Trump wants to kill clean energy. California legislators are about to help him

Last week, Willie Phillips, a Biden-appointed Federal Energy Regulatory Commission member, resigned with 14 months left on his term. His departure flipped control of this key energy agency. When he appoints a replacement, President Donald Trump will effectively run what’s supposed to be an independent body in charge of federal energy policies that can determine whether the U.S. moves to clean power sources or favors fossil fuels.

Commission Chair Mark Christie, a Trump first-termer up for reappointment this summer, promised that it will clear everything through the White House as soon as it can.

Well, now it can. And the implications for California are profound and disturbing.  

On April 8, Trump issued an executive order directing Attorney General Pam Bondi to take legal action against state climate and clean energy laws, which Trump called “illegitimate.”

Other orders granted sweeping emergency powers to Energy Secretary Chris Wright to prevent the shutdown of aging, polluting coal plants and to promote fossil fuel use in regions that Wright deems at risk of energy shortages. Scientific American called Trump’s orders “an unprecedented peacetime intervention in America’s electricity sector.”

Californians know that nefarious forces are gathering to attack our clean energy laws. The barbarians are at our gates.

Yet instead of taking action to protect our state, California’s legislators and Gov. Gavin Newsom appear ready to hand them the keys.

Today, a corporation, the California Independent System Operator, runs our electricity markets and transmission grid, and must follow state laws. It is required to manage electricity markets for the benefit of Californians by maximizing available electricity for our use and minimizing costs to California customers. It must also run electricity markets consistent with “state law intended to protect the public’s health and the environment.” That includes a prohibition on contracting coal-fired electricity and requiring California to transition to 100% clean energy by 2045.

But a bill barreling through the Legislature would turn over control of our electricity markets to a new multi-state regional operator explicitly exempted from complying with these laws.

SB540 from state Sen. Josh Becker, D-Menlo Park, would allow the California Independent System Operator to join a new regional electricity market with other as-yet-unspecified Western states. Proponents say that a bigger market will unlock more electricity resources, drive down prices and create new destinations for California’s clean energy.

They warn that if we don’t cede control, other Western states will join different markets east of the Rockies, and we will be isolated. But California already buys and sells electricity throughout the West, using bilateral contracts and owning power plants. And most Western states have shown no interest in giving up their states’ authority to join this proposed market.

SB540’s proposed regional operator will be incorporated in Delaware, beyond the reach of the California attorney general’s oversight. It also removes California’s power to appoint a new board. Instead, California will become partners with states like Nevada, Utah and Wyoming, home to the very coal plants Trump wants to keep running.  

Even if the California Independent System Operator continues to run the new regional markets, SB540 exempts it from following California law — requiring it to adhere only to the regional operator’s new rules, as approved by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

SB540 supporters argue that California must already file for federal approval of market rules, so we are already vulnerable to Trump. But California fought for, and won in court, independence from complying with some key federal rules.

SB540 voluntarily relinquishes that independence. In doing so, it makes California more vulnerable to Trump in three crucial ways: 

First, California now possesses the legal right to design and propose all the rules for its markets. We used these rights, called Section 205 rights, to obtain federal approval for the market rules we use today. And the California Independent System Operator used these rights to try to fix the problems that caused the 2020 blackouts.

SB540 surrenders those rights to the new Delaware corporation, which will have to apply to Trump’s Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for approval from scratch — without the key protection of having to comply with California law. The new operator, for instance, could agree with Trump that the regional market should favor coal plants or even subsidize coal power to outcompete green energy.

Second, current electricity-market rules don’t conflict with state laws because the California Independent System Operator isn’t allowed to propose rules that conflict. SB540 eliminates that protection and hands attackers the weapons they need to challenge our laws.        

Third, California has no coal-fired power plants. As a single-state market with rules mandated to accord with California law, it’s difficult for Trump or fossil fuel interests to attack state clean energy laws using the Constitution’s Commerce Clause.

However, in a broader market that contains coal plants and new market rules that fail to incorporate our state laws, California consumers could be forced to pay for coal power, while simultaneously paying for clean power we’ve already bought. 

State legislators are pushing these changes before we even see the new rules the Delaware corporation will propose or learn which other states will join us. Lawmakers promise that California will be able to get out of this new arrangement if we want, but the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission must approve any exit from a regional market.  And FERC gets to set the conditions — and costs — of any withdrawal.

Let’s see what Trump has in store for us before we abandon California’s public health and environmental laws — or the legal duty to minimize costs and provide enough electricity to meet the state’s needs.

Such a move naively trusts the goodwill of people who simply do not share our climate commitments.

The barbarians are coming. Tell your legislators not to welcome them in.   

Loretta Lynch, a former California Public Utilities Commission president, is a lawyer and regulatory expert.