Last-minute plan to help Californians with electric bills fails

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An eleventh-hour proposal by California lawmakers to offer some small relief from rising electric bills is likely dead.

Assembly Bill 3121 was pulled from a key Senate committee this afternoon. A source told CalMatters that means it will not be voted on before the legislative session ends Saturday.

The bill’s author, Assemblywoman Cottie Petrie-Norris , a Democrat from Irvine, removed it from the agenda of the Senate Standing Committee on Energy, Utilities and Communications. Her office did not immediately return a request for comment.

The bill would have given households a small, one-time credit of between $30 to $70. It would have been funded by about $500 million in controversial cuts from utility programs that assist low-income residents and schools in areas served by Southern California Edison, Pacific Gas & Electric and San Diego Gas & Electric.

For weeks, legislative leaders and Governor Gavin Newsom’s staff have been working on a set of proposals designed to tackle California’s dual clean energy issues: achieving requirements for clean, carbon-free power and lowering electric rates that are among the highest in the country.

The measure was one of the most contentious of a suite of energy measures unveiled earlier this week. The Legislature and Newsom had already substantially scaled back their plans to reduce Californians’ electric bills and fast-track renewable energy projects.

The maneuver by Petrie-Norris came a few hours after Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas, a Democrat from Salinas, cast doubt on whether he would allow any of those measures to be put up for a vote this year.

Rivas said in a statement that “we’re on the same page with Governor Newsom about the absolute urgency of getting this done.” But he said he would not “push through bills that haven’t been sufficiently vetted with public hearings. Doing so could lead to unintended consequences on Californians’ pocketbooks.”

Learn more about legislators mentioned in this story.

Petrie-Norris kept a separate energy bill in play that was approved by the Senate committee today. Assembly Bill 3264 would require the Public Utilities Commission to study how to reduce costs of expanding transmission capacity and report to the Legislature on energy efficiency programs funded through consumers’ utility bills.

Other energy bills that would streamline solar and other renewable energy projects remained alive today.