Senate BillChaptered/SignedGovernment
SB 168: Public Resources.
What SB 168 does, verified August 17, 2026
This bill expresses the intent of the legislature to enact statutory changes. The changes aim to address various aspects of the budget act. The primary goal is to provide clarity and guidance on budget-related matters, ensuring a more efficient and effective use of public funds. The bill's intent is to support the overall well-being of the state by promoting fiscal responsibility and transparency.
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Last action: Chaptered by Secretary of State. Chapter 81, Statutes of 2026. (2026-06-29)Alert me
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| Jul. 13, 2026 | Chaptered by Secretary of State. Chapter 81, Statutes of 2026. |
| Jul. 13, 2026 | Approved by the Governor. |
| Jun. 30, 2026 | Enrolled and presented to the Governor at 3 p.m. |
| Jun. 29, 2026 | Read third time. Passed. (Ayes 57. Noes 17. Page 5899.) Ordered to the Senate. |
| Jun. 29, 2026 | Assembly Rule 63 suspended. (Ayes 53. Noes 14. Page 5891.) |
Latest bill textChaptered version, July 13, 2026 · 3,673 words
Senate Bill No. 168
CHAPTER 81
An act to amend Section 11553.5 of, and to add Section 12894.7 to, the Government Code, to add and repeal Section 43215 of the Health and Safety Code, to amend Sections 1701.8, 3298.3, 3298.5, 3299.1, and 8386.10 of the Public Utilities Code, and to amend Section 80506 of the Water Code, relating to public resources, and making an appropriation therefor, to take effect immediately, bill related to the budget.
[ Approved by Governor July 13, 2026. Filed with Secretary of State July 13, 2026. ]
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
SB 168, Committee on Budget and Fiscal Review. Public Resources.
Existing law establishes the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission (Energy Commission), consisting of 5 members appointed by the Governor. Existing law requires the Governor to designate one of those members as the chair and another member as the vice chair. Existing law establishes an annual salary for the commission members and a higher annual salary for the chairperson, as prescribed.
This bill would require the vice chair of the Energy Commission, operative July 1, 2027, to receive an annual salary that is at the midpoint between the annual salary of the other commission members and that of the chairperson.
Existing law establishes the California membership of the board of directors of the Western Climate Initiative, Incorporated (WCI, Inc.) as part of the state’s implementations of the California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006. Existing law requires certain procurement and contracts proposed by the WCI, Inc. to meet requirements that include, among others, notification to the Joint Legislative Budget Committee. The State Contract Act generally provides a contracting process for state agencies and exempts specific state entities from its provisions relating to contracts for the acquisition of information technology goods and services.
This bill would exempt the Western Climate Initiative, Incorporated from provisions of the State Contract Act relating to the acquisition of information technology goods and services and consider a certain type of contract with WCI, Inc. as a membership agreement.
Existing law establishes various incentive programs that are administered or funded by the State Air Resources Board to provide financial assistance for the purchase of vehicles by individuals and fleet purchasers.
This bill would, with funds provided in the 2026 Budget Act, require the state board to establish a new zero-emission electric vehicle incentive program for first-time zero-emission vehicle buyers and, as part of that program, to enter into grant agreements with light-duty passenger vehicle original engine manufacturers to provide incentives for consumers for the purchase or lease of new, and the purchase of used, light-duty passenger electric vehicles at the point of sale and registered to California residents. This bill would make these provisions inoperative on September 1, 2031, and would repeal them as of January 1, 2032.
Existing law establishes the Continuation Account in the Wildfire Fund, to be administered by the Wildfire Fund Administrator, and continuously appropriates moneys in the account for purposes of payment of eligible claims arising from wildfires ignited on or after September 19, 2025, as provided. Existing law requires each large electrical corporation to provide to the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) a written notification of its election to participate, or not to participate, in the account, and requires the PUC, if all participating electrical corporations have provided their election to participate in the account, to provide the administrator and other entities notification of their elections. Existing law authorizes the administrator, on or after the date the PUC provides that notification, but not later than December 31, 2028, to determine if additional annual contributions from large electrical corporations are needed to enable the account to fund the timely payment of eligible claims, as provided. Existing law requires the PUC, within 15 days of receiving notification from the administrator that additional annual contributions are required, to initiate a rulemaking proceeding to consider using its authority to require the large electrical corporations to collect a nonbypassable charge from ratepayers to support the account, as provided. If the PUC imposes the nonbypassable charge to support the account, existing law requires the large electrical corporations, from calendar years 2029 to 2045, inclusive, to provide to the administrator their annual contributions, as specified, for deposit into the account.
This bill would instead authorize the administrator, on or after the date the PUC provides that notification, but not later than December 31, 2028, to determine if those annual contributions, instead of the additional annual contributions, are needed. The bill would make additional technical and conforming changes.
Existing law requires the PUC to prohibit a large electrical corporation from including in its equity rate base its share, as determined pursuant to a specific allocation metric, of the first $6,000,000,000 expended in aggregate by large electrical corporations on fire risk mitigation capital expenditures approved by the commission on or after January 1, 2026.
This bill would modify the allocation to be used for purposes of the above-described prohibition.
Existing law requires the Energy Commission to implement and administer the Distributed Electricity Backup Assets Program to incentivize the construction of cleaner and more efficient distributed energy assets that would serve as on-call emergency supply or load reduction for the state’s electrical grid during extreme events, and the Demand Side Grid Support Program to incentivize dispatchable customer load reduction and backup generation operation as on-call emergency supply and load reduction for the state’s electrical grid during extreme events, as provided.
Existing law, the Budget Act of 2021, appropriates $495,000,000 from the General Fund to the Energy Commission to support the implementation of the Distributed Electricity Backup Assets Program and provides that this amount is available for encumbrance or expenditure by the Energy Commission until June 30, 2026, and for liquidation until June 30, 2030. Existing law, the Budget Act of 2024, reverts $308,700,000 of that amount to the General Fund.
This bill would specify that the moneys appropriated in the Budget Act of 2021 to support the implementation of the Distributed Electricity Backup Assets Program is also available to be used for the Demand Side Grid Support Program, thereby making an appropriation. The bill would make that appropriation available for encumbrance or expenditure until June 30, 2027.
Under existing law, a violation of the Public Utilities Act or any order, decision, rule, direction, demand, or requirement of the PUC is a crime.
Because certain of the above-described provisions would be part of the act and a violation of a PUC action implementing the above-described provisions would be a crime, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program.
The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement.
This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.
This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as a bill providing for appropriations related to the Budget Bill.
The people of the State of California do enact as follows:
SECTION 1.
Section 11553.5 of the Government Code is amended to read:11553.5.
(a) Effective January 1, 1988, an annual salary of seventy-nine thousand one hundred twenty-two dollars ($79,122) shall be paid to the following:(1) Member of the Agricultural Labor Relations Board.
(2) Member of the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission.
(3) Member of the Public Utilities Commission.
(4) Member of the Public Employment Relations Board.
(5) Member of the Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board.
(6) Member of the Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board.
(7) Member of the State Water Resources Control Board.
(8) Member of the Cannabis Control Appeals Panel.
(b) (1) The annual compensation provided by this section shall be increased in any fiscal year in which a general salary increase is provided for state employees. The amount of the increase provided by this section shall be comparable to, but shall not exceed, the percentage of the general cost-of-living salary increases provided for state employees during that fiscal year.
(2) In addition to the annual increase provided in paragraph (1), the members of the Public Utilities Commission shall receive an annual salary increase of 5 percent in each of the 2021–22, 2022–23, and 2023–24 fiscal years.
(3) In addition to the annual increase provided in paragraph (1), the members of the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission shall receive an annual salary increase of 5 percent in each of the 2023–24, 2024–25, and 2025–26 fiscal years.
(4) Operative July 1, 2027, the vice chair of the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission shall receive an annual salary that is at the midpoint between the annual salary of the other commission members and that of the chairperson.
(c) Notwithstanding subdivision (b), any salary increase pursuant to paragraph (1) of subdivision (b) is subject to Section 11565.5.
SEC. 2.
Section 12894.7 is added to the Government Code, to read:12894.7.
Any contract with the Western Climate Initiative, Incorporated entered into in furtherance of the provisions in Sections 12894 and 12894.5 shall be considered a membership agreement and shall not be subject to Chapter 3 (commencing with Section 12100) of Part 2 of Division 2 of the Public Contract Code.SEC. 3.
Section 43215 is added to the Health and Safety Code, to read:43215.
(a) For purposes of this section, both of the following definitions apply:(1) “California-headquartered zero-emission vehicle company” means a corporation or other business form organized for the transaction of business that has its headquarters in California and the fleet of vehicles it manufactures is only zero-emission vehicles. For a multinational corporation, “California-headquartered zero-emission vehicle company” means the corporation’s United States-based headquarters is in California.
(2) “Headquarters” means the location where the corporation’s executive management and key managerial and support staff are located, and from where the corporation is managed as of January 1, 2026.
(b) The funds made available in Items 3900-101-3228 and 3900-102-0115 of the Budget Act of 2026 shall be used to establish a new zero-emission electric vehicle incentive program pursuant to the requirements of this section for first-time zero-emission electric vehicle buyers, as confirmed by a buyer attestation.
(c) The state board shall establish the program described in subdivision (b) and, as part of the program, shall do both of the following:
(1) Enter into grant agreements with light-duty passenger vehicle original engine manufacturers to provide incentives for consumers for the purchase or lease of new, and the purchase of used, light-duty passenger electric vehicles at the point of sale and registered to California residents.
(2) Set an incentive amount for new vehicles and a lower amount for used vehicles. The incentive amounts shall be matched from participating manufacturers.
(d) (1) An incentive shall not be provided under the program for a new vehicle with a manufacturer’s suggested retail price exceeding fifty thousand dollars ($50,0000), or for a used vehicle with a sales price exceeding twenty-five thousand dollars ($25,000).
(2) Notwithstanding paragraph (1), incentives under the program shall be provided to California-headquartered zero-emission vehicle companies regardless of the vehicle manufacturer’s suggested retail price or sales price.
(3) If a court of competent jurisdiction holds that the application of paragraph (2) is invalid, the remainder of this section shall remain in force and effect as if this section had not included paragraph (2).
(e) An incentive shall not be provided under the program to vehicles with a curb weight exceeding 8,500 pounds.
(f) Participating manufacturers shall disclose to consumers the portion of the incentive that is coming from the State of California.
(g) Participating manufacturers shall not resell or release any vehicle purchased or leased using this incentive in another state until no less than 4 years after the date of the purchase or lease using this incentive.
(h) The Administrative Procedure Act (Chapter 3.5 (commencing with Section 11340) of Part 1 of Division 3 of Title 2 of the Government Code) does not apply to any guidelines or other standards adopted or used by the state board in administering funds governed by this section.
(i) This section shall become inoperative on September 1, 2031, and, as of January 1, 2032, is repealed.
SEC. 4.
Section 1701.8 of the Public Utilities Code is amended to read:1701.8.
(a) For purposes of this section, the following definitions apply:(1) “Covered wildfire” means any wildfire ignited on or after July 12, 2019, for which either of the following is satisfied:
(A) The governmental agency responsible for determining causation or a court of competent jurisdiction determines the wildfire was caused by an electrical corporation.
(B) Asserted to have been caused by an electrical corporation and results in a court-approved dismissal resulting from the settlement of third-party damage claims.
(2) “Wildfire Fund” means the Wildfire Fund created pursuant to Section 3284.
(b) The following procedures and standards apply to a catastrophic wildfire proceeding:
(1) (A) An electrical corporation may file an application pursuant to Section 451 or 451.1, as applicable, at any time after it has paid, or entered into binding commitments to pay, all or, if authorized by the commission for good cause, substantially all third-party damage claims, including payments made pursuant to judgments or settlement agreements related to a covered wildfire. Except as authorized by the commission for good cause, before filing the application, the electrical corporation shall exhaust all rights to indemnification or other claims, contractual or otherwise, against any third parties, including collecting insurance proceeds, related to the covered wildfire.
(B) If an electrical corporation has received payments from the Wildfire Fund for a third-party damage claim for the covered wildfire, the electrical corporation shall file an application to recover the costs pursuant to subparagraph (A) no later than the earlier of the following:
(i) The date when it has resolved all third-party damage claims and exhausted all right to indemnification or other claims, contractual or otherwise, against any third parties, including collecting insurance proceeds, related to the covered wildfire.
(ii) The date that is 45 days after the date the administrator requests the electrical corporation to file the application.
(C) If an electrical corporation issues recovery bonds authorized pursuant to a financing order issued pursuant to clause (ii) of subparagraph (A) of paragraph (1) of subdivision (a) of Section 850.1, the electrical corporation shall file an application pursuant to subparagraph (A) for a determination of the just and reasonableness of the costs and expenses included in the recovery bonds no later than the earlier of the following:
(i) The date when the electrical corporation has resolved all third-party damage claims and exhausted all rights to indemnification or other claims, contractual or otherwise, against any third parties, including collecting insurance proceeds, related to the covered wildfire.
(ii) The date that is 45 days after the date the commission requests the electrical corporation to file the application.
(2) The president of the commission, upon the initiation of a catastrophic wildfire proceeding by the filing of an application pursuant to paragraph (1), shall assign a commissioner to act as the presiding officer in the proceeding and an administrative law judge to assist in conducting the proceeding.
(3) Within 15 days of the filing date of the application, the commission shall notice a prehearing conference, which shall be held within 25 days of the filing date.
(4) (A) Within 30 days of the filing date of the application, the assigned commissioner shall prepare and issue, by order or ruling, a scoping memorandum that states that the scope of the proceeding shall be whether the electrical corporation’s costs and expenses for the covered wildfire are just and reasonable pursuant to Section 451 or 451.1, as applicable.
(B) The scoping memorandum shall establish a schedule for the proceeding, including the date of issuance of a proposed decision that is no later than 12 months after the filing date of the application.
(C) The assigned commissioner may extend the time established in the scoping memorandum for the date of issuance of a proposed decision by up to six months upon a showing of good cause.
SEC. 5.
Section 3298.3 of the Public Utilities Code is amended to read:3298.3.
Upon the determination by the administrator that annual contributions are necessary pursuant to Section 3299.1, the council shall direct the administrator to prepare and present for approval a plan of operations related to the operations, management, and administration of the account on an annual basis. At least annually, the council shall direct the administrator to present the plan of operations to the appropriate policy committees of the Legislature. The plan of operations shall include, but not be limited to, reporting on the account assets, projections for the durability of the account, the success of the account, whether or not the account is serving its purpose, and a plan for winding up the account if projections demonstrate that the account will be exhausted within the next three years.SEC. 6.
Section 3298.5 of the Public Utilities Code is amended to read:3298.5.
(a) On January 1 of the year following the date on which the administrator determines that annual contributions are necessary pursuant to Section 3299.1, and annually thereafter, the council, with the assistance of the administrator, shall prepare and file with the Legislature and the Department of Finance reports regarding the formation, administration, and disposition of the account.(b) A report submitted to the Legislature pursuant to this section shall be submitted in compliance with Section 9795 of the Government Code.
SEC. 7.
Section 3299.1 of the Public Utilities Code is amended to read:3299.1.
(a) On or after the date the commission provides the notification pursuant to subdivision (b) of Section 3299, but not later than December 31, 2028, the administrator may determine if annual contributions pursuant to subdivision (a) of Section 3299.3 are required for either of the following reasons:(1) Absent annual contributions, the administrator would provide a plan for winding up the fund pursuant to Section 3283.
(2) The administrator receives a notification from a large electrical corporation that it has a reasonable belief that it likely will have eligible claims for a single coverage year resulting from one or more covered wildfires.
(b) If the administrator determines that annual contributions are required, the administrator shall provide notification to the commission, the Department of Water Resources, and each large electrical corporation of its determination.
SEC. 8.
Section 8386.10 of the Public Utilities Code is amended to read:8386.10.
(a) The commission shall not allow a large electrical corporation to include in its equity rate base its share, as determined pursuant to the allocation specified in paragraph (2) of subdivision (a) of Section 3299.3, of the six billion dollars ($6,000,000,000) that the large electrical corporations collectively first expend on fire risk mitigation capital expenditures approved by the commission on or after January 1, 2026. These amounts are in addition to the amounts the large electrical corporations shall not include in their equity rate base pursuant to subdivision (e) of Section 8386.3. An electrical corporation’s share of the fire risk mitigation capital expenditures and the debt financing costs of these fire risk mitigation capital expenditures may be financed through a financing order pursuant to Section 850.1, subject to the requirements of that financing order.(b) Subdivision (a) does not apply to an expenditure made after December 31, 2035.
SEC. 9.
Section 80506 of the Water Code is amended to read:80506.
As used in this division, unless the context otherwise requires, all of the following terms have the following meanings:(a) “Account” means the Continuation Account created pursuant to Section 3298 of the Public Utilities Code. This subdivision shall become operative upon all large electrical corporations electing to participate in the account pursuant to Section 3299 of the Public Utilities Code.
(b) “Administrator” has the same meaning as defined in Section 3280 of the Public Utilities Code.
(c) “Bonds” means bonds, notes, or other evidences of indebtedness issued solely for purposes of supporting the Wildfire Fund or the account and other related expenses incurred by the department pursuant to this division, or for reimbursing expenditures from the fund or the Wildfire Fund or the account for those purposes; repaying to the Surplus Money Investment Fund any loans made to the Wildfire Fund; establishing or maintaining reserves in connection with the bonds; costs of issuance of bonds or incidental to their payment or security; capitalized interest; or renewing or refunding any bonds.
(d) “Commission” means the Public Utilities Commission.
(e) “Electrical corporation” means a large electrical corporation, as defined in Section 3280 of the Public Utilities Code, that participates in the Wildfire Fund or the account, as appropriate.
(f) “Fund” means the Department of Water Resources Charge Fund established by Section 80550.
(g) “Wildfire Fund” means the Wildfire Fund created pursuant to Section 3284 of the Public Utilities Code.
SEC. 10.
(a) Moneys appropriated in Item 3360-108-0001 of Section 2.00 of the Budget Act of 2021 for the Distributed Electricity Backup Assets Program shall also be available to be used for the Demand Side Grid Support Program established pursuant to Section 25792 of the Public Resources Code.(b) Notwithstanding any other law, Item 3360-108-0001 of Section 2.00 of the Budget Act of 2021 shall be available for encumbrance or expenditure until June 30, 2027.
SEC. 11.
No reimbursement is required by this act pursuant to Section 6 of Article XIII B of the California Constitution because the only costs that may be incurred by a local agency or school district will be incurred because this act creates a new crime or infraction, eliminates a crime or infraction, or changes the penalty for a crime or infraction, within the meaning of Section 17556 of the Government Code, or changes the definition of a crime within the meaning of Section 6 of Article XIII B of the California Constitution.SEC. 12.
This act is a bill providing for appropriations related to the Budget Bill within the meaning of subdivision (e) of Section 12 of Article IV of the California Constitution, has been identified as related to the budget in the Budget Bill, and shall take effect immediately.Text of SB 168 as chaptered, from the official record. Connect Plus keeps every version and highlights what changed.Compare versions