Utility Dive examined Gov. Newsom's revised budget proposal earmarking funding for reliability, quoting AEE's Emilie Olson on what's next for negotiations. Read snippets below and the full article here.The $8 billion allocated to the energy system in Newsom’s May budget revision comes on top of $2 billion in the original budget allocated to support clean energy technologies and deployment.
Now that Newsom has put out his updated budget proposal, lawmakers will be tasked with hashing out the details, said Emilie Olson, Advanced Energy Economy’s California policy lead.
Earmarking funding for reliability makes a lot of sense given the strain that California’s power grid has experienced from heatwaves and wildfires, Olson added. That being said, more details remain to be seen about which projects and technologies this funding could go toward.
“From our perspective, the details really are going to matter,” Olson said, adding that as the legislature hashes out the details of how reliability-focused investments could be spent, it’s important that the emphasis is on the best available clean technologies today, rather than uneconomic power plants.