On November 1, 2024, DWGP attorney Lauren Perkins and DWGP law clerk Emily Serleth attended the 16th Annual Lesley K. McAllister Symposium on Climate and Energy Law, hosted by the University of San Diego School of Law. This year’s event, themed “The Affordability Challenge of the Energy Transition,” focused on the drivers of increased retail electricity rates in California, customer impacts, and potential solutions, from the perspectives of California regulators, load-serving entities including community choice aggregators and an investor-owned utility, retail and industrial customers, and others. Speakers noted the Governor’s recent Executive Order N-5-24, which asks certain California agencies to, among other things, identify programs and regulations unduly contributing to increased rates and to report back by January 1, 2025 with findings and recommendations. As a separate topic, presenters shared their perspectives on the drivers of high gasoline prices in California relative to the rest of the country and the state’s measures to mitigate price spikes, including the California Energy Commission (CEC) Division of Petroleum Market Oversight’s efforts to understand market power (with a forthcoming report before end of year) as well as the Legislature’s recent enactment of Assembly Bill X2-1 (Hart) that allows the CEC to impose requirements for refiners operating in California to maintain minimum levels of fuel inventories.
More information regarding the Symposium is available here on the University of San Diego webpage.
If you have any questions, please contact Lauren Perkins.
Photo credit: Geri Goodale of Reminisce photography
