NEWS CODEX: SMR Development; Senate Bill 492; BC2BC ZEV Corridor
"Backyard Nukes" an Answer to California's Future Energy Questions: "California should be at the leading edge of SMR development. No state needs as much electricity as California and in no state outside of Hawaii does retail power cost more. Policymakers and activists publicly assure us that solar and wind will meet future energy demands, but privately they likely know better. The activists don’t care and while the policymakers do, they’re afraid to cross the green line the eco-zealots and the media have put down. If the game doesn’t change soon, California is going to find itself with an energy problem that it can neither tax nor regulate its way out of." PACIFIC RESEARCH INSTITUTE
Bluecore Energy Developing Nuclear Power Barge at Port of Long Beach: "Bluecore's initial 10-MWe system is designed to generate enough electricity to power the equivalent of approximately 15,000 homes. The company said individual reactor units could be combined to provide additional generating capacity and would be fueled for several years of operation." WORKBOAT
California's New Regulation Adds Hundreds to the Cost of a Set of New Tires: "The California Energy Commission recently approved new rules to phase out the sale of replacement tires that do not meet the state’s energy-efficiency standards. The Replacement Tire Efficiency Program would mandate that 'replacement tires are at least as energy efficient, on average, as tires sold on new vehicles' and help 'promote driver safety by setting a minimum wet grip standard.' The rules target a tire’s 'rolling resistance,' or how much energy it takes to keep a tire moving down the road. Lower resistance means cars use less gas or electricity for better mileage, which state officials claimed will help affordability. The first phase of the rule begins in 2029, when replacement tires must meet a maximum rolling-resistance level of 9.1 newtons per kilonewton — a threshold that drops to 7.2 in 2033." INSTITUTE FOR ENERGY RESEARCH
I Did a Deep Dive into California's "Tire Ban" – Here's the Truth About What's Happening: "The scope of enforcement is at the retailer, manufacturer, and test laboratory level." THE AUTOPIAN
California Let a Utility Wildfire Liability Cap Die Without a Vote, and the Cost Did Not Go Anywhere: "The California Legislature adjourned its session without advancing Senate Bill 492, Governor Gavin Newsom’s proposal to cap utility wildfire liability. The equity market priced the result within a day. PG&E stock dropped 20 percent. Edison International fell 23 percent, its largest single-day decline in more than 25 years. A 23 percent single-session repricing of a regulated utility is not a statement about the current quarter’s earnings. It is a statement about who carries a liability that nobody disputes exists." ENERGY STORAGE WIRE
Gov. Newsom Failed to Rewrite California's Wildfire Liability System: "Opponents of Newsom’s plan called it a utility bailout that would shift costs onto homeowners via higher premiums and insurers. The plan would reduce compensation for victims." CALIFORNIA GLOBE
California Pays EV Owners Up to $3,200 a Year to Export Power, and PG&E Has 51 Cars Connected: "Pacific Gas and Electric added dcbel and Wallbox chargers to its residential vehicle-to-everything pilot in August 2026. The move widens a California program that pays EV owners to send power back to the grid. Drivers enrolled in the state’s REDWDS grant program earn up to $3,200 per vehicle each year by exporting stored energy, according to dcbel. The California Energy Commission covers up to $13,000 of the hardware and installation cost. PG&E takes $2,500 off installation, or $3,000 in disadvantaged communities. It adds a $1,500 early-adopter payment for the first 250 customers. Massachusetts goes further and installs the equipment free. Yet PG&E reported just 51 interconnected V2X customers as of July 2026."MGRID
California Politicians Promised White Gold in "Lithium Valley" – but Are Those Dreams Fading? "The Hell's Kitchen project by Controlled Thermal Resources has been delayed by lawsuits arguing that the company neglected to address its environmental impacts. Last month an appeals court sent the environmental review back to Imperial County to correct deficiencies regarding water and air quality effects." LAIST
CEC Ponders Fate of Proposed 300-MW Battery Storage Project: "The project under question is the 300-MW Corby Energy Storage project in Vacaville, which would be installed on about 40 acres and store enough power to meet the electricity demand of about 225,000 houses." RTO INSIDER
Five West Coast Governments Back a 20-Station Electric Truck Corridor on I-%, with No New Money Attached: "California, Oregon, Washington, British Columbia and Baja California launched the BC2BC ZEV Corridor on August 26, 2026. The ceremony took place at the Port of Long Beach. The plan places 20 electric truck charging stations along Interstate 5. The route runs from Vancouver to the Mexican border. Three hydrogen fueling stations go in beside them. About 10,000 trucks drive that route every day. The five governments signed a statement of principles, not a construction contract. They attached no new money to it. The buildout leans on a $102 million federal grant instead. California, Oregon and Washington transportation departments won that money in 2024." MGRID
For BPA, the Biggest Electricity Market May Not be the Best Market: "We are looking at a future scenario in which BPA cedes dispatch of the nation’s most affordable federal power system to institutions of its most expensive state (California)." RTO INSIDER
How Clean Energy Fared in the California Legislature: "...AB 1156 cuts costs and red tape for farmers who want to put solar panels on their land. AB 2493 takes aim at transmission upgrade delays that are preventing new clean power projects from coming online. AB 550 smooths out a permitting wrinkle related to species that are candidates for protection under the California Endangered Species Act. But on Wednesday, a day after the Legislature adjourned without addressing California utilities’ unlimited exposure to wildfire liability costs, PG&E announced it will delay or defer $2 billion worth of critical work in 2027, including prepping the grid for new clean energy projects and providing power to new housing developments." THE CURRENT
OPAL Fuels Upgrades California Fueling Station: "The enhanced facility is expected to dispense approximately 14 million gasoline gallon equivalents of RNG and CNG over the next decade, including 1.7 million GGE of additional capacity made possible through this upgrade. The project enables Premier Ag Transportation Inc. to fuel its fleet at the station while continuing to serve Western Milling and ten other commercial and regional customers." BIOMASS MAGAZINE
PG&E and Rewiring America Announce Google-Funded Virtual Power Plant Program: "The initiative, designed to test the locational value of customer-sited resources, will deploy flexible capacity from thousands of existing home batteries and smart devices across the Bay Area, while subsidizing the purchase and installation of new battery-enabled Carrier heat pumps." PV MAGAZINE
PG&E Sees Rising Interest in "Customer-Driven" Flexible Interconnection Pilot: "Active Flex Connect participants have seen operational loads impacted less than 1% of the time during 'the rare confluence of events' when the local grid is constrained and their demand remains high, Alex Collins, PG&E’s manager of execution operations and distributed energy resource management systems, said in an interview." UTILITY DIVE
Santa Monica Puts 130 DC Fast Ports Behind Big Blue Bus, with Eaton Supplying the Medium-Voltage Side: "Santa Monica will install 130 DC fast-charging ports to electrify its Big Blue Bus fleet by 2032. ChargePoint and Eaton announced the partnership with the Santa Monica Department of Transportation on August 27, 2026. The work sits inside a $56 million investment in electric transit infrastructure. California’s Transit and Intercity Rail Capital Program supplies $53.3 million of that total. The plan covers 195 buses on a system that carries more than 10 million rides a year. ChargePoint supplies the charging hardware from its Express Plus line, plus fleet software. Eaton supplies the part that decides whether the depot works at all: medium-voltage switchgear, switchboards, panelboards and engineering support. Earlier design work described overhead gantry charging rather than floor-mounted dispensers." MGRID
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