IBEW Comes Out Winners in 2025 Energy, Housing & Cap & Trade Legislative Priorities

Thanks to CSAEW’s coordinated advocacy efforts, IBEW came out the winners for several of our legislative priorities during the 2025 legislative session. Here is a summary of our key issues:

Energy

AB 825. This bill, sponsored by CSAEW, establishes an independent, non-profit, regional energy organization that will improve grid reliability, expand renewable energy use, and lower electricity costs for consumers across the Western U.S. by centralizing energy planning. AB 825 also supports increased deployment of renewable energy resources by providing market access for California’s clean energy and reducing reliance on fossil fuels. The bill was signed by the Governor.

SB 254. This landmark energy and affordability bill, which was signed by the Governor, coordinates transmission planning and public financing and may save California ratepayers up to $3 billion annually while creating hundreds of jobs for IBEW members in grid maintenance and hardening projects. The bill strengthens California’s wildfire protections by requiring updated wildfire mitigation plans every four years and creates a new, $9-billion Continuation Account within the Wildfire Fund that will ensure faster approval of grid undergrounding projects.

SB 283. SB 283 is a direct outgrowth of CSAEW’s partnership with the California Professional Firefighters (CPF) to pass a battery storage safety bill. SB 283 significantly strengthens the fire safety, permitting, and emergency preparedness standards for battery storage sites. Importantly, SB 283 preserves the AB 205 expedited approval process and retains the process for skilled and trained workforce requirements.

Cap-and-Trade Extension. California has extended its cap-and-trade program through 2045, helping the state reach its goal of net-zero carbon emissions while creating jobs for thousands of IBEW skilled and trained workers. The extension provides long-term policy certainty while revising emissions allowance allocations, updating offset rules, and establishing new frameworks for spending program revenues on priorities like affordable housing, high-speed rail, and community air protection.

Housing

SB 79. In a landmark commitment to help ease California’s desperate housing shortage, legislators passed SB 79, which will override local zoning laws and allow denser housing developments up to nine stories near transit hubs statewide – and create new union jobs. This bill will require cities and counties to allow multifamily housing developments that meet affordability, labor, and anti-displacement standards near transit-oriented development stops.

AB 130. AB 130, signed into law in June, reduces costs and cuts red tape to alleviate California’s housing crisis by enacting significant reforms to CEQA environmental review. The bill will ultimately lower costs for families, and allow for permit streamlining, building standard limits, and housing accountability to accelerate infill housing development and limit local regulatory delays while creating more jobs for IBEW members.

Wages

AB 889. AB 889 ensures that workers receive fair compensation and that prevailing wage laws are better enforced and closes loopholes that allowed contractors to underpay workers. It requires that employer credits toward prevailing per diem wages on public works projects be fully accounted without annualization exemptions, allows full credit for contributions to immediately vested defined contribution pension plans, and authorizes the Labor Commissioner to deny credits if payment records are not properly documented.