POLITICO: Californians’ Love-Hate Relationship with High-Speed Rail

It’s almost the end of the session.

Since recess ended, redistricting and a slew of major energy packages have dominated the conversation. But there’s still some perfectly good legislation to pass outside the center of those dueling storms. At least so says a coalition of renewable energy business groups and advocates. The group — including former state Sen. Fran Pavley, Advanced Energy United and The Climate Center — sent a letter Thursday to Newsom and the leadership of both legislative houses and their appropriations committee making the case for giving some lower-profile energy bills some love.

“These common-sense bills will have a big impact on lowering energy costs, expanding access to clean energy, and strengthening grid reliability,” said Edson Perez, California lead with Advanced Energy United. “But because they’ve faced no big controversy and advanced quietly, they risk slipping under the radar in this crowded legislative session.”

So what’s on the list?

• AB 740, which would require the California Energy Commission to adopt a virtual power plant plan.
• SB 710, which would extend an existing property tax policy favorable to people installing solar panels.
• AB 1408, which would make it easier for renewable energy providers to connect to the grid.
• AB 44, an effort to simplify community choice aggregators’ and utilities’ ability to reduce electricity demand using distributed energy resources. — NB