Janisse Quiñones, chief executive officer of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, served on a panel at the 19th annual Sustainability Summit conducted Oct. 9 by the Los Angeles Business Council. The summit explored explore climate solution and ways to boost the region’s green economy.
Courtesy photo
Wave Staff Report
LOS ANGELES — Despite the loss of hundreds of billions of dollars in federal clean-energy funding and incentives, California remains on course to meet soaring energy demand while also leading the nation in building a green economy, according to government, business and environmental leaders at the Los Angeles Business Council’s 2025 Sustainability Summit Oct. 9.
An annual gathering to explore climate solutions, the summit was convened as state lawmakers and industry redouble efforts to spur investment in a cleaner, more resilient energy future. Energy consumption in California, the world’s fourth-largest economy, is forecast to double by 2045 — the very year the state has pledged to achieve carbon neutrality.
Gov. Gavin Newsom recently signed a package of climate resilience and energy affordability legislation, including the extension of cap-and-invest through 2045 and a landmark law enabling the creation of a regional energy market, a reform that the Business Council has championed for a decade.
“California is responding to Washington’s unprecedented rollbacks by stepping up its leadership of the clean-energy transition, and we’re proud to facilitate this high-level conversation about how we can overcome the new challenges and accelerate investments that drive economic and job growth,” said Business Council President Mary Leslie. “Forging a multi-state western energy market will be a catalyst that expands the supply of clean power, improves the grid’s reliability and efficiency and lowers electricity costs.”
The bill, AB 825, authorizes the California Independent System Operator, a nonprofit company that manages the electricity grid for most of California and a small part of Nevada, to join a broader regional organization to optimize energy supply and planning. It is estimated that the future market will save California consumers about $1 billion a year once it begins operating in 2028.
Assemblywoman Cottie Petrie-Norris, the author of AB 825, told the summit that in addition to being critical to ensuring affordability, reliability, and progress toward California’s climate goals, the regional market exemplifies California’s mission as a global climate leader.
“We could get emissions here in California to zero and it really doesn’t matter a damn. We are 1% of world emissions,” she said, adding that California’s policies should also help neighboring states and countries worldwide achieve their climate goals. “We need to make sure … that other states and countries look at us not as a cautionary tale, but as an inspiration.”
California’s latest steps forward come as the federal government has gutted once-historic levels of funding for clean-energy infrastructure and revoked tax incentives that had catalyzed announcements of $500 billion in private investment in clean-energy development across the U.S. between 2022 and 2024, according to the American Clean Power Association.
Still, as the proliferation of AI data centers drive up demand for energy, private investment in new clean energy generation and transmission is rising. But government permitting takes years, making financing difficult to obtain.
California is set to start receiving electricity from the largest clean-energy infrastructure project in U.S. history, two states away in New Mexico: SunZia Wind and Transmission, a privately financed undertaking that will generate more power than the Hoover Dam and took over 15 years and $11 billion to complete.
For investor, entrepreneur and environmental advocate Tom Steyer, creating fast and cheap clean energy doesn’t require federal incentives and can’t be done by building new power sources and transmission lines. He said the grid in California is only 32% to 42% efficient, and advanced analytics, as well as “dare I say it, Artificial Intelligence,” can optimize transmission to significantly boost supply from the existing footprint. No permits needed.
“We do not need to build the grid,” said Steyer, who is co-executive chairman of global climate investment firm Galvanize. “We don’t have to solve everything with a 20th century answer. We’re in the 21st century.”
Rather, the biggest challenge is creating a regulatory framework that incentivizes smart investment, he said in a fireside chat with Lauren Sanchez, the state’s top emissions regulator as newly appointed chair of the California Air Resources Board.
Sanchez agreed and touted California’s record of defying skeptics who say environment-friendly regulation stifles innovation, economic growth and job creation. The state has emerged as a global powerhouse where renewable energy now accounts for two-thirds of total supply and there are six-times as many renewable-energy jobs as fossil-fuel jobs.
“California is in the ‘how’ business, we are proving the ‘possible.’ It is true that we have to do so in a way that is affordable,” Sanchez said, referring to the transition from fossil fuels to clean energy. “We have a tremendous responsibility to get it right.”
She said that crafting a successful regulatory framework as energy technology evolves will require a deep partnership with the business community and noted that the climate legislation enacted last month had broad bipartisan support. The reauthorized cap-and-invest program is overseen by the Air Resources Board and is expected to generate more than $3 billion in fees a year.
The summit was attended by more than 450 people, and many more who watched the livestream. It featured discussions on building resilience amid increasing wildfires, drought and extreme heat; clean transportation; energy transmission and renewable energy markets; and cleantech finance and investment opportunities.
Given the need for electricity driven by the digital economy, many speakers focused on capital investments in electricity sources and networks.
Elliot Mainzer, president and CEO of the California Independent System Operator, which will participate in the future regional energy market, estimated California would need $50 to $60 billion in investment by 2045 to meet demand. Amazon, the largest corporate energy buyer in the world, has invested in more than 600 renewable projects globally, creating 34 gigawatts of new clean energy, said Vibhu Kaushik, global head of energy for Amazon Web Services. California has added nearly 31 gigawatts of renewable energy and storage capacity since Newsom became governor in 2019.
The Los Angeles Business Council has been a longstanding advocate of accelerating investment in clean energy, transportation and environmental remediation, putting Los Angeles and the entire state of California at the forefront of the fight against climate change.
Praising the council’s leadership, Wade Crowfoot, secretary of the California Natural Resources Agency, invoked ice hockey legend Wayne Gretzky’s maxim about foresight: “Skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been.”
On sustainability, Crowfoot said, “the LABC skates to where the puck is going to be.”
