SB 833 (Dodd) — The Community Energy Resilience Act of 2022 called for the creation of a technical assistance and grant program administered by the California Energy Commission (CEC) to help local governments develop clean energy resilience plans, leveraging the substantial related investments that have already been made by the CEC. SB 833 would have enabled local governments to collaborate with utilities in planning community-scale energy infrastructure such as solar panels and battery storage so that communities are deciding what facilities remain energized during a crisis.
The bill was aimed to help California reduce its reliance on carbon-emitting generators during disaster-driven power outages by empowering local governments to more strategically plan for the use of clean-emission, distributed energy resources, with a priority on lower-income communities. Read The Climate Center’s NEWS RELEASE. Read the bill author’s FACTSHEET. Read the Coalition Sign-on Letter of Support. STATUS: Held in the Assembly Appropriations Committee August 11 (FAILED).
Even though SB 833 failed to make it through the entire legislative process, the California Energy Commission read the bill and liked it so much that they launched a new program, the Community Energy Resilience Investment program, modeled on the ideas and policies in SB 833.