ABSTRACT
Over the past several decades California has developed the most comprehensive and coherent sets of policies directed towards fostering an energy system. Climate Policy experience has resulted in providing California with a strong institutional and technical capacity to address, in an equitable and cost-effective manner, the climate policy challenge. With the establishment of the California Energy Commission (CEC) in 1974, and over a century of work by the California Public Utilities Commission (CAPUC), the state has also become a world leader in energy efficiency and conservation, as well as in clean energy generation. In California, regulators continue to innovate at the intersection of economic, energy, environmental, and climate policy while developing supplementary regulatory frameworks pursuant to Assembly Bill 32 (AB 32). California has become a living laboratory for exploring how innovation, capital, and policy drivers can interact to achieve a low-carbon future. This key policy design feature to price carbon enhances the efficiency, transparency, and fairness in the program.
