Passing SB 540 means more coal in California

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OPINION – As an environmental organization, Californians for Green Nuclear Power (CGNP) is opposed to the importation of even more coal-fired power into California. A Berkshire-Hathaway subsidiary, PacifiCorp found it lucrative to sell its mostly coal-fired power into California. According to SB 1368, (Perata, 2006) California should not be importing pollution-laden coal-fired power.

However, there is a loophole. SB 1368 only applies to five year or longer supply contracts. In November, 2014, Warren Buffett’s PacifiCorp exploited this loophole with cooperation from CAISO, the California Independent System Operator. These two entities created the innocuously-named “Western Energy Imbalance Market” (WEIM,) a daily spot market exempt from SB 1368 performance standards.  The second quarter 2025 WEIM Benefits spreadsheet shows that PacifiCorp has sold over a billion dollars of its power at wholesale, mostly to California entities.

As CGNP’s April 5, 2022 Capitol Weekly OpEd, noted, California legislators created a unique legal euphemism, “unspecified power” that is mostly applied to coal-fired power imported into California. The term unspecified power, created by AB 162 (2009, Ruskin) sounds much nicer than coal.

Federal Preemption
On April 29, 2025 CGNP gave a two-word opposition speech before the Senate Judiciary Committee. The phrase was, “federal preemption.” The term “independent regional” appears a total of 48 times in the language of the latest version of SB 540. The 2025 version of CAISO grid regionalization backed by PacifiCorp focuses on the necessary step of establishing an independent regional organization that will be in control of the important aspects of California electricity policy. Independent regional means that representatives from coal-rich states in the West such as Wyoming will be part of this organization. No wonder PacifiCorp supports this legislation.  Previous CAISO grid regionalization bills such as AB 813 (Holden, 2017) and AB 538 (Holden, 2023) were rejected by the legislature.

Federal preemption of interstate wholesale electricity transactions was recently affirmed in a unanimous 2016 U.S. Supreme Court decision, Hughes v. Talen Energy. When Maryland joined the multistate PJM regional grid operator, they were likely reassured by claims they could still create electricity policies that matched their state legislative priorities. Nope. Per the Commerce Clause, interstate electricity transactions between members of a multistate ISO, RO, or RTO are federally controlled.

California minimizes the pollution burden associated with electricity generation. Many of those policies are not favored by interests in the coal-rich states in the West. Organizations including CGNP are concerned that many of California’s policies could be on the chopping block is SB 540 is enacted. When former CPUC President Loretta Lynch testified in opposition to SB 540 at the same hearing as CGNP, she also raised concerns about federal preemption by President Trump’s FERC Lynch was quoted in an April 21, 2025 Politico article “I am doing this as a citizen of California to sound the clarion call that this will create a new ability for the sons of Enron to pillage California yet again,” (said) Lynch, who served during the crisis.

U.S. Department of Energy Secretary Chris Wright clearly supports U.S. coal-fired power plants to insure grid reliability.

PacifiCorp’s Lobbying Legerdemain
Since May 2025, CGNP has been filing complaints with the California Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC) regarding PacifiCorp’s mandatory 2023-2024 Form 635 quarterly lobbying disclosures. Their first quarter 2024 filing initially claimed their lobbying expenditures were zero, while the sum was actually $2,731,125.08. PacifiCorp fixed that with an amended disclosure. Then CGNP checked the math in all eight disclosures.. PacifiCorp initially reported totals of $17,887,125.30 to the Secretary of State, making them the number five lobbyist in 2023 and the number three lobbyist in 2024.

CGNP’s spreadsheet showed a missing $3,355,476.43, with only a dollar missing in 2023. Finally, PacifiCorp dramatically amended all eight quarters of their 2023-2024 disclosures to show only $25,500 quarterly expenditures to the firm California Advisors. Each step along the way was affirmed under penalty of perjury. With the controversial coal-fired generation the firm sells to California, PacifiCorp’s amended 2023-2024 filings are implausible. PacifiCorp’s prior filings are unamended. On August 5, 2025, CGNP filed a sworn FPPC Complaint COM-08062025-02463 to begin impeaching their amended filings.

CGNP’s work is documented in the new book Atomic Dreams: The New Nuclear Evangelists and the Fight for the Future of Energy. CGNP filed voluminous written testimony to help enact SB 846 (Dodd, 2022,) extending Diablo Canyon’s life at least to 2030. SB 846 reduces ratepayer burdens and prevents pollution. CGNP urges the legislature to reject SB 540 to avoid the risk of unnecessary plant closure.

Gene Nelson, Ph.D. is CGNP’s Senior Legal Researcher and President.