AB168 - Public Resources.

Amended IN Senate June 26, 2026 CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2025–2026 REGULAR SESSION Assembly Bill No. 168 Introduced by Assembly Member Gabriel Committee on Budget (Assembly Members Gabriel (Chair), Addis, Ahrens, Alvarez, Bennett, Bonta, Caloza, Connolly, Fong, Haney, Hart, Jackson, Lee, Ortega, Patel, Petrie-Norris, Quirk-Silva, Ramos, Rogers, Schiavo, Schultz, Sharp-Collins, Solache, Stefani, Ward, and Wilson) January 08, 2025 An act relating to the Budget Act of 2025. An act to amend Section 11553.5 of, and to add Section 12894.7 to, the Government Code, to add and repeal Section 43215 of the Health and Safety Code, to amend Sections 1701.8, 3298.3, 3298.5, 3299.1, and 8386.10 of the Public Utilities Code, and to amend Section 80506 of the Water Code, relating to public resources, and making an appropriation therefor, to take effect immediately, bill related to the budget. LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST AB 168, as amended, Committee on Budget. Budget Act of 2025. Public Resources. Existing law establishes the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission (Energy Commission), consisting of 5 members appointed by the Governor. Existing law requires the Governor to designate one of those members as the chair and another member as the vice chair. Existing law establishes an annual salary for the commission members and a higher annual salary for the chairperson, as prescribed. This bill would require the vice chair of the Energy Commission, operative July 1, 2027, to receive an annual salary that is at the midpoint between the annual salary of the other commission members and that of the chairperson. Existing law establishes the California membership of the board of directors of the Western Climate Initiative, Incorporated (WCI, Inc.) as part of the state’s implementations of the California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006. Existing law requires certain procurement and contracts proposed by the WCI, Inc. to meet requirements that include, among others, notification to the Joint Legislative Budget Committee. The State Contract Act generally provides a contracting process for state agencies and exempts specific state entities from its provisions relating to contracts for the acquisition of information technology goods and services. This bill would exempt the Western Climate Initiative, Incorporated from provisions of the State Contract Act relating to the acquisition of information technology goods and services and consider a certain type of contract with WCI, Inc. as a membership agreement. Existing law establishes various incentive programs that are administered or funded by the State Air Resources Board to provide financial assistance for the purchase of vehicles by individuals and fleet purchasers. This bill would, with funds provided in the 2026 Budget Act, require the state board to establish a new zero-emission electric vehicle incentive program for first-time zero-emission vehicle buyers and, as part of that program, to enter into grant agreements with light-duty passenger vehicle original engine manufacturers to provide incentives for consumers for the purchase or lease of new, and the purchase of used, light-duty passenger electric vehicles at the point of sale and registered to California residents. This bill would make these provisions inoperative on September 1, 2031, and would repeal them as of January 1, 2032. Existing law establishes the Continuation Account in the Wildfire Fund, to be administered by the Wildfire Fund Administrator, and continuously appropriates moneys in the account for purposes of payment of eligible claims arising from wildfires ignited on or after September 19, 2025, as provided. Existing law requires each large electrical corporation to provide to the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) a written notification of its election to participate, or not to participate, in the account, and requires the PUC, if all participating electrical corporations have provided their election to participate in the account, to provide the administrator and other entities notification of their elections. Existing law authorizes the administrator, on or after the date the PUC provides that notification, but not later than December 31, 2028, to determine if additional annual contributions from large electrical corporations are needed to enable the account to fund the timely payment of eligible claims, as provided. Existing law requires the PUC, within 15 days of receiving notification from the administrator that additional annual contributions are required, to initiate a rulemaking proceeding to consider using its authority to require the large electrical corporations to collect a nonbypassable charge from ratepayers to support the account, as provided. If the PUC imposes the nonbypassable charge to support the account, existing law requires the large electrical corporations, from calendar years 2029 to 2045, inclusive, to provide to the administrator their annual contributions, as specified, for deposit into the account. This bill would instead authorize the administrator, on or after the date the PUC provides that notification, but not later than December 31, 2028, to determine if those annual contributions, instead of the additional annual contributions, are needed. The bill would make additional technical and conforming changes. Existing law requires the PUC to prohibit a large electrical corporation from including in its equity rate base its share, as determined pursuant to a specific allocation metric, of the first $6,000,000,000 expended in aggregate by large electrical corporations on fire risk mitigation capital expenditures approved by the commission on or after January 1, 2026. This bill would modify the allocation to be used for purposes of the above-described prohibition. Existing law requires the Energy Commission to implement and administer the Distributed Electricity Backup Assets Program to incentivize the construction of cleaner and more efficient distributed energy assets that would serve as on-call emergency supply or load reduction for the state’s electrical grid during extreme events, and the Demand Side Grid Support Program to incentivize dispatchable customer load reduction and backup generation operation as on-call emergency supply and load reduction for the state’s electrical grid during extreme events, as provided. Existing law, the Budget Act of 2021, appropriates $495,000,000 from the General Fund to the Energy Commission to support the implementation of the Distributed Electricity Backup Assets Program and provides that this amount is available for encumbrance or expenditure by the Energy Commission until June 30, 2026, and for liquidation until June 30, 2030. Existing law, the Budget Act of 2024, reverts $308,700,000 of that amount to the General Fund. This bill would specify that the moneys appropriated in the Budget Act of 2021 to support the implementation of the Distributed Electricity Backup Assets Program is also available to be used for the Demand Side Grid Support Program, thereby making an appropriation. The bill would make that appropriation available for encumbrance or expenditure until June 30, 2027. Under existing law, a violation of the Public Utilities Act or any order, decision, rule, direction, demand, or requirement of the PUC is a crime. Because certain of the above-described provisions would be part of the act and a violation of a PUC action implementing the above-described provisions would be a crime, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as a bill providing for appropriations related to the Budget Bill. This bill would express the intent of the Legislature to enact statutory changes relating to the Budget Act of 2025. Digest Key Vote: MAJORITY Appropriation: NO YES Fiscal Committee: NO YES Local Program: NO YES Bill Text The people of the State of California do enact as follows: SECTION 1. Section 11553.5 of the Government Code is amended to read: 11553.5. (a) Effective January 1, 1988, an annual salary of seventy-nine thousand one hundred twenty-two dollars ($79,122) shall be paid to the following: (1) Member of the Agricultural Labor Relations Board. (2) Member of the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission. (3) Member of the Public Utilities Commission. (4) Member of the Public Employment Relations Board. (5) Member of the Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board. (6) Member of the Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board. (7) Member of the State Water Resources Control Board. (8) Member of the Cannabis Control Appeals Panel. (b) (1) The annual compensation provided by this section shall be increased in any fiscal year in which a general salary increase is provided for state employees. The amount of the increase provided by this section shall be comparable to, but shall not exceed, the percentage of the general cost-of-living salary increases provided for state employees during that fiscal year. (2) In addition to the annual increase provided in paragraph (1), the members of the Public Utilities Commission shall receive an annual salary increase of 5 percent in each of the 2021–22, 2022–23, and 2023–24 fiscal years. (3) In addition to the annual increase provided in paragraph (1), the members of the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission shall receive an annual salary increase of 5 percent in each of the 2023–24, 2024–25, and 2025–26 fiscal years. (4) Operative July 1, 2027, the vice chair of the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission shall receive an annual salary that is at the midpoint between the annual salary of the other commission members and that of the chairperson. (c) Notwithstanding subdivision (b), any salary increase pursuant to paragraph (1) of subdivision (b) is subject to Section 11565.5. SEC. 2. Section 12894.7 is added to the Government Code, to read: 12894.7. Any contract with the Western Climate Initiative, Incorporated entered into in furtherance of the provisions in Sections 12894 and 12894.5 shall be considered a membership agreement and shall not be subject to Chapter 3 (commencing with Section 12100) of Part 2 of Division 2 of the Public Contract Code. SEC. 3. Section 43215 is added to the Health and Safety Code, to read: 43215. (a) For purposes of this section, both of the following definitions apply: (1) “California-headquartered zero-emission vehicle company” means a corporation or other business form organized for the transaction of business that has its headquarters in California and the fleet of vehicles it manufactures is only zero-emission vehicles. For a multinational corporation, “California-headquartered zero-emission vehicle company” means the corporation’s United States-based headquarters is in California. (2) “Headquarters” means the location where the corporation’s executive management and key managerial and support staff are located, and from where the corporation is managed as of January 1, 2026. (b) The funds made available in Items 3900-101-3228 and 3900-102-0115 of the Budget Act of 2026 shall be used to establish a new zero-emission electric vehicle incentive program pursuant to the requirements of this section for first-time zero-emission electric vehicle buyers, as confirmed by a buyer attestation. (c) The state board shall establish the program described in subdivision (b) and, as part of the program, shall do both of the following: (1) Enter into grant agreements with light-duty passenger vehicle original engine manufacturers to provide incentives for consumers for the purchase or lease of new, and the purchase of used, light-duty passenger electric vehicles at the point of sale and registered to California residents. (2) Set an incentive amount for new vehicles and a lower amount for used vehicles. The incentive amounts shall be matched from participating manufacturers. (d) (1) An incentive shall not be provided under the program for a new vehicle with a manufacturer’s suggested retail price exceeding fifty thousand dollars ($50,0000), or for a used vehicle with a sales price exceeding twenty-five thousand dollars ($25,000). (2) Notwithstanding paragraph (1), incentives under the program shall be provided to California-headquartered zero-emission vehicle companies regardless of the vehicle manufacturer’s suggested retail price or sales price. (3) If a court of competent jurisdiction holds that the application of paragraph (2) is invalid, the remainder of this section shall remain in force and effect as if this section had not included paragraph (2). (e) An incentive shall not be provided under the program to vehicles with a curb weight exceeding 8,500 pounds. (f) Participating manufacturers shall disclose to consumers the portion of the incentive that is coming from the State of California. (g) Participating manufacturers shall not resell or release any vehicle purchased or leased using this incentive in another state until no less than 4 years after the date of the purchase or lease using this incentive. (h) The Administrative Procedure Act (Chapter 3.5 (commencing with Section 11340) of Part 1 of Division 3 of Title 2 of the Government Code) does not apply to any guidelines or other standards adopted or used by the state board in administering funds governed by this section. (i) This section shall become inoperative on September 1, 2031, and, as of January 1, 2032, is repealed. SEC. 4. Section 1701.8 of the Public Utilities Code is amended to read: 1701.8. (a) For purposes of this section, the following definitions apply: (1) “Covered wildfire” means any wildfire ignited on or after July 12, 2019, for which either of the following is satisfied: (A) The governmental agency responsible for determining causation or a court of competent jurisdiction determines the wildfire was caused by an electrical corporation. (B) Asserted to have been caused by an electrical corporation and results in a court-approved dismissal resulting from the settlement of third-party damage claims. (2) “Wildfire Fund” means the Wildfire Fund created pursuant to Section 3284. (b) The following procedures and standards apply to a catastrophic wildfire proceeding: (1) (A) An electrical corporation may file an application pursuant to Section 451 or 451.1, as applicable, at any time after it has paid, or entered into binding commitments to pay, all or, if authorized by the commission for good cause, substantially all third-party damage claims, including payments made pursuant to judgments or settlement agreements related to a covered wildfire. Except as authorized by the com [Text truncated for display. Full text available on Congress.gov.]