CMUA Top Issues
Our perspective on the greatest challenges California faces today.
Top Issues
As the only statewide organization operating at the critical nexus of California’s water, energy, and climate challenges, the California Municipal Utilities Association (CMUA) is committed to applying innovative thinking, a unique perspective, and local expertise to develop and implement statewide solutions. As both a convener and an advocate for policies that maximize our natural resources while keeping customer costs low, we are working closely with legislators, regulators and our members to address the greatest challenges California faces today.
On the water and power sides of CMUA, our goal and the goal of our members is to provide the best quality and most reliable water and energy at the lowest price, but legislative and regulatory burdens are making this harder. We work to help policymakers understand that public utilities are not all the same in structure and business model, and the differences among them demand more than “one-size-fits-all” policy approaches. Specifically, because mandates designed for profit-driven utilities risk raising costs for nonprofit public utility customers, we advocate for policies that can achieve California’s climate goals while minimizing the financial impact to customers.
California faces two major challenges in its water and power sectors: existing infrastructure that is decades (if not more than a century) old; and the need for new infrastructure that stores and conveys water, repairs dams, brings more clean energy onto the grid, and delivers both power and water to new development needed to address the state’s housing crisis. CMUA advocates with the legislature and state administration to develop pathways that provide funding, eliminate obstacles, and get projects built –- so our member utilities can meet growing needs without placing the entire burden on utility customers.
Achieving California’s clean energy goals requires a diverse mix of technologies, beyond just solar and wind. CMUA supports a clean energy solution that features a diverse suite of options, including geothermal, hydrogen, long-duration storage and biofuels – along with wind and solar, and an open table to pursue new and emerging technologies.
The Legislature passed, and the Governor signed, AB 1207 (Irwin, 2025) extending the Cap and Invest program through 2045. For publicly owned electric utilities, a core element of the Cap and Invest program is the transition assistance it provides through allocating free allowances to the electric utility sector, which helps mitigate future electric rate increases as we transition to meet the goals of California’s Renewables Portfolio Standard (RPS). The RPS standard requires that 60% of energy provided must come from renewable sources by 2030. California provides publicly owned electric utilities with allowance allocations based on the anticipated compliance cost burden. With Cap and Invest now reauthorized, CMUA will be heavily engaged in the regulatory process to ensure implementation maintains critical affordability protections for publicly owned electric utility customers and that the state’s energy transition continues with the fewest barriers possible. Specifically, this means preserving allowance allocations that benefit electric utility ratepayers and the flexibility for publicly owned electricity utilities to use the allowance allocation proceeds to serve specific and unique local needs. These include clean energy procurement and infrastructure, support for local energy efficiency, and low-income assistance programs –- all of which help make the cost of electricity more affordable while also continuing progress toward California’s climate goals.
This is an issue important to both water and power utilities, but within them there are different priorities for each.
- On the power side, CMUA’s focus is on 1) procuring renewable energy that reduces emissions, 2) approaches that help prevent, combat, and mitigate wildfires, and 3) meeting clean energy/RPS goals.
- On the water side, CMUA’s focus is on 1) ensuring we have adequate water supplies in times of drought, 2) preventing or protecting against flooding by investing in infrastructure needed to divert flows for public safety, and 3) ensuring sufficient flow in the wastewater system to protect public health.
Addressing drought is equally important to water and power utilities but for different reasons.
- On the energy side, water is critically important for generating power. We need rivers flowing and water moving to keep the lights on in many parts of California. CMUA advocates to ensure California’s publicly owned electricity utilities can provide reliable, low-cost, renewable hydroelectric power – often by engaging on proposals that would change how hydro facilities and waterways are managed and governed.
- On the water side, CMUA advocates for solutions that go beyond “conservation” and help augment the water supply instead –- programs such as capture and storage, water recycling, desalinization, potable reuse, and groundwater recharge, while also working to preserve existing water rights for communities.
Proposition 26 and Proposition 218 set specific limits on what not-for-profit public water and power agencies can charge their customers for providing them utility service. Specifically, these entities can only charge the actual cost of delivering the utility service. Yet as costs go up due to state mandates, increasing demand, and vital infrastructure investments, those increases place a disproportionate burden on California’s low-income families. To address this, CMUA advocates aggressively for solutions like Cap and Invest, subsidized cost programs, specific state budget allocations for overdue water and energy bills, and other tools that help our members maintain lower rates, avoid shutoffs, and offer assistance to customers in need.
Some areas of the state are doubling or tripling projections of future energy demand, as new data centers are built to power AI, as new construction phases out natural gas, and as EV mandates place even more demands on the grid. At the same time California is ratcheting up its Renewables Portfolio Standard requirements. In short, we need more energy, and it must be clean. Unfortunately, the supply is not increasing at the same rate as demand — renewable energy resources are not coming online at the rate needed, and even if they were, the infrastructure to get that power onto the grid hasn’t been built. The net result of demand outpacing supply is always higher costs, a problem compounded by the need to invest in infrastructure. CMUA remains committed to working with policymakers, bringing expertise and innovation to the table, to help address these challenges head on, keep the lights on, and keep costs as low as possible.
The Pathways Initiative legislation, AB 825 (Petrie-Norris, 2025), was signed into law in 2025 and allows for the creation of a new, independent regional organization to oversee Western electricity markets that could include California and western states. CMUA was a strong supporter of this effort and will remain engaged as the implementation begins and continues over the next two to three years. Our key priorities will be working with regulators to define who will be involved, how the new organization will work, identifying and addressing challenges, and ensuing the initiative lives up to its consumer protection obligations. Ultimately, the Pathways approach could lead to annual savings of up to $3.25 billion in energy system costs, while improving grid efficiency and reliability.
CMUA believes that any mandates related to quality and removal of contaminants should be backed by science, reflect thorough economic review, and be set by a regulatory, rather than legislative, process. Our driving goal is always clean, reliable and affordable water — meaning proposed mandates must be in line with feasibility and practical realities that water agencies face. In some cases, this may mean allowing for flexible compliance with standards — a single statewide “solution” is not appropriate in all cases.
Water rights are often synonymous with reliability of water supply for our members, so we work very hard to ensure those rights are protected. Communities need to plan for new housing and parks, businesses and other community development, and ensuring a clean reliable water supply is essential to that planning. Often this means pushing back against “regulatory creep” that seeks to curtail existing rights. At the same time, we support modernizing the water rights system – primarily to digitize and increase access to records and data in the interest of transparency.
As California’s population and communities grow, the reality is that the amount of water available remains the same. In short, as demand grows, supply decreases, a problem only magnified in drought years. To ensure a safe, reliable and clean water supply for the future, CMUA advocates for a number of approaches that would augment the water supply:
- Capture, Storage and Conveyance: The Governor signed SB 72 in 2025, which modernizes the California Water Plan into a strategic action plan to adapt to our changing climate. As SB 72 is implemented, CMUA will be at the center of the conversation on how the modernized plan will take shape, supporting projects that can best meet the state’s needs and securing the funding to ensure those projects are built.
- Water Recycling/Potable Reuse: CMUA will continue advocating for solutions that streamline permitting and approvals so new projects can get built. At the same time, the reality is that potable water is often used in places where recycled water could be used instead, but is not approved for that use. CMUA is actively engaging in these discussions to clarify where and how recycled water can be used appropriately, safely and effectively, thereby preserving potable water for human consumption.
- Conservation: Conservation remains important. However, CMUA works to remind policymakers that conservation alone isn’t enough, and must instead be considered as only one tactic in a broader water supply strategy.
CMUA works closely with the California Wildfire Safety Advisory Board and our members to provide guidance on Wildfire Mitigation Plans, and brings POUs together through events like our annual Wildfire Forum to share best practices, enhance cooperation with local, state and federal officials –- particularly in right of way and forest management –- and help achieve California’s vision for “a fire resistant California free of utility-caused wildfires.” Water agencies also are focused on the impacts of wildfires to watersheds that provide an important source of water through snowpack and meadows.
As California’s “silver tsunami” crests –- nearly one-third of current water and utility workers are likely to retire in the next five to ten years –- California is simultaneously experiencing a time when fewer young people want to take on these jobs. As a result, utilities are facing a critical shortage of skilled workers. In response, CMUA sought and received a grant from the California Workforce Development Board to implement the “California Water, Wastewater and Energy Workforce Development Program.” The program is focused on attracting historically underrepresented groups, such as women, veterans, and persons of color, to develop a diverse statewide workforce of trained workers for the POU, water and wastewater industry.
Prioritizing Affordability, Reliability & Sustainability for California Customers
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