First Half of California Legislative Session Roundup—House of Origin Outcomes

AB 2313 (Marc Berman) Home Energy Choice Act* 

Directs the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) to develop a program where gas utilities would offer households needing a gas service line replacement an incentive to switch to electric. This program would help reduce costs for all utility customers and give Californians the option to switch to clean electricity for their home energy needs. 

Senate Bill 1213 (Eloise Gómez Reyes) Medium- and heavy-duty electric trucks price transparency*  

Addresses the lack of price transparency in California’s medium- and heavy-duty electric vehicle market, which currently leaves small businesses and owner-operators vulnerable to price gouging.  

AB 2461 (Gregg Hart) Oil and gas: bonding requirements*  

Clarifies the types of financial assurance required before oil companies can sell wells to new operators. AB 2461 can help prevent orphan wells by prohibiting transfers until the seller puts up financial security to pay the full cost of cleanup and safe closure. The bill ensures that the oil industry rather than taxpayers pays these costs.  

 AB 2253 (Tasha Boerner) Recycled content claims 

Protects consumers from deceptive recycled content claims by prohibiting companies from using misleading “credit” to advertise recycled content when none is physically present in the product. Currently, companies buy cheap, questionable, out-of-state or out-of-country credits instead of using California recycled materials, undercutting businesses that invest in the state’s recycling infrastructure and ultimately weakening its recycling system.  

SB 954 (Catherine Blakespear) Restoring environmental protections (SB 131 Cleanup)  

Addresses the most harmful aspects of last year’s CEQA-weakening bill, including the advanced manufacturing exemption. 

 SB 222 (Scott Wiener) Residential heat pump systems 

Takes a comprehensive approach to standardizing the permitting process for heat pump installations statewide, reducing time constraints and lowering costs for contractors and consumers alike. It will put into place an automated permitting system for simple installations, establish guardrails, and prohibit homeowners’ associations from imposing architectural review standards that will prevent clean appliance adoption.  

 SB 943 (Josh Becker) Industrial electrification rates 

Provides CPUC with the authority to develop electricity rates to help commercial and industrial companies switch to electricity for industrial heat. With these reforms and other changes already being planned by CPUC, electrification of industrial heat can become a cost-effective pathway to helping firms reduce pollution while keeping jobs in California and lowering electricity rates for all consumers.  

 SB 886 (Steve Padilla) California Technology Innovation and Ratepayer Protection Act 

Helps protect Californians from the increased electricity costs associated with new data centers by requiring CPUC to establish a new electrical corporation tariff. The bill additionally requires new large energy users to acquire zero-carbon storage to ensure reliability.  

SB 887 (Padilla) Data centers: Clean energy power plant projects 

Establishes criteria and standards for new data centers. Projects that meet the standards would be eligible for expedited permitting. 

SB 1359 (Henry Stern) Natural Gas Ratepayer Protection Act 

Requires gas utilities to report on their gas infrastructure investments. Further requires CPUC to consider whether cost-effective electrification alternatives could avoid pricey investments in gas infrastructure as it considers cost recovery for the utilities.  

Helps protect Californians from the costs and financial risks associated with rising electricity demand from large energy customers like data centers. The bill would require CPUC to establish a separate rate structure for large energy use facilities.

*NRDC sponsored

AB 1777 (Garcia) California Clean Skies Act* 

This bill would have established a framework for California to significantly reduce harmful air emissions. AB 1777 would have affirmed the California Air Resources Board’s (CARB) authority to regulate “indirect sources,” like warehouses, ports, and airports that attract activity from polluting vehicles and equipment. In Southern California, the South Coast Air Quality Management District adopted its own indirect source rule for warehouses. A recent analysis of the rule found that while warehousing has continued to grow zero-emission technologies are one of the leading compliance mechanisms used by warehouse operators, indicating the rule is working as intended. The report additionally found that the warehouse rule has reduced 1.47 tons per day of nitrogen oxide pollution as well as diesel particulate matter.  

Unfortunately, the Assembly failed to pass this bill in the face of robust opposition from the port workers’ union (ILWU) and the California Chamber of Commerce, which misleadingly labeled AB 1777 a “cost driver.” The opposition ignored the fact that the bill was permissive, and CARB would have to undergo robust public rulemaking, during which all stakeholders would have input. CARB is required to consider cost-effectiveness in all of its regulations. AB 1777 would have affirmed a state-level tool to eliminate health risks in frontline communities and improve air quality, a tool that is all the more critical under a hostile federal administration. Additionally, AB 1777 was poised to secure a competitive advantage for workers and the goods movement system by laying the groundwork for a transition to a zero-emission future. The bill would have led to a shift away from fossil-fueled equipment, thereby improving air quality and improving public health. 

AB 1777 (and its predecessor, AB 914, from 2025) helped galvanize a broad coalition of environmental and health groups across the state, environmental justice organizations, clean-tech companies, and the service workers’ union, SEIU. Together, we are organized and ready for the next battle to enact lasting air quality protections for communities throughout the state.  

*NRDC sponsored

AB 2447 (Rebecca Bauer-Kahan) Nitrogen Pollution Reduction Act* 

This bill would have helped reduce nitrogen pollution from agriculture by requiring clear limits on how much nitrogen fertilizer can be applied to croplands and how much nitrogen pollution can be discharged from fields. “Despite California recognizing a human right to water in 2012, hundreds of thousands of Californians—mostly in low-income communities of color—lack access to safe drinking water, in part due to nitrogen pollution. Only about 30 to 50 percent of the fertilizer applied to California’s croplands are used by plants, meaning that much of the nitrogen fertilizer applied is getting into our environment. The Nitrogen Pollution Reduction Act, AB 2447, would have required California to protect clean water for people and ecosystems by reducing nitrogen fertilizer pollution.  

SB 1327 (Reyes) Electric Vehicle State Authority  

This bill would have moved zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) charging infrastructure inspection duties from the California Department of Food and Agriculture over to the California Energy Commission to better align ZEV charging regulatory actions with our transportation and energy decarbonization efforts.  

SB 978 (Sasha Renée Pérez) Data center community accountability 

This bill would have protected Californians from increasing electricity costs as data centers expand across the state. The bill addresses projected impacts on affordability and public health and is a necessary step to preparing for the wave of data centers seeking to locate in the state.  

SB 982 (Wiener) Climate Disasters: Civil Actions  

This bill would have provided the attorney general with new tools to represent Californians in the face of increasing climate disaster costs. The bill further prohibited a fossil fuel company from passing on the costs of the civil action, including any remedies ordered, to California taxpayers.  

*NRDC sponsored