Will Electric Utilities Disrupt the Oil Industry in California?

"The media was focused on the fight over cutting petroleum consumption by 50 percent, but this is going to do a lot of the same thing," says Laura Wisland of the Union of Concerned Scientists.

Here's why the language was a game-changer. "Until 2014, utilities were blocked from owning or operating any charging stations, a step regulators took to foster competition in the emerging market," writes Hertsgaard. 

California’s three large private utilities, which were also involved in crafting the bill’s language, were pleased, too. The electric companies see a chance to grab a piece of the $55 billion the state’s drivers spend each year filling up. “We really need to have a big push for charging,” Tony Earley, chief executive officer of PG&E, said in an Oct. 15 appearance at San Francisco’s Commonwealth Club. “The charging station ought to be part of our grid infrastructure.”

The head of the Air Resources Board, and one of electric vehicles biggest boosters, Mary Nichols, "chuckles when asked why the oil companies didn’t try to block the electrification language in SB 350," notes Hertsgaard. 

"Perhaps they should be asking their lobbyists that question,” she says. "I really can’t take credit for this.”

The two main parts of SB 350 were requiring utilities to generate 50 percent of electricity from renewable sources by 2030, known as the renewable portfolio standard, and doubling energy efficiency standards in buildings by the same year.