By Reagan Steele – Business & Economic Policy Writer
Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday signed legislation authored by Assemblyman Joe Patterson (R-Rocklin) that permits local publicly owned electric utilities to count large hydroelectric generation toward California’s Renewables Portfolio Standard requirements.
The measure, AB 34, addresses a long-standing inconsistency in the state’s aggressive climate agenda. For years, California’s RPS program has excluded large hydropower despite its status as a reliable, zero-emission energy producer. The policy has forced utilities to prioritize intermittent sources such as wind and solar. That approach, heavily prioritized by Democrats, has contributed to some of the nation’s highest electricity rates.
Patterson’s bill provides targeted relief for local publicly owned utilities such as Roseville Electric and the communities they serve. It allows them to incorporate existing hydroelectric resources into compliance calculations. The change does not extend the same flexibility to major investor-owned utilities like Pacific Gas & Electric, which serve the majority of the state’s customers.
The signing comes amid growing concerns over California’s cost-of-living crisis. The state’s ambitious green energy mandates, including SB 100’s push for 60 percent renewables by 2030 and carbon-free electricity by 2045, have contributed to elevated fuel and electricity prices as well as business outflows. Critics have long argued that excluding proven baseload sources like large hydro and nuclear from renewable classifications was more ideological than practical.
Democrats in Sacramento have resisted broader inclusion of hydropower, while green activists have pushed for dam removals in the name of restoring rivers to a more natural state. Major facilities such as Hoover Dam demonstrate hydropower’s capacity for massive clean power generation at relatively low marginal cost. The selective adjustment under AB 34 suggests a pragmatic concession and a tacit admission that the state’s aggressive drive for solar and wind is exacerbating affordability challenges for working families and accelerating California’s competitive disadvantages.
Whether this represents the start of a broader reconsideration, potentially extending to nuclear power, remains to be seen. California’s overall renewable mandates remain among the most stringent in the country, and implementation costs continue to burden ratepayers.
Assemblyman Patterson framed the legislation as a step toward greater transparency and relief from regulatory overreach. For a state where energy policy has become synonymous with high costs and reliability concerns, even limited recognition of hydropower marks a small but telling adjustment in Sacramento’s approach.
