Senate BillVetoedPublic Resources
SB 787: Energy: equitable clean energy supply chains and industrial policy in California.
What SB 787 does, verified March 3, 2026
The bill aims to promote equitable clean energy supply chains and industrial policy in California. The state energy resources conservation and development commission must designate a senior counselor on industrial policy and clean energy development by March 1, 2027. This counselor will convene working groups to focus on specific issues and track progress under a memorandum of understanding among various state agencies. The memorandum outlines goals and provisions for equitable clean energy supply chains and industrial policy. The senior counselor will prepare an annual report summarizing key findings and recommendations, which will be published online and presented at a public meeting. The bill also establishes a fund to support the implementation of the memorandum's provisions.
Bill journey
✓IntroducedComplete
✓In CommitteeComplete
✓First Chamber FloorComplete
✓Second ChamberComplete
5GovernorCurrent
6ChapteredPending
Last action: Veto sustained. (2026-03-02)Alert me
Author and sponsors
Full contact details, staff, and committees with Connect, $16/moUnlockRecent actions42 total · showing 5
| Mar. 02, 2026 | Veto sustained. |
| Mar. 02, 2026 | Stricken from file. |
| Oct. 13, 2025 | In Senate. Consideration of Governor's veto pending. |
| Oct. 13, 2025 | Vetoed by the Governor. |
| Sep. 23, 2025 | Enrolled and presented to the Governor at 2 p.m. |
Latest bill textEnrolled version, September 18, 2025 · 2,861 words
| Enrolled September 18, 2025 |
| Passed IN Senate September 13, 2025 |
| Passed IN Assembly September 12, 2025 |
| Amended IN Assembly September 05, 2025 |
| Amended IN Assembly September 02, 2025 |
| Amended IN Assembly June 26, 2025 |
| Amended IN Senate April 28, 2025 |
| Amended IN Senate April 08, 2025 |
CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2025–2026 REGULAR SESSION
Senate Bill
No. 787
| Introduced by Senator McNerney (Coauthors: Assembly Members Petrie-Norris, Ransom, and Zbur) |
February 21, 2025 |
An act to add Chapter 8.5 (commencing with Section 25730) to Division 15 of the Public Resources Code, relating to energy.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
SB 787, McNerney. Energy: equitable clean energy supply chains and industrial policy in California.
Existing law requires the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission (Energy Commission) to adopt, on a biennial basis, an integrated energy policy report that contains an overview of major energy trends and issues facing the state, including supply, demand, pricing, reliability, efficiency, and impacts on public health and safety, the economy, resources, and the environment. Existing law requires that the report present policy recommendations based on an in-depth and integrated analysis of the most current and pressing energy issues facing the state.
This bill would require the Energy Commission, on or before March 1, 2027, to designate a person within the Energy Commission or identify and retain an external candidate to serve as the Senior Counselor on Industrial Policy and Clean Energy Development, and would require the senior counselor to, among other things, convene working groups that focus on certain issues, as provided. The bill would require the Energy Commission, the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development, the Labor and Workforce Development Agency, the Public Utilities Commission, the Department of General Services, and the office of the Treasurer, on or before March 1, 2027, to enter into a memorandum of understanding on equitable clean energy supply chains and industrial policy in California with specified goals and provisions, as provided. The bill would require the senior counselor to track and coordinate the work under the memorandum of understanding and to prepare an annual report summarizing the key findings and recommendations resulting from that work. The bill would require that the report be presented at a public meeting of the Energy Commission and be published on the Energy Commission’s internet website. The bill would establish in the State Treasury the Equitable Clean Energy Supply Chain and Industrial Policy Fund and would, upon appropriation by the Legislature, authorize the moneys in the fund to be expended for purposes of the bill.
The people of the State of California do enact as follows:
SECTION 1.
(a) The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:(1) California has ambitious goals for building a new, green economy that accelerates clean energy growth and provides quality jobs for its citizens.
(2) Section 454.53 of the Public Utilities Code requires that renewable and zero-carbon energy resources supply 100 percent of retail electricity sales by 2045.
(3) In 2020, Governor Newsom signed Executive Order No. N-79-20, which required all light-duty vehicles sold in California to be zero emission by 2035.
(4) In 2022 the Blue Ribbon Commission on Lithium Extraction in California issued a report stating that the Salton Sea geothermal resource area is well positioned to become a competitive source of lithium that could satisfy more than one-third of today’s worldwide lithium demand. These resources could also support a California-based battery manufacturing supply chain that provides high-wage jobs in the state.
(5) The State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission has set a goal of deploying 2,000 to 5,000 megawatts (MW), inclusive, of offshore wind by 2030 and 25,000 MW by 2045, enough electricity to power 3,750,000 homes initially and 25,000,000 homes by mid-century. In its Assembly Bill 525 Offshore Wind Strategic Plan, the commission estimates 2,375 to 8,280 jobs, inclusive, created in this sector by 2030 and 5,063 to 17,950 jobs, inclusive, by 2045. The amount and longevity of job growth is highly dependent on how much of the supply chain California is able to attract.
(6) Chapter 314 of the Statutes of 2023 requires the commission, in consultation with specified state agencies, to conduct a study on the feasibility of achieving 50 percent and 65 percent in-state assembly and manufacturing of offshore wind energy projects and specified federal domestic content thresholds for offshore wind energy projects and to submit a report on the study to the Governor and the Legislature on or before December 31, 2027.
(7) In a letter to the State Air Resources Board in 2022, Governor Newsom declared the need for 3,000,000 clean and healthy homes by 2030, and 6,000,000 heat pumps by 2030. Electrified home construction also has the potential to bring significant job growth to California.
(8) Batteries, building decarbonization, and offshore wind are widely understood to be critical clean energy sectors. Yet numerous recent reports, including Financing a Climate-Safe Future: Low- and Moderate-Income Residential Building Decarbonization (August 2023), authored by multiple organizations, The Cost of Offshore Wind Energy in the United States From 2025 to 2050 (August 2024), authored by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, and Powering Prosperity: Building an Inclusive Lithium Supply Chain in California’s Salton Sea Region (March 2024), authored by New Energy Nexus, show that the battery, heat pump, and offshore wind industries are not on track to achieve deployment rates at pace with climate goals, scale in-state production and jobs, or bring down costs to consumers under current business models.
(9) In 2023, Governor Newsom signed Executive Order No. N-8-23, which ordered the Senior Counselor on Infrastructure to convene an Infrastructure Strike Team to work across state agencies to accelerate the development of clean infrastructure, including in the clean energy sector, across the state. One of the stated goals of this effort is to create high-quality, broadly accessible jobs in California, and to ensure those jobs are accessible to California communities that have suffered inequitable infrastructure development and a disproportionate burden of negative impacts from development.
(10) Chapter 135 of the Statutes of 2017 requires the California Workforce Development Board to present a report to the Legislature on strategies “to help industry, workers, and communities transition to economic and labor-market changes related to statewide greenhouse gas emissions reduction goals.” The resulting report, issued by the University of California, Berkeley Labor Center, provides strategies for creating high road jobs in California, which this act seeks to build upon.
(11) On February 26, 2025, Governor Newsom released a California Jobs First Economic Blueprint to guide the state’s investments in key sectors to drive sustainable economic growth, innovation, and access to good-paying jobs over the next decade. Batteries, electric vehicles, offshore wind, and critical materials are among the industries named for prioritization in the blueprint and in most of the Jobs First Collaboratives’ regional plans.
(12) At present, no state-led interagency process exists to coordinate state agency planning, rulemaking, subsidization, permitting, technical assistance, procurement, and other state administrative functions in the lithium ion battery, building decarbonization, and offshore wind industries. The lack of such processes has been credited by stakeholders as a significant limiting factor to accelerating clean energy deployment, developing in-state supply chains and high road jobs, and ensuring affordability of new clean energy technologies to ratepayers and working class communities.
(13) At present, no regular and ongoing state-led process exists to coordinate industry stakeholders, including clean energy equipment and component manufacturers, clean energy developers, labor, communities, environmental organizations, and other key stakeholders, to identify barriers to in-state industrial development and to inform state level industry planning for batteries, offshore wind, and building decarbonization. Numerous national and subnational governments around the world have recognized the need for embedding key industry stakeholders into industrial policy making processes.
(b) It is the intent of the Legislature to create new formalized partnerships between state agencies, labor, community organizations, environmental organizations, clean energy industry representatives, local governments, and academic institutions to facilitate a thoughtful consideration of comprehensive industrial policies to support all of the following:
(1) Building integrated industrial bases in California to support the zero-emission vehicle and battery supply chain industries, offshore wind and offshore wind component industries, and building decarbonization and heat pump industries through industrial planning, public investment, procurement, and subsidization.
(2) Accelerating deployment of battery, heat pump, and offshore wind technologies at scale.
(3) Creating high road manufacturing, installation, and construction jobs for California workers in the battery, heat pump, and offshore wind supply chains.
(4) Creating pathways to high road jobs for workers from disadvantaged and Native American communities in California through apprenticeship programs, preapprenticeship programs, and joint labor-management training programs.
(5) Ensuring environmental justice and responsible material sourcing in the build out of listed supply chains.
(6) Reducing the cost of electricity, energy products, and energy services for public purchasers and all Californians, but especially low-income customers, disadvantaged communities, and tribal communities.
(c) It is the intent of the Legislature to achieve in-state production of manufactured products, scaled deployment of clean energy resources, and lower unit prices of needed goods and services for public entities and low-income consumers through the use of new market-building industrial policies, including, but not limited to, all of the following:
(1) State stockpiles of critical equipment.
(2) State advanced-purchase agreements.
(3) Central and leveraged procurement.
(4) State enterprises.
(5) State authorities.
(6) Public-private joint ventures.
(7) Public equity stakes.
(8) Price management.
(9) Bond issuance.
(10) Novel forms of public financing for industrial development.
SEC. 2.
Chapter 8.5 (commencing with Section 25730) is added to Division 15 of the Public Resources Code, to read:CHAPTER 8.5. Senior Counselor on Industrial Policy and Clean Energy Development
25730.
For purposes of this chapter, all of the following definitions apply:(a) “Fund” means the Equitable Clean Energy Supply Chain and Industrial Policy Fund established pursuant to Section 25733.
(b) “High road job” means employment that is consistent with the job quality standards and employment practices set forth in subdivision (s) of Section 14005 of the Unemployment Insurance Code.
(c) “Senior counselor” means the Senior Counselor on Industrial Policy and Clean Energy Development designated pursuant to Section 25731.
(d) “Strategic industries” means the offshore wind, battery, and building decarbonization and heat pump industries.
25731.
(a) On or before March 1, 2027, the commission shall designate a person within the commission or identify and retain an external candidate to serve as the Senior Counselor on Industrial Policy and Clean Energy Development.(b) The senior counselor shall do all of the following:
(1) Collect data relevant to the development of the strategic industries, including firm and consumer costs, prices, and technological development pathway data, industrial economic analyses, technology deployment rates, and workforce development needs, and publish the information on a publicly accessible, commission-approved internet website.
(2) Coordinate firms, industry associations, technical assistance providers, and labor unions in relevant industries, including, but not limited to, original equipment manufacturers, suppliers, installers, and distribution networks, to develop a synergistic and integrated California clean energy and decarbonization production and deployment ecosystem, and to identify priority industry segments for development to achieve vertically and horizontally integrated in-state industry growth.
(3) In partnership with the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development and the Office of Land Use and Climate Innovation, serve as a central point of contact between state agencies and companies in strategic industries that are interested in siting, expanding, or retaining production facilities in California, and compile and offer streamlined information about financial and site selection assistance, workforce development and apprenticeship resources, and other supportive state, local, and nonprofit services for those companies.
(4) Convene at least two public meetings per year at which state agencies discuss their ongoing and planned work in the strategic industries, and public comments and recommendations are solicited regarding how state agencies can most effectively facilitate the accelerated deployment of clean energy technologies, the reduction of prices for California ratepayers, and the creation of high road jobs in strategic industries. The meetings shall include reports from state agencies party to the memorandum of understanding described in subdivision (a) of Section 25732 on the status of activities conducted pursuant to the memorandum of understanding, reports from members of the working groups listed in paragraph (5), and public comment.
(5) (A) Convene working groups focused on specific issues, including home batteries, vehicle batteries, grid-scale batteries, battery recycling, offshore wind, and building decarbonization. These working groups may include, at the senior counselor’s discretion, representatives of state agencies, labor, private firms, environmental protection advocates, environmental justice groups, tribal communities, and other experts and stakeholders, as appropriate. The working groups shall identify and evaluate potential administrative, programmatic, statutory, and regulatory changes to accelerate the in-state growth of the relevant supply chains, accelerate the deployment of clean energy technology, increase the availability of high road jobs, and lower prices for low-income Californians, and promote environmental justice, including responsible materials sourcing, processing, repair, reuse, and recycling.
(B) In identifying potential statutory and regulatory changes pursuant to subparagraph (A), the working groups shall consider all of the following:
(i) State stockpiles of critical equipment.
(ii) Direct, leveraged, or central procurement of critical equipment.
(iii) Advanced market commitments by state or state-regulated entities.
(iv) Public equity and direct public investment, including through public pension funds in strategic private companies.
(v) The establishment of public-private joint ventures and state-owned enterprises at various stages of supply chains.
(vi) The identification and coordination of strategic state pension fund project investment targets.
(vii) Bond issuance and development of state-backed financial products.
(viii) Price management policies.
25732.
(a) On or before March 1, 2027, the commission, the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development, the Labor and Workforce Development Agency, the Public Utilities Commission, the Department of General Services, and the office of the Treasurer shall enter into a memorandum of understanding on equitable clean energy supply chains and industrial policy in California with all of the following goals:(1) Building integrated industrial bases in California to support the zero-emission vehicle and battery supply chain industries, offshore wind and offshore wind component industries, and building decarbonization and heat pump industries through industrial planning, public investment, procurement, and subsidization.
(2) Accelerating deployment of battery, heat pump, and offshore wind technologies at scale.
(3) Creating high road jobs in the manufacturing, installation, and construction industries for California workers in the battery, heat pump, and offshore wind supply chains.
(4) Creating pathways to high road jobs for workers from disadvantaged and Native American communities in California through leveraging registered apprenticeship programs, preapprenticeship programs, and joint labor-management training programs.
(5) Ensuring environmental justice in the build out of listed supply chains.
(6) Reducing the cost of electricity, energy products, and energy services for public purchasers and all Californians, but especially low-income customers, disadvantaged communities, and tribal communities.
(b) In furtherance of the goals specified in subdivision (a), the memorandum of understanding shall include provisions to accomplish all the following:
(1) Survey public and private spending for the electric vehicle and battery supply chain industries, offshore wind industry, and building decarbonization and heat pump industries, and provide recommendations on strategies to maximize the impact of state funds in strategically developing vertically and horizontally integrated in-state supply chains and, especially, the development of priority industry segments as identified in paragraph (2) of subdivision (b) of Section 25731. These recommendations shall include research and development programs, economic development programs, government procurement, direct industry incentives, consumer incentives, and utility and infrastructure programs.
(2) Identify how to best coordinate all of the following activities relating to zero-emission vehicle and battery supply chain industries, offshore wind and offshore wind component industries, and building decarbonization and heat pump industries with relevant state, federal, and local agencies:
(A) Research and development.
(B) Economic development programs.
(C) Industry incentives.
(D) Utility and infrastructure programs.
(E) Siting services to achieve values-driven supply chain development.
(F) Integration of workforce standards, community benefits agreement models, workforce training and targeted hiring programs into state awarding processes identified as relevant to the battery, building decarbonization, and offshore wind supply chains.
(3) Identify the need for additional research to fulfill long-term goals in the strategic industries described in subdivision (a), which may include, but shall not be limited to, supply chain reviews, workforce needs assessments, market research, and economic and environmental impact modeling.
(c) The senior counselor shall track and coordinate the work under the memorandum of understanding. The senior counselor shall prepare an annual report summarizing the key findings and recommendations resulting from activities undertaken pursuant to the memorandum of understanding. The report shall be presented annually at a public meeting of the commission and published annually on the commission’s internet website.
25733.
(a) There is hereby established in the State Treasury the Equitable Clean Energy Supply Chain and Industrial Policy Fund.(b) Moneys that may be deposited into the fund include, but are not limited to, both of the following:
(1) Moneys received from the federal government that are authorized to be spent for purposes of this chapter.
(2) Donations from private entities, nonprofits, or local governments for purposes of this chapter.
(c) Upon appropriation by the Legislature, moneys in the fund shall be expended for purposes of this chapter.
Text of SB 787 as enrolled, from the official record. Connect Plus keeps every version and highlights what changed.Compare versions