The CPUC Makes Good on Neighborhood Electrification

Source: Legal Planet  |  By Elias Van Emmerick

Here’s something to celebrate: the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) released its proposed decision designating initial priority neighborhood decarbonization zones.  SB 1221 is a law passed last fall that allows the CPUC to support “neighborhood decarbonization zones” to transition away from natural gas toward zero-emissions alternatives. Phasing out natural gas in favor of electrified alternatives is a vital step toward California’s ambitious decarbonization goals.

Emmett Institute's Denise Grab, a clean energy expert, wrote at the time that “when everything is a priority, nothing is a priority.” Grab, who heads UCLA Law’s E-CELL project, was not alone in this assessment: NRDC, Sierra Club, The Utility Reform Network (TURN), and Cal Advocates all pushed for a discrete cohort of priority decarbonization zones.