AUTHOR=Ziaja Sonya , Chhabra Mohit 

TITLE=Climate Adaption for Energy Utilities: Lessons Learned From California's Pioneering Regulatory Actions

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Climate

VOLUME=Volume 3 - 2021

YEAR=2021

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/climate/articles/10.3389/fclim.2021.718472

DOI=10.3389/fclim.2021.718472

ISSN=2624-9553

ABSTRACT=* The regulatory bodies responsible for oversight of investor-owned energy utilities are ill-equipped to regulate climate adaptation in the energy sector; but they may be the only institutions with authority to do so. 

* In 2018, the California Public Utilities Commission initiated the first quasi-legislative procedure to regulate investor owned energy utilities’ climate adaptation activities. 

* The Commission’s new rules for climate adaptation offer some general guidance on climate adaptation, and require investor owned utilities to conduct and submit climate vulnerability studies.

* Structural limitations, including conflicting interest, capacity of staff, and scope of the problem hampered the success of adaptation regulation, which failed to address fundamental questions about what constitutes adaptive measures.