Educating Our Elected Officials: IBEW Goes to Sacramento

Each Spring, IBEW leaders, staff and rank-and-file members from across the state descend on Sacramento to talk to their elected officials about upcoming legislation at the beginning of the legislative season. With a new, more combative and anti-union administration in place in Washington, DC, our challenges are heightened this year. The Los Angeles firestorms in January also put a spotlight on wildfire protections. In 2025, there will also be additional attacks on our jurisdiction from other trades trying to encroach on our work, as well as the usual issues we face on safety and permitting.

On March 24-26, over 150 IBEW leaders and staff from IBEW locals across the state spread out across the capital to talk to their elected representatives about the most urgent workforce issues facing our membership: streamlining permitting, opposition to offshore wind projects, EV charging, battery storage and Net Energy Metering (NEM) reform efforts that impact our work.

A Few Key Issues We’re Focusing on:

  • Permit Streamlining – labor needs to have a voice in how projects are built in the communities where we live. There is proposed legislation being floated to block labor’s input in some permitting processes and to gut CEQA.
  • Battery Storage – we need to increase our production in order to hit our 2035 renewable energy goals that the Governor wants. We’re sponsoring legislation in conjunction with the Fire Departments on establishing safety standards.
  • Net Energy Metering (NEM) reform – we are supporting common-sense revisions to the current law that would lower the payout from 20 years to 10 years to benefit renters and other residents who don’t have the funds to invest in solar panels.
  • Electrical Transmission Infrastructure Solutions – we support cost-effective solutions that would lower cost for ratepayers while building out and integrating clean energy sources to meet the Governor’s goals by 2035. We support SB 330 mandates the use of IBEW’s skilled and trained workforce on these transmission projects, while creating high quality jobs to support our workforce development goals.

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