, California joined a growing list of states that are closing the chapter on unnecessary gas pipeline investment.
In July, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) also implemented a decision that removes the subsidies for electric line extensions in new buildings if they connect the building to the gas system – subsidies worth thousands of dollars per home to developers. The decision recognizes that subsidies for new buildings that burn gas are out of step with California’s climate and public health objectives and builds on the previous move to eliminate the gas line extension subsidies for new properties.
Ensuring clean, electric technology is available to all: Getting off fossil gas in buildings requires investing in clean, electric technologies and supporting households with fewer resources to make the transition. California continues to fund this work above and beyond the federal dollars for buildings flowing to the state:
- A total of $525 million was secured for the Equitable Building Decarbonization program, which will provide home repairs and install all-electric appliances in the residences of low-income Californians starting in 2025.
- The $71 million from the Aliso Canyon Settlement paid by SoCalGas was directed primarily to support building electrification in the Los Angeles region (appropriated through AB 157).
- The California Heat Pump Partnership (CAHPP), seeded with state funding, officially launched this year to bring together state agencies, utilities, and manufacturers representing more than 90% of the U.S. heat pump market to help achieve the state’s goal to install six million electric heat pumps by 2030.
Industry
Digging into industrial emissions: Recently signed by the Governor, SB 941(Skinner) requires CARB to assess emitting industrial technologies and the availability of zero-emission alternatives in its next scoping plan. This assessment is a good first step to take stock of industry’s decarbonization options and should be followed by a comprehensive plan to abate those emissions.
Federal funding for cement decarbonization: Two innovative California-based cement companies secured federal funding awards of nearly $700 million to demonstrate decarbonized cement production processes. Successful adoption of such technologies will be crucial to meeting SB 596, which requires all cement used in the state to be net-zero emission by 2045.
Exploring new rates for industrial electrification: Electric rates that incentivize industrial loads to use clean electricity are critical to industrial decarbonization. While SB 993 (Becker), which would have required just such an industrial rate development, did not advance out of the legislature, the idea did: the CPUC updated the scope of its existing demand flexibility proceeding to develop a new industrial electric rate structure for industrial heat and hydrogen loads. This could price electricity at super low rates when renewables are abundant, and much higher when gas is the marginal resource to incentivize flexible industrial loads to only draw power from the grid when the costs and emissions of doing so are low.
Transportation
Transforming our streets and highways: Two of the three bills NRDC supported as part of the ClimatePlan legislative package were signed into law. SB 960 (Wiener) requires Caltrans to make improvements for people biking, walking, and taking transit when it upgrades state-owned roads. AB 2086 (Schiavo) requires tracking and reporting on how state transportation investments support state goals on safety, equity, climate action, and economic prosperity. Each of these bills advances a key recommendation from our report highlighting gaps between California’s climate goals and its transportation infrastructure spending decisions. NRDC also filed a lawsuit against Caltrans for its unlawful approval of an expansion of Interstate 80 in the Sacramento region.
Defend clean cars rules: NRDC and partners helped block four bills that would have weakened California’s nation-leading clean air standards. We successfully secured the Governor’s vetoes of AB 637 (Jackson), AB 3179 (J. Carillo), Ab 1122 (Bains) and AB 1296 (Grayson), which would have given clean air carveouts for certain rental cars, vehicle fleets, and harbor craft.
Getting EV chargers online faster: NRDC worked to secure new rules from the CPUC to get EV chargers online faster to meet the growing demand for electric cars, buses, and trucks. This decision establishes the nation’s first deadlines for connecting residential, public, and workplace EV chargers to the grid and for California’s three largest investor-owned utilities to make necessary grid upgrades to support large projects like fast-charging plazas for passenger vehicles and charging stations for commercial trucks, while also requiring transparent data on utility compliance. The rule will help lower electricity rates because EV charging brings in more money than it costs utilities to serve, and that net revenue is returned to all utility customers through rates and bills that are lower than they otherwise would be.
Power
Offshore wind gets green light: Developing offshore wind (OSW) is important for California to meet its zero-carbon energy goals, support grid reliability, improve affordability, reduce air pollution, and grow a new industry that will support thousands of high-quality jobs. To advance this effort, the CEC published their final strategic plan, with feedback from NRDC and other stakeholders, which outlines opportunities, challenges, and recommendations to make responsible and equitable offshore wind development a California reality.
In a huge step towards this potential, the CPUC sent the strongest signal yet to advance OSW by adopting a decision ordering 7.6 GW of OSW to be centrally procured by 2035. This determination of need is significant enough to provide certainty for transmission, port, and other infrastructure investments to move forward, and is in line with what NRDC supported in our comments. This decision affirms that offshore wind will play a key role in California’s future energy system and lays the groundwork for market transformation by planning phased procurements to encourage competition and cost reductions.
Progress on Western grid regionalization: A west-wide electricity market would spur the development of clean electricity sources and lower costs for consumers across the region. With the California Independent System Operator’s (CAISO) western day-ahead electricity market approved by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and poised to bring some of these benefits to the region, an additional effort is underway called the West-Wide Governance Pathways Initiative to take it even further. The Pathways Initiative will both encourage broad participation in the western day-ahead electricity market to capture the value of the resource and geographic diversity of the region, and will create a path to stand up a new governance structure with full independence that could offer more services to the West that go beyond energy markets.
Equitable rate reform to improve how we pay for shared electric system costs: California is facing an electric rate crisis. NRDC has been at the forefront of identifying solutions, including an income-based monthly charge that more equitably shares the costs for electricity infrastructure while also supporting the transition from fossil fuels to clean electricity. The CPUC successfully adopted this new rate structure in May. This change will help, but more needs to be done in 2025 to reduce electric rates.
Looking Ahead
There’s still significant work needed to build a just and sustainable California, however, the recent progress made across every major sector is worth celebrating. California has the vision and leadership needed, and the will of the state’s residents on its side to create a livable future for all in the face of climate change.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — In the wide-open race for California governor, billionaire Tom Steyer is on a spending binge.
The hedge fund manager-turned-liberal activist is using his personal fortune to saturate TV screens and mobile phones with advertising, while his competitors accuse him of trying to use his vast wealth to buy the state’s most powerful job.
Steyer’s ads — in which he promises to bring down household costs or rails against federal immigration raids — appear inescapable at times in heavily Democratic Los Angeles, the state’s largest media market. Data compiled by advertising tracker AdImpact show Steyer has spent or booked over $115 million in ads for broadcast TV, cable and radio — nearly 30 times the amount of his nearest Democratic rival.
If he makes it through the June 2 primary election, Steyer could easily eclipse the 2010 record set by Republican Meg Whitman, who spent $178.5 million in a losing bid for governor, much of it her own money. At the time, it was the costliest campaign for statewide office in the nation’s history.
Even when ad buys from all his major competitors are combined, along with ad purchases by independent committees supporting candidates, Steyer is outspending the field by tens of millions of dollars.
“Billionaire money is flooding our state in an attempt to buy this election,” former U.S. Rep. Katie Porter, one of Steyer’s chief rivals, warned her supporters this month.
Mail-in ballots are set to go out to voters next month. Steyer is among a crowd of candidates hoping to seize a spotlight after former Democratic U.S. Rep. Eric Swalwell’s dramatic departure from the race following sexual assault allegations that he denies.
But while Steyer has ticked up in polling amid his spending splurge, he has not broken away from the field, leaving some wondering if he’s getting value for his dollars.
“If your first round of ads doesn’t move you dramatically (in the polls), the third, fourth, fifth, six, seventh and eighth rounds won’t either,” said veteran Democratic strategist Bill Carrick, who for years advised the late Democratic U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein. “There is something inherently holding Steyer back.”
In recent prior campaigns for governor, at this stage a leading candidate was taking control of the race. This year, voters appear to be shrugging at a contest that lacks a star candidate among seven leading Democrats and two Republicans.
“Somehow the campaign is frozen,” Carrick added.
History shows that money doesn’t always translate into votes.
Billionaire developer Rick Caruso spent over $100 million in 2022 in his bid to become Los Angeles mayor, much of it his own money, but he was handily defeated by Mayor Karen Bass, who spent a fraction of Caruso’s total. Billionaire former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg spent more than $1 billion of his own money on his 2020 presidential bid before dropping out. And Steyer’s money was unable to lift him into contention in the 2020 presidential contest, when he dropped out early in the year after a poor finish in the South Carolina primary.
Steyer has never held elected office.
In a 2019 interview with The Associated Press, Steyer was asked what he would say to people who think he’s trying to buy the presidency.
“I don’t think that’s possible,” Steyer said at the time, before adding, “I’m never going to apologize for succeeding in business. That’s America, right?”
His campaign did not respond directly when asked about similar criticism facing his run for governor.
“Tom now stands as the only Democrat with the grassroots energy, institutional backing and resources to advance to the general election,” spokesperson Kevin Liao said in a statement.
The governor’s race was recently reordered by two developments: Swalwell, a leading Democrat, abruptly withdrew from the race then resigned from Congress, following sexual assault allegations. Meanwhile, President Donald Trump endorsed conservative commentator Steve Hilton.
Still, there is no clear leader.
Polling in late March and early April by the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California found a cluster of candidates in close competition: Democrats Steyer and Porter, Republicans Hilton and Chad Bianco, and Swalwell. Other candidates were trailing. The polling was conducted before Swalwell withdrew.
Democrats have feared the party’s large number of candidates could lead to them getting shut out of the general election in November. That’s because California has a primary system in which only the top two vote-getters advance to the general election, regardless of party.
Leading Democrats are all claiming to have picked up support since Swalwell’s exit. Steyer nabbed one plum endorsement, when the influential California Teachers Association, which previously backed Swalwell, recommended him.
In his ads, Steyer promises to “abolish” U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which has been staging raids across California. In another, he laments the state’s punishing cost of housing, “Everybody needs an affordable place to live,” he says.
Rapper was stabbed 16 times by fellow inmate in May 2025 while 10-year sentence in Megan Thee Stallion shooting case
Tory Lanez has filed a $100 million lawsuit against the California Department of Corrections stemming from a May 2025 incident where the rapper was stabbed in prison.
Lanez — born Daystar Peterson and currently serving a 10-year sentence after being found guilty in the Megan Thee Stallion shooting case — also sued the warden and guards at the California Correctional Institute in Tehachapi, where the rapper was stabbed 16 times in an “unprovoked life-threatening attack” by another inmate, the lawsuit states.
Peterson was hospitalized following the May 2025 incident, suffering a collapsed lung among stab wounds to his back, torso, and head.
According to the Associated Press, the lawsuit criticized the Department of Corrections for housing Peterson with fellow inmate and alleged attacker Santino Casio, who was serving a life sentence for second-degree murder. “The choice to house Casio with Peterson was known or should have been a known danger,” the lawsuit said, adding that Tory Lanez’ “high-profile celebrity status” made him a target.
The lawsuit also said that prison guards were slow to respond to the shanking, and didn’t employ flash grenades or other measures to halt Casio’s attack.; Casio was not charged for stabbing Peterson, the Associated Press notes.
Lanez, who following his hospitalization was transferred to San Luis Obispo County’s California Men’s Colony, also alleges in the lawsuit that he never received his possessions from the California Correctional Institute in Tehachapi, including songbooks filled with lyrics to his unreleased music.
Lanez is serving a 10-year prison sentence for shooting Megan Thee Stallion in the foot during a confrontation in the summer of 2020. He was eventually convicted on several firearms charges, including assault with a firearm, in December 2022. In November 2025, his appeal was denied by a three-judge panel, and the 10-year sentence was upheld.
From one crackdown on hospice fraud to another.
A few weeks ago, the FBI arrested multiple people in Southern California that were accused of defrauding the government for millions of dollars.
In a more recent announcement last Thursday, California’s State Attorney General Rob Bonta held a press conference to announce a fraud bust of their own.
“Operation Skip Trace uncovered and ended a hospice fraud scheme that defrauded Medi-Cal of $267 million,” Bonta said. “So just to be clear, a quarter billion dollars over funds that are paid for by California taxpayers, funds that are meant to provide care to Californians in need. It is unacceptable. It is illegal and we will not stand for it.”
The operation saw a total of 21 suspects charged as a result and dismantled a major hospice fraud scheme, with two handguns and over $750 thousand in cash seized as well.
According to the state’s attorney general, this is just one of the many cases over the years the state has cracked down on.
“This is just the latest example of the California DOJ’s longstanding ongoing and successful efforts to combat hospice and medical fraud,” Bonta said. “We have been doing this work for years. We’ve been doing it successfully before certain people in this country decided to think about it for the first time. We will continue to do this work. Heads down, sleeves rolled up, important investigative work, prosecutorial work.”
He added to that by taking a shot at the Trump Administration’s latest fraud operations.
“While healthcare fraud might be President Trump’s shiny new political talking point, the California DOJ has been going after healthcare fraud since 1979,” Bonta said. “For decades, Trump is late to the party. Protecting taxpayer dollars and protecting programs sick and vulnerable Californians rely on have been our priority for nearly five decades.”
Governor Gavin Newsom also spoke out about this latest crackdown while taking a shot of his own at President Trump.
In a post to “X” the Governor’s Press Office wrote in part quote…
“California has been cracking down on hospice fraud long before Trump gutted oversight and pardoned the architect of the biggest health care fraud scheme in U.S. history.”
State Republicans have responded to this latest announcement from Attorney General Bonta, calling for a special session to demand accountability from the Governor on widespread fraud.
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