By Alejandro Lazo

WHAT THE BILL WOULD DO

Assembly Bill 825 by Democratic Assemblymembers Cottie Petrie-Norris of Irvine and Sen. Josh Becker of Menlo Park, would open the door for California to join a Western regional energy market, aiming to save customers money by allowing electricity to flow more freely across state lines and steadying the grid when power is needed most, like during a heat wave.

The bill repeals an older process for turning California’s grid operator into a regional body and replaces it with a new framework developed through years of talks among Western power companies, system operators, regulators and others.

The law would open the door to a shared electricity market across Western states while aiming to have each state retain control of its own energy policies and planning. An expanded market could include climate-aligned states such as Oregon and Washington but potentially also coal-burning states such as Wyoming, Utah and New Mexico. 

WHO SUPPORTS IT

California often wastes solar power on mild spring and fall days when production outpaces demand, and that’s one of the biggest reasons environmental groups including the Environmental Defense Fund and Natural Resources Defense Council back this measure. They said a regional market would allow the state to sell surplus solar to its neighbors and tap renewable energy from other states.

Those big environmental groups are joined by major utilities and industry players — including Google and Microsoft, eager to power new AI data centers — as well as the statewide electrical workers’ union, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.

WHO IS OPPOSED

The Utility Reform Network opposes the bill after key safeguards it negotiated were stripped from the final plan. TURN advocates for ratepayers, but said the bigger danger from the plan is California ceding control of its renewable energy agenda to a federal government that is openly hostile to clean energy — a risk the group said outweighs any potential savings. TURN is joined in opposition by other consumer and environmental groups.

WHY IT MATTERS

California spent decades greening its grid: ditching coal, slashing fossil fuels and building the world’s second-largest battery fleet to store solar power after dark. This bill would take a major step toward linking that system to other parts of the country, reshaping how clean and fossil power move across the West.

GOVERNOR’S CALL ✅