Amid ever-worsening climate disasters, Silicon Valley–backed Democrats are pushing a bill that could hand control of California’s energy markets to the fossil fuel–happy Trump administration. Tech companies supporting the legislation say it’s needed to meet rising energy demands (fueled in part by artificial intelligence data centers), but expert analyses suggest the bill could increase emissions across the West and jeopardize the state’s trailblazing clean energy laws.
As one of the largest electricity consumers and most progressive regulators in the country, if California makes such a move it could risk worsening climate conditions across the arid West and endanger the state’s clean energy goals, which have been a bellwether for renewable energy policy across the nation.
The bill would allow California to relinquish control of its state-run energy markets, under which an independent nonprofit organization facilitates the bulk sales of electricity generation and transmission across 80 percent of the state, and enter into a regional energy market with various Western states. The bill’s authors say this will result in fewer greenhouse gas emissions and lower energy costs for Californians.
The new multistate energy structure would be governed by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), an independent federal agency that regulates interstate electricity transmission and over which Donald Trump has recently asserted more direct control.
Project 2025, the ultraconservative policy blueprint for Trump’s administration that he has been closely following, calls for the Energy Department to “refocus FERC” to “no longer allow it to favor special interests and progressive causes” and prioritize fossil fuels.
If the bill is…
Auteur: Freddy Brewster
