California, February 25 — Today, Climate Action Campaign (CAC) released a strategic roadmap for Southern California elected officials to provide financial relief. This toolkit follows California’s bill-introduction deadline last Friday. Newly introduced state legislation, including proposals to reevaluate utility profit structures, signals a growing shift toward scrutinizing excessive profits and strengthening consumer protections. As energy costs are coined the “new price of eggs,” the affordability crisis is reaching a fever pitch. Nearly 2 in 5 San Diego Gas & Electric customers are behind on their bills — a staggering 35% arrearage — while Southern California Edison arrearages have climbed to 18%. 

“Sacramento is starting the new legislative session even more determined to change the utility business model and lower bills. Energy bills are a hot topic because everyone agrees they’re too damn high,” said Nicole Capretz, CEO of Climate Action Campaign. “The idea that local leaders are powerless is a myth. Cities possess the legal authority and political leverage to challenge these hikes today—they just need the will to use it.” 

Local governments don’t need to wait for Sacramento to act. The CAC toolkit highlights three practical levers local governments can pull to lower costs: 

• Leverage Political Power to Challenge Hikes: Cities can direct attorneys to intervene in unjustified rate cases, prioritize cost-lowering bills in their annual agendas, and pass formal resolutions demanding state-level reform.

• Strengthen Community Choice Energy (CCE): Locally governed, nonprofit power programs reinvest revenue into communities and prioritize cost stability, offering a proven alternative to the profit-maximizing model of investor-owned utilities.

• Amplify Community Voices to Pressure Sacramento: Local officials can serve as a megaphone for ratepayers’ frustrations, converting widespread public concern into sustained political pressure on Sacramento and state regulators. 

Utility bills continue to rise as investor-owned utilities pass the costs of wildfire mitigation, infrastructure upgrades, and shareholder returns directly onto customers. CAC argues that local leaders cannot afford to sit on the sidelines as affordability worsens. 

“This is a kitchen-table crisis impacting all of our families,” Capretz added. “Local officials have successfully moved the needle in Sacramento before. They can—and must—do it again.” 

To move these recommendations from paper to policy, CAC is convening a Southern California Roundtable of elected officials, consumer advocates, and energy experts to advance these cost-cutting strategies and support critical state legislation.