Energy: California Affordable Decarbonization Authority.

Existing law vests the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) with regulatory authority over public utilities, including electrical corporations, while local publicly owned electric utilities are under the direction of their governing boards. Existing law requires the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission (Energy Commission) to establish the Equitable Building Decarbonization Program to, among other things, include a statewide incentive program for low-carbon building technologies. This bill would require the PUC and Energy Commission to jointly authorize the establishment of the California Affordable Decarbonization Authority as a nonprofit public benefit corporation and to take all necessary measures to create the authority. The bill would require the authority to be governed by an independent board of directors appointed by the Governor, Speaker of the Assembly, and Senate Committee on Rules, as specified. The bill would require the authority to maintain open meeting standards and meeting notice requirements consistent with the requirements of the Bagley-Keene Open Meeting Act and the California Public Records Act. The bill would establish the Climate Equity Trust Fund as a trust fund, separate and apart from all public moneys or funds of the state, and would, upon appropriation by the Legislature, require that the moneys in the trust fund be expended by the authority for the benefit of electricity customers and to promote affordable electricity rates, as specified. The bill would authorize disbursements from the trust fund to be made through direct credits on ratepayer bills, direct rebates or incentives to market participants, technology vendors, technology installers, and end-use customers, and reimbursement of eligible costs, including costs for building electrification programs and incentives, incurred by an electrical corporation, electric service provider, community choice aggregator, or local publicly owned electric utility in the form of matching funds. The bill would require the authority to submit annual and multiyear spending plans for review and approval to the PUC and the Energy Commission before disbursing trust fund moneys.