CGNP Educating California Legislators and Their Staffs Regarding the Harms of California SB 540 (Becker, 2025)
Warren Buffett's sixth attempt at CAISO grid regionalization since 2016
Summary:
· In 2024, Warren Buffett's PacifiCorp spent the third highest amount on California lobbying. The firm's main California business has been selling about $1 billion in mostly coal-fired wholesale electricity since November, 2014. There are many irregularities on PacifiCorp's 2024 lobbying disclosures.
California Capitol, Sacramento, CA Photo credit: CGNP
· CGNP made three visits to Sacramento since April 21, 2025
· CGNP delivered three opposition speeches regarding SB 540 during hearings before three California Senate Committees.
· CGNP made about 100 office visits during the three visits.
· The coalition opposing SB 540 is effective and growing. The votes against SB 540 in Committee hearings are showing CAISO grid regionalization is controversial. Warren's previous grid regionalization attempts since the unanimous 2016 U.S. Supreme Court decision, Hughes v. Talen Energy, have been controversial. This decision reasserted federal preemption regarding interstate wholesale electric power transactions in a multistate ISO or RO. With great effort, California withdrew from a multistate ISO following the ENRON-induced shortages to California energy supply about 25 years ago. SB 540 likely will be heard by the entire California Senate within the next two weeks.
· Diablo Canyon Power Plant's (DCPP's) extended operations are threatened if SB 540 passes. If DCPP is needlessly closed, California would be forced to import much more coal-fired power from Warren's coal-fired fleet in order to maintain the necessary synchronous grid inertia (SGI.) As the events of the deadly April 28, 2025 Iberian Peninsula blackout illustrated, without adequate SGI, the grid becomes unstable and a blackout occurs. https://greennuke.substack.com/p/why-is-grid-inertia-important According to news accounts, at least seven died in Spain and Portugal from the blackout caused by over-reliance on solar generation and wind generation, which cannot provide the necessary SGI.
Here's CGNP's handout which was distributed during the May 19, 2025 visits.
Oppose SB 540 (Becker) - Warren Buffett's latest CAISO grid regionalization bill.
Buffett's PacifiCorp subsidiary indirectly threatens CGNP's signature achievement SB 846 (Dodd, 2022) which extended Diablo Canyon Power Plant (DCPP) operations for at least five years to 2030. Buffett has a long record of indirectly or directly opposing DCPP, so he can sell even more coal-fired power into California.
· As a consequence of structural deficiencies, California imports the greatest amount of power of any state, about 100 TWh / year, where 1 TWh = 1 billion kilowatt-hours. The state uses about 300 TWh / year. As ENRON showed, the state is vulnerable to out-of-state suppliers.
· Buffett has lobbied for CAISO grid regionalization for his commercial benefit since the 2016 U.S. Supreme Court Decision Hughes v. Talen Energy which applies only to multistate ISOs and ROs. The issue is the dormant Commerce Clause which leads to federal preemption of California wholesale power policies if the state becomes a multistate RO. In the wake of the ENRON debacle, California worked hard to establish and maintain a single-state ISO. The California legislature rebuffed Buffet's objective several times since 2016. SB 540 seeks the necessary condition of establishing a multistate independent regional governing board. The phrase "Independent regional" appears about 30 times in the bill's language. CGNP has found numerous irregularities in PacifiCorp's 2024 mandatory Form 635 disclosures. CGNP filed objections with the FPPC. As the number three lobbyist, PacifiCorp expended over $13.4 million in 2024.
· In light of the massive April 28, 2025 Iberian Peninsula blackout which killed at least seven, the need for sufficient synchronous grid inertia (SGI) stability of the California power grid is clear. Based on the laws of physics, solar, wind, and batteries cannot meet this critical need. DCPP produces the greatest amount of SGI by far, which stabilizes the California grid. The alternative is a long-distance connection to a collection of out-of-state coal-fired plants - which appears to be Warren's goal.
· The air pollution from burning massive quantities of coal in and around Wyoming likely intensifies the Great Basin high pressure dome. The harm for California is this high pressure dome intensifies extreme wildfire behavior. 55% of California wildfire deaths (181) have occurred since 2018. (The record began in 1933.) Since November, 2014, Warren has sold about a billion dollars of mostly coal-fired power at wholesale to California.
Gene:
As I have mentioned to you before, I strongly support your views on nuclear power in general and Diablo Canyon in general. But your fears that regionalization of CAISO could cause California’s support of Diablo Canyon to be invalidated are misplaced. I was the Senior Legal Advisor to FERC’s Chairman a few years ago and also defended FERC’s orders in the Courts of Appeals so I know what I am talking about. Let me make two brief points: First, CAISO HAS ALAWYS been a single state RTO from the day it was formed to today and it always has been subject to FERC’s regulatory jurisdiction. I worked on multiple CAISO cases when I was at FERC. Whatever the effect of the proposed legislation, it does not put California’s support for Diablo Canyon at ant more risk than exists today. Second, the Supreme Court’s Hughes decision prohibits only a very limited for of state support for generation. There are all kinds of state subsidies for different types of generation, including nuclear, that have passed Constitutional muster in the courts.
Matt Estes
Buffet ruins communities, people, and states through his lobbying selfishness. But this is not the worst of the stories. Your elected officials actually bow to the money. You know this, yet you elect them back to office. So, who is really doing the damage? Our system of government relies on moral people sticking up for what is right for society, yet we still bow to the oligarchs that take the Buffet (and others') money to do their bidding. Clearly, nuclear power surpasses all other power supplies in all categories. Why else would there be such an attack on one industry. Answer? Lobbying money predicated on monopolizing fossil fuel power (Buffet). I am glad California is leading the nation in power rates and black/brown outs. Maybe other states can learn from their example. Just a note: Buffet lobbies in DC as well, so we all are culpable in the demise of our quality of life.