INTRODUCTION -

In his January 2015 inaugural address, California Governor Brown called for an ambitious expansion of the State’s renewable energy goals to 50% by 2030, a policy direction that may drive the State’s energy legislative agenda for the next term. The legislative year in 2014, on the other hand, lacked a major unifying theme with regard to energy, and instead addressed a myriad of approaches to the changing energy economy while simultaneously attempting to maintain the pace of solar growth, ensure electric grid reliability, impact mitigation for oil and gas development, and rate protection for disadvantaged communities and others, as well as continuing its focus on safe utility services.

The 2014 legislative year is perhaps most notable in what was missing: many had anticipated reform of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), which did not come to be, and there were no new laws to restrict or further regulate the use of hydraulic fracturing or to collect a severance tax for oil and gas extraction. These high-profile energy issues may return to the legislative agenda in 2015.