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Business Journals
09-07-2025
- Automotive
- Business Journals
PG&E new-business process improvements getting results
California now claims the world's fourth-largest economy. The Bay Area, with its robust business community, is a key regional driver of the Golden State's global economic status. And PG&E, in turn, is here to help the Bay Area continue its tremendous contributions to the state's economy while maintaining a safe, reliable and clean energy system at the lowest cost to customers. To serve that goal, we've made huge progress in a vital part of our business. Today, our Service Planning & Design team is connecting more new customers than ever to our electric grid. We set a goal in 2024 to connect 9,000 new-business customers throughout PG&E's service area. We delivered way beyond that, completing a company-record 13,640 new-business connections last year. That means thousands of new homes, new and expanded businesses and clean energy projects across our service area. In PG&E's Bay Area Region, we completed more than 3,600 new-business connections in 2024, including: 2,438 residential projects 406 commercial projects 223 electric vehicle charging points We're thrilled to have helped bring these and other projects to life for our 1.8 million electric customers in the Bay Area. But we're especially proud of how these efforts are helping decarbonize our housing and transportation sectors. Through our new-business connections, we're supporting San Francisco's Climate Plan, which calls for a shift to 100% renewable electricity for buildings and vehicles by 2040. expand A terrific example is our work to energize Electrify America's indoor EV charging station at 928 Harrison St. in San Francisco. This ambitious project with 20 hyper-fast chargers uses 3.6 megawatts of power. As the nation's first all-indoors charging station, it offers customer lounges with food and beverage vending machines, complimentary high-speed Wi-Fi and 24/7 monitoring and security. Our 'One PG&E' effort across multiple teams, in constant coordination with Electrify America, helped us deliver the company's flagship charging station in February 2024—three months ahead of schedule. The station opened to tremendous success, with more than 8,000 customers in its first month alone. And we're already building on our progress in 2025. We completed 895 new-business connections in the first quarter of this year. That's up 25.7% compared to the 712 connections we completed in the first quarter of 2024. expand Among those new-business customers is Revel. The developer of public fast-charging EV stations opened its first station outside New York in March, at 199 Erie St. in San Francisco's Mission District. Revel plans to begin construction this year on seven more fast-charging sites with a combined 125 charging points across the Bay Area. PG&E's new Flex Connect program will help Revel meet the demand. Flex Connect lets customers connect to our grid more quickly without having to wait for upgrades to electric infrastructure. Revel's charging station near San Francisco International Airport is using Flex Connect. In fact, a report earlier this year from the Environmental Defense Fund cited PG&E as a leader in flexible connections. This type of innovative approach to connecting new customers will be key to helping California meet its economic and climate goals. That's why we've spent more than two years talking to customers and industry groups to better understand the needs of our new-business customers. The feedback we've received continues to transform our new-business processes. Our partnership with the California Building Industry Association is one great example. We signed a memorandum of understanding with the association in July 2023 to improve how we work with builders and developers. In monthly meetings with association members, we talk about how we're doing—and how we can keep up our progress. With the association's help, we've set up systems to schedule construction work faster; escalate issues on complicated projects; and allow interim power connections where there are long lead times for new service. We also launched a New Business Program Management Office to focus full-time on improving our processes. Those efforts have paid off for our customers: The six-month design backlog of early 2023 fell to less than a month by the end of 2024. Improvements to the application process cut the number of required documents by more than half. We will continue to work with lawmakers, regulators and other stakeholders on process improvements to connect more new customers. We're especially excited about opportunities to connect new customers across the Bay Area to help the region sustain its vibrant growth trajectory. We also look forward to working with you as we strive to meet the economic and climate goals of California and its residents.
Politico
26-06-2025
- Business
- Politico
Labor and enviros take it to the parking lot
With help from Camille von Kaenel THIS WAY OR THE HIGHWAY: The fight over California's highway expansion efforts is entering the affordability arena. Environmental groups and labor unions plan to fill the Sacramento Convention Center tomorrow in a face-off over roughly $600 million in funding for six highway projects ranging from the Bay Area to Los Angeles County. The California Transportation Commission is expected to approve the slate of projects, which have been in the pipeline for years and already have sign-off from Caltrans. But environmental groups say they plan to use the moment to unveil a change in strategy: talk less about pollution, and more about keeping dollars in people's pockets. 'Driving is the most expensive way to get around,' said Jeanie Ward-Waller, director of ClimatePlan and a former Caltrans official who sued the agency after saying she was demoted for objecting to highway expansion plans. 'Owning a car, maintaining a car, putting gas in your car. There's so much focus right now on gas prices, and we're not doing anything to give people affordable options.' It's the next chapter of a fight at the typically sleepy California Transportation Commission that started playing out last year over $200 million to widen I-15 in the Inland Empire, which ended with former commissioner Joe Lyou, president and CEO at Coalition for Clean Air, blasting his colleagues from the dais. Greens are hoping to keep the agency in the spotlight by arguing that road-widening is part of the affordability agenda that's taken Sacramento by storm. They're tying it to the same angst around high gas prices, housing costs and food prices that's shifted the political discourse around climate from an emphasis on reducing emissions to helping Californians afford living in the state. (Look no further than the bill introduced Tuesday that takes aim at the state's emissions market for transportation fuels.) The construction labor unions that build and maintain California's expansive highway system aren't buying it. Michael Quigley, executive director of the California Alliance for Jobs, which represents carpenters, laborers, contractors and other construction unions, called enviros' opposition to highway projects a political ideology that's not rooted in concerns about costs. 'Historically, infrastructure has not been such a politicized issue,' Quigley said. 'I think it goes back to the philosophical disconnect between the people who have postgraduate degrees in environmentalism seeking to impose policies and programs that make it harder to live for working Californians.' While environmental groups are leaning hard into the affordability rhetoric, they're less worried about the threat of federal funding linked to pollution standards being held up. That's because if President Donald Trump has his way, California officials could be forced to think about their transportation infrastructure strategy sooner rather than later. EPA could soon attempt to sanction California for failing to meet federal air quality standards under the Clean Air Act — something that's all but assured after Republicans revoked California's authority to enforce its vehicle emissions rules. That would put billions of federal highway dollars at risk, and CARB Chair Liane Randolph told lawmakers last month that the loss of the waivers would mean they'd have to think hard about spending more on public transit and things like electric vehicle incentives to reduce pollution. From Ward-Waller's perspective, that's a potential win. 'For the funds that are being used to expand highways, good riddance,' she said. — AN Did someone forward you this newsletter? Sign up here! FIRE ON THE MOUNTAIN: Could $9 million in fuel breaks have slowed the Eaton Fire enough for firefighters to evacuate Altadena residents and prevent damage to homes? It's hard to know for sure, but that's the case made by new research from analytics firm Vibrant Planet, shared exclusively with California Climate. The findings use Vibrant Planet's wildfire behavior model to highlight how preventative landscape-scale treatments can avoid losses in the case of a fire. For example, the model determined that $15.3 million spent around Boulder, Colorado, in prescribed fire and both commercial and non-commercial vegetation trimming could reduce structure losses by 62.9 percent in case of a fire sparking in the forest, avoiding $123 million in losses. The data is part of a pitch for more investment in wildfire prevention and fewer limits on the treatments. On Thursday, Vibrant Planet CEO Allison Wolff is scheduled to testify to Congress on wildfire technology and her support of the Fix our Forests Act, a bipartisan bill that passed the House and is pending in the Senate. — CvK TURN ON THE POWER: Over a dozen blue states are about to have their federal electric vehicle charging taps turned back on. A Washington federal judge late Tuesday blocked the Trump administration from freezing funding approved under President Joe Biden through the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure program, POLITICO's James Bikales reports. That funding won't restart immediately, as Judge Tana Lin issued a seven-day stay pending an appeal by the government. Trump's Department of Transportation suspended all new spending through the $5 billion program in February, arguing that it was reviewing the funding criteria. That pushed some states, like Michigan and Vermont, to pause their NEVI programs, though California did not cancel its first round of nearly $33 million in awards. California charger operators say that while the $352 million in NEVI funds the state is slated to receive is dwarfed by in-state and private resources, the program incentivizes building in less profitable rural areas. — AN DRAMA IN THE FAST LANE: Senate Republicans' budget wonk is raising a red flag over a plan to use gas tax dollars to create temporary priority lanes for athletes and officials during the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics. Sen. Roger Niello, vice chair of the Senate Budget and Fiscal Review Committee, said in an interview that he's not opposed to spending in support of the Olympics, but pushed back on the budget item being included late in the cycle without debate in prior committees. Democrats' budget would tap $17 million from the State Highway Account, which is funded by gas taxes, to help Caltrans design a transportation network for the Olympics. (The agency could request up to $20 million more as needed.) That would include temporarily converting carpool and toll lanes for use only by approved vehicles, and new digital signage alerting residents to the changes. Niello contended that gas taxes are for new construction and repairs, and suggested that the state could instead offer Los Angeles a loan to be repaid if the games prove profitable. 'I can certainly see the need for lane repurposing to help traffic move more smoothly,' Niello said. 'But the problem is it will be exactly the same transportation infrastructure once they're done.' — AN IT'S NOT ALL BAD: The death of California's electric vehicle waiver and potential loss of federal tax credits have EV makers in a bind, but Cox Automotive analysts say it's not all doom and gloom for the market. Stephanie Valdez Streaty, director of industry insights at Cox Automotive, said during the company's mid-year review of the auto industry Wednesday that rapid expansion of EV options on the market offers 'a bright spot that signals long-term strength.' Streaty cautioned, however, that while more market maturity is a 'win for consumers', it does pose challenges for companies that now have to deal with more supply chain constraints in trying to build out so many different models. But she said the tradeoff is that more car buyers can now find an EV model that fits their 'lifestyle, budget and brand preference.' Streaty's assessment of the EV market comes amid concerns about the overall health of the auto industry. That has largely been driven by Trump's 25 percent tariff on imported cars and parts, which automakers warn will drive down supply and raise prices. — AN — A Los Angeles County Superior Court judge ruled that California's insurer of last resort is violating state law by mishandling smoke damage claims after the Los Angeles fires. — Tech companies have put nearly half of their data centers in water-scarce regions. — A Houston-based startup is testing oil-eating microbes in a retired California oilfield.
Reuters
09-04-2025
- Business
- Reuters
How Brazil can put climate action back at the centre of the global agenda
April 8 - The recent scene in the Oval Office, where Ukraine's President Zelensky found himself in a high-stakes clash with U.S. President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance, is another reminder of how the leaders of the world's largest economies are consumed by an unravelling international order. Climate action, once a priority, risks becoming collateral damage. This is a dangerous miscalculation. In a world grappling with uncertainty, climate leadership offers the potential for long-term economic stability and peace. Investing in clean energy and nature positive economies creates jobs, secures supply chains and protects nations from economic and environmental shocks. It is no accident that businesses, from industrial giants to agricultural cooperatives, are increasingly looking to decarbonisation as an essential strategy for long-term resilience. Brazil, as host of COP30 in Belem later this year, has the opportunity to put climate back where it belongs, at the centre of the global agenda. It has already taken a bold step with its new Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC), committing to cutting emissions by 59-67% by 2035 , opens new tab from 2005 levels, a significant leap forward from its previous target for 2030. But targets, while necessary, are meaningless without mechanisms to implement them. That is why Brazil's Plano Clima (Climate Plan) and its forthcoming national emissions trading system (ETS) are so critical. They send a clear message: this is a country ready to move beyond rhetoric and into execution. And implementation is what investors want to see. A new analysis, How Brazil's new NDC can drive private sector investment in climate action, opens new tab, highlights why Brazil has everything to gain from leading the charge. The country is already an energy powerhouse, with 85% of its electricity coming from renewables – far ahead of other G20 economies. By expanding its clean energy infrastructure, doubling down on sustainable agribusiness, and making full use of its natural capital through nature-based solutions, it can position itself as the epicentre of green economic growth. But time is short. COP30 is not just an environmental conference; it is a geopolitical moment. Brazil must use it to demonstrate that climate leadership is the new global currency of power. Deforestation remains one of Brazil's biggest environmental challenges, contributing nearly half of the country's greenhouse gas emissions in 2023. While efforts to curb deforestation have seen some success, maintaining these gains requires stronger collaboration between the government and private sector. Brazil has committed to ending illegal deforestation and significantly reducing overall forest loss by 2030, but this will only be possible with stricter enforcement, investment in land restoration and better support for sustainable agriculture. Energy follows the same pattern. The country has long benefited from a high share of renewables, and data shows investment in renewable energy creates more employment than in the fossil fuel industry. Brazil is one of the largest renewable energy job creators in the world, opens new tab, behind only China. But future growth depends on the speed at which it scales up new energy solutions such as electrification, advanced biofuels and green hydrogen. Global markets are shifting. European and Asian economies are placing increasing value on low-carbon supply chains. If Brazil acts now, it can secure long-term trade advantages while simultaneously attracting the capital needed to accelerate the transition. To ensure Brazil's NDC drives private sector investment in climate action, the government must implement clear and coherent policies. This includes establishing priorities, decarbonisation pathways and policies aimed at tackling barriers to private sector investment within each sector. In forestry, deeper collaboration with the private sector is needed to build on progress from initiatives such as the Amazon Deforestation Action Plan and the soy moratorium, opens new tab. In agriculture and livestock, agricultural plans, land restoration efforts and greater clarity on accounting for carbon removals could help to reduce emissions, while maintaining competitiveness and resilience. Meanwhile the energy, transport and industry sectors need clear targets and timelines for phasing out fossil fuels and scaling up clean energy solutions. This together with strengthened policies for innovation, support for deployment of clean energy solutions, and implementation of the forthcoming Emissions Trading System, could drive further private sector action. Finally, fostering consistent dialogue between the public and private sectors is critical to translating policy into action. Brazil can support companies to decarbonise their operations and supply chains by creating stronger economic incentives to reduce emissions and promote the development of business transition plans. Spaces for structured collaboration – such as business-government workshops, technical assistance programmes and transparent reporting mechanisms – will strengthen trust and encourage joint action toward net-zero goals. Strengthening public-private collaboration will be key to realising Brazil's climate ambitions. Climate is the security issue of our time. If COP30 is to succeed, Brazil must ensure that climate action is framed not as an environmental imperative, but as an economic, geopolitical and peace stabiliser. There will be more political crises and distractions, but none of these change the simple truth: climate action is the only viable path toward long-term stability. Brazil has the power to shift the conversation. By delivering a carefully thought through climate plan it can bring new investment, new industries and new jobs – not just for its own people, but for the global economy. It can be the bridge between developed and developing nations, proving that sustainable growth is possible and profitable.
