CA Legislature Greenlights Skinner’s Climate Bills, Including SB 59, Using EVs to Power Homes
The California Legislature has greenlighted Sen. Nancy Skinner’s climate bills, including SB 59, which is designed to ensure that electric vehicle owners can use their EV’s battery to power their homes and reduce energy bills. The legislation is also designed to help relieve strain on the state’s electrical grid.
The Legislature also passed Sen. Skinner’s SB 941, which would jumpstart the process of decarbonizing California’s industrial sector, which currently accounts for about 22% of the state’s greenhouse gas emissions.
“California is a global leader in the fight against climate change, but our climate crisis requires a multipronged approach to truly make progress,” said Sen. Skinner, D-Berkeley. “SB 59 will unleash the power of EVs to be mini power plants on wheels, providing clean energy to homes, slashing consumer utility bills, and stabilizing the grid. And SB 941 will examine cutting edge advancements in clean energy that can be used to decarbonize our industrial sector — which after transportation, is our state’s second-largest source of climate-harming emissions,”
SB 59 won approval from the state Senate on a 30-8 vote, after passing the Assembly on a vote of 58-14. The bill is supported by large coalition of environmental and climate organizations.
“As California weathers yet another summer of dangerous heat waves and wildfires, we can look to the batteries in our electric vehicles to avoid blackouts — not polluting, fossil fuel power plants,” said Ellie Cohen, CEO of bill co-sponsor The Climate Center. “We are thrilled that SB 59 passed out of the Legislature. Putting more bidirectional electric vehicles on the road will help California keep the lights on, clean the air, and lower energy prices for consumers. We thank Senator Skinner for her leadership and look forward to Governor Newsom signing this bill into law shortly.”
“The switch to electric vehicles is reducing emissions from transportation, and EVs also have the potential to be a clean energy resource,” said Sam Houston, senior analyst for the Clean Transportation program at the Union of Concerned Scientists. “SB 59 is a critical first step toward ensuring all new EVs in California are capable of bidirectional charging so their batteries can power homes, buildings, and even the grid — boosting resilience and reliability as climate change fuels more extreme weather and wildfires”.
SB 941 passed the Assembly on a vote of 75-1, and the Senate, on 31-5 vote. Both SB 59 and SB 941 now go to the governor’s desk.
SB 59 would direct the California Energy Commission (CEC), in consultation with the Air Resources Board (CARB) and the Public Utilities Commission, to examine the most effective uses of bidirectional charging, which allows an EV to power a home or building. The CEC would then have the authority to require certain new EVs to come equipped with bidirectional capability.
California is projected to have at least 8 million EVs on the road by 2030. Currently, many EVs on the market already have bidirectional charging, including the Nissan Leaf, which is one of the most affordable EVs available. In addition, Tesla plans to equip all of its EVs with bidirectional charging by next year. Some automakers, including Ford, with its F-150 Lightning pickup truck, have been marketing the capability of EVs to power homes.
With bidirectional charging, an EV owner would be able to reduce their electricity bills by using their EV battery to power their homes during those times when electricity demand and energy rates are their highest. EV owners could then recharge their battery during non-peak hours when rates are lower, including during the day when solar power is plentiful.
SB 59 is also designed to reverse a troubling trend: In recent years, Californians have increasingly responded to power outages and rolling blackouts by purchasing backup generators, especially diesel generators that emit significant amounts of air pollution and are harmful to public health. EV batteries currently have the ability to power a home for up to two days, and so are a green alternative to backup generators.
In addition, the use of EV batteries to power homes during times of extreme electricity demand, such as heatwaves, will relieve strain on the state’s power grid and help enable California to avoid blackouts.
SB 941, meanwhile, would instruct CARB to examine the availability of zero-emission technologies that can be used to reduce GHGs in California’s industrial sector. California is the largest manufacturing state in the country, and emissions from manufacturing facilities, food processing, and other industrial processes make up 22% of the state’s current GHG emissions inventory.
As the transportation sector continues to electrify, industrial emissions will become proportionately larger, making the time ripe for CARB to analyze new processes and technologies that could reduce industrial sector emissions.
Sen. Nancy Skinner represents the 9th Senate District and is chair of the Senate Housing Committee and the California Legislative Women’s Caucus.