April 19, 2025 -SACRAMENTO, Calif.— The Senate Committee on Energy, Utilities and Communications on Monday will consider the Investor 
Owned Utility Accountability Act, which addresses ongoing issues of affordability and safety with California’s investor-owned utilities.
What: Senate committee hearing on Senate Bill 332, which would cap utility rate increases and prevent some utility disconnections. Those testifying in support of the bill will include attorneys Roger Lin of the Center for Biological Diversity and Maria Stamas of EnerGaia Consulting.
When: Monday, April 21, 2025, 3 p.m. or upon adjournment of Senate.
Where: California Capitol Annex, Senate Committee on Energy, Utilities and Communications, Room 1200, 1021 O St., Sacramento, CA 95814. The meeting will also be livestreamed: https://seuc.senate.ca.gov/committeehome
Who: Supporters of S.B. 332 — including Lin from the Center, Reclaim Our Power’s Colin Cook-Miller and other experts — will be available after the hearing.
Background
S.B. 332 takes a multi-pronged approach to holding investor-owned utilities accountable in the midst of California’s electricity bill affordability crisis and following the catastrophic Los Angeles wildfires.
The bill would: cap rate increases; prevent utility disconnections for vulnerable ratepayers; reduce ratepayer contributions to the Wildfire Fund and increase corporate utilities’ responsibility for the fund; require audits and replacement of dangerous equipment in high fire-risk areas; require proposed executive compensation to be contingent on safety metrics; and fund a feasibility study to determine what form of utility best serves ratepayers.
The Center for Biological Diversity is a national, nonprofit conservation organization with more than 1.8 million members and online activists dedicated to the protection of endangered species and wild places.
Reclaim Our Power Utility Justice Campaign is a coalition of over 90 environmental justice and allied organizations focused on transforming California's extractive privatized energy system to a not-for-profit alternative that centers the needs of the most impacted communities and ecologies of California.
Source: Center for Biological Diversity
