California’s Energy Transition: Decarbonization & Decentralization (Michael Wara, Woods Institute for the Environment and Stanford Law School)

“There are issues with energy poverty in California, and they tend to be localized in the very hot regions that are relatively low income.”

“In the long run California wants to move away from gas fired power plants. That means leaning more on hydro, creating price-responsive demand, batteries to replace peaker plants, and expanding the market beyond California’s boundaries.”

“The high costs of excess rooftop solar energy are ultimately borne by ratepayers.  They accept it because … it is confusing and they don’t understand it.  But also people really like rooftop solar. … There is strong support for distributed generation in California.”

Michael Wara is a Senior Research Scholar at Stanford University’s Woods Hole Institute, where he is the Director of the Climate and Energy Program, and a Fellow at Stanford Law School. He has a J.D. from Stanford and a Ph.D in Oceanography from the University of Californa at Santa Cruz.