Gavin Newsom’s complicated legacy on climate and clean energy

California Governor Gavin Newsom's eight years in office end in January, and energy experts are weighing what his record means for the state's clean energy push. On the plus side, California added huge amounts of solar power, batteries, and electric vehicles while growing its economy, and Newsom pushed a mandate to end gas-car sales by 2035. But critics say he sided with utility companies over homeowners on several fronts. In 2023, regulators he appointed cut payments to new rooftop solar customers, and he vetoed bills that would have let homeowners' batteries and EVs help supply power to the grid during peak demand — a setup called a "virtual power plant" that could lower everyone's bills by reducing the need for backup gas plants.

For homeowners, the bigger story may be cost. California electricity rates have climbed to roughly twice the U.S. average, even as the state's big utilities post record profits. High electricity prices make it harder to justify switching to an electric car or a heat pump (an efficient electric heating and cooling system), since the savings shrink when power itself costs more. Experts interviewed say this affordability problem, not clean energy itself, is the real threat to further progress — and that fixing it will take longer than any one governor's term.

Whoever becomes California's next governor will inherit this rate problem along with unresolved fights over wildfire liability costs and utility spending, meaning homeowners in the state should expect the debate over electricity bills and rooftop solar rules to continue well past this transition.