Newsom Signs Climate, Energy Bills Charting State Course Through Perilous 'Mid-Transition' | KQED

""We have to effectively transition," Newsom said before signing the bills at the Academy of Sciences in San Francisco. "This is not an ideological endeavor." "We are in the practical application business," he added. "We have got to manifest our ideals and our goals. And so this lays it out, but it lays it out without laying tracks over folks.""

"California has reached a unique moment, state leaders and analysts argue. The state is far enough along in its transition away from fossil fuels that it needs to maintain two energy delivery systems at once: oil and gas on one side and electricity built on carbon-free energy on the other. The juggling act is costly, messy, and requires intentional planning and often unsavory compromises."

"The state of limbo, which will likely last decades in California, has been labeled "mid-transition," by Emily Grubert, a sustainable energy researcher at the University of Notre Dame. Grubert said California is among the first places "actually dealing with many of these questions of managed transition" away from fossil fuels. "How the state of California deals with the transition of [oil] refining really is going to inform the way that many, many other transitions occur," Grubert told lawmakers last month,"

California is in a mid-transition stage that will likely last decades as it shifts away from fossil fuels. The state must operate two parallel energy delivery systems: oil and gas alongside electricity generated from carbon-free sources. Maintaining both systems creates costly, messy trade-offs that require intentional planning and political compromise. Rising energy costs, refinery closures, intensified wildfires, and higher insurance and electricity expenses complicate the transition. Lawmakers and the governor enacted five bills to manage the shift, aiming to apply practical solutions without imposing undue burdens on communities and workers. California's handling of refinery and energy shifts will inform other regions' transitions.

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