The Brief

California’s drive to run its electric grid entirely on wind, solar and other clean sources of energy just got harder after President Donald Trump signed a sweeping new budget law.

The changes in federal tax incentives could affect the feasibility of new solar and wind projects as the state is counting on them to provide more electricity for Californians. A state law requires 100% of electricity to be powered by renewable, carbon-free sources by 2045, at the same time it’s moving to electrify cars and trucks.

Incentives championed by former President Joe Biden were rolled back, shortening the timeline for the industry to obtain tax credits. Developers of wind and solar projects now face a new, shorter deadline for obtaining tax credits — most now expire at the end of 2027 instead of no sooner than 2032.

In addition, the new federal rules bar companies from accessing tax credits if they rely on major components from China or other “foreign entities of concern.” This restriction could hit California’s solar and wind industry especially hard, experts said.

The changes to tax credits are estimated to save the federal government approximately $499 billion from 2025–2034.

“For too long, the Federal Government has forced American taxpayers to subsidize expensive and unreliable energy sources like wind and solar,” Trump wrote in an executive order last week. “The proliferation of these projects displaces affordable, reliable, dispatchable domestic energy sources, compromises our electric grid, and denigrates the beauty of our Nation’s natural landscape.”

Projects can still be built without tax credits. But it puts more of a financial burden on their investors. In California, 11 solar projects and one onshore wind project now face potential delays or cancellation, according to an analysis of federal data by Atlas Public Policy provided to CalMatters. The projects are spread across the Central Valley, Inland Empire and Northern California.

Sean Gallagher, senior vice president of policy for the Solar Energy Industries Association, said in a statement that the industry was still “assessing what the federal tax bill means for them.” He warned the changes could jeopardize up to 35,700 solar jobs and 25 solar manufacturing facilities in California — including existing positions and factories as well as future projects that may now never materialize.

“The reality is, with or without clean energy tax credits, California’s energy demand is growing at a historic rate, and solar and storage are the fastest and most affordable way to meet that demand,” Gallagher said.

California in recent years has been fast-tracking massive floating offshore wind farms 20 miles off the coasts of Humboldt County and Morro Bay. The federal changes add some uncertainty that could chill investment. But experts say it’s not a death knell for the industry because the projects weren’t set to seek federal permits or generate electricity for at least several years.

“Offshore wind is what we would call a long-lead project. It does take years and years to develop,” said Assemblymember Dawn Addis, former chair of the Assembly’s Offshore Wind Select Committee. “Solar is a little bit shorter of a time frame…but it's also his incredibly erratic behavior when it comes to market stability overall that is also going to affect these projects in a negative way.”

Experts say in the long-run, the federal changes could drive up energy costs.

"Tax credit savings are typically passed onto ratepayers through lower contracting costs. In the long term, the repeal of the tax credits will result in higher future electricity rates for customers," the California Energy Commission told CalMatters.

Rising utility bills are already a major political headache for state leaders and a challenge for clean energy advocates who want the state to lead the way in making electricity cleaner, cheaper, and more reliable.

“The whole point of California's climate policy is not just to reduce California's carbon footprint — because we are less than 1% of global emissions — but to set an example and show that this can be done,” Berkeley economist Severin Borenstein told CalMatters. “There are going to be fewer other states following our example because it's going to be more expensive.”

The new hurdles for solar and wind come as they are scaling up to meet surging electricity demand nationwide, including from energy-hungry data centers fueling the rise of artificial intelligence.

California Energy Commissioner Nancy Skinner, in an interview with CalMatters, said the federal law is a national “job killer” and was short-sighted. “The economics of renewable energy generation speak for themselves....The cost of solar generation now is competitive with natural gas,” she said.

“We're not going to back away from our commitments and our goals,” she added. “Our commitment — whether it is to zero-emission vehicles, or to renewable energy generation — is about cleaning the air as well as addressing the climate crisis…Nobody wants to live in smoggy communities, where the air you're breathing hurts you.”

Solar and wind projects have helped California log key renewable energy milestones in recent years. Last week, Gov. Gavin Newsom said nine out of every 10 days so far in 2025 have been powered by non-fossil fuels for at least a part of the day: “The economics of renewable energy generation speak for themselves....The cost of solar generation now is competitive with natural gas."

The state’s grid runs on a mix of renewables — solar, wind, geothermal, nuclear, biomass and hydropower — an average of seven hours a day, the governor said, citing new data compiled by the California Energy Commission.

“The fourth largest economy in the world is running on more clean energy than ever before,” Newsom said in a statement. “Trump and Republicans can try all they want to take us back to the days of dirty coal but the future is cheap, abundant clean energy.”

But industry officials say the state isn’t doing enough. They say the state has too many hurdles for building wind and solar projects and needs to offer more funding.

“For years now, too many California leaders have retreated from true clean energy leadership — hopefully the tax bill serves as a wakeup call that their leadership on clean energy is more important now than ever,” Gallagher said.

Trump and Congress did not shorten the tax credit deadlines for nuclear power plants, hydroelectric facilities, battery storage and geothermal plants. Congress also dropped a provision that would have added a new excise tax on wind and solar.

For wind and solar, there's still a possible path to claim tax credits if construction starts within a year or they come online by the end of 2027. Senators added that provision to soften the blow. In theory, those projects could be finished and connected to the grid as late as 2031 and still qualify, but that depends on how the Treasury Department defines what it means to “start construction,” said Kevin Book, an energy analyst based in Washington, D.C.

“In the short-term, it might actually increase or shift earlier expenditure on these kinds of clean energy projects and all else equal,” said David Victor, a professor of public policy at UC San Diego. “California is in a pretty good position to profit from that acceleration.”

But Victor warned that the long-term costs could become “a political nightmare.”

“The long-term incentive, clearly, is to try to slow down investment in solar and wind and electric vehicles,” Victor said.

Solar panels at the Kettleman City Power solar farm on July 25, 2022.

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Larry Valenzuela

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CalMatters/CatchLight Local

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Borenstein took a more measured view about the impact on costs: California’s high electricity prices aren’t mainly about power production — they’re driven by wildfire costs, including past damage payouts and upgrades to prevent future fires. Other drivers include subsidies for low-income customers and the cost shift from rooftop solar, he said.

Some legislators have advocated for the state budget to cover more of these costs, but Borenstein said it’s politically easier to keep charging customers through their electric bills.

Alex Jackson, who leads the industry group American Clean Power California, said the state should use money from its cap-and-trade program to lower bills. Cap and trade is a market system that charges California companies for the greenhouse gas emissions they produce. Jackson said those funds could help pay for grid upgrades so ratepayers don’t have to.

He said the state also could lower clean energy costs by speeding up permitting, easing environmental rules for upgrades to existing projects and reducing costs for turning farmland into solar farms. He also called for expanding regional electricity markets to help California trade power more efficiently — a controversial idea being debated in the Legislature this year. 

“We’ve really aggressively invested in clean energy, and we need to ramp up that investment, and we need to make it easier and faster to get clean energy deployed.”STATE SENATOR SCOTT WIENERThe state Legislature has debated for years exempting some clean energy projects from the state’s landmark environmental law, the California Environmental Quality Act, which is often blamed for delays. State Sen. Scott Wiener, of San Francisco, has advocated for such changes.

“California has always been a leader, and we need to step that up significantly,” Wiener told CalMatters. “We’ve really aggressively invested in clean energy, and we need to ramp up that investment, and we need to make it easier and faster to get clean energy deployed.”

In addition to the wind and solar credits, the budget signed by Trump also ends tax credits for purchase of electric cars, rooftop solar panels, home batteries, heat pumps, insulation, energy-efficient windows and doors, and other upgrades. Rooftop solar tax credits end this year. Federal tax credits for hydrogen production end after 2027 — a blow for California, which had positioned itself as a national hydrogen hub. Those changes are estimated to save about $543 billion from 2025–2034.

The state Energy Commission said the elimination of the EV credits beginning on Sept. 30 will mean "lower adoption of electric vehicles" and a "potential short-term spike in ZEV sales" before that date. Rooftop solar projects and heat pump sales also are likely to decrease, the agency said.

This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.

LAX officials are considering a proposal Tuesday to increase the fees rideshare companies are charged to access the airport.

Currently, rideshare companies like Uber and Lyft generally pass a $4 to $5 airport fee along to their customers. You might see this listed as a line item on your receipt as an “LAX Airport Surcharge.”

But the Los Angeles World Airports Board of Commissioners could vote to increase that fee by as much as $2 to $8 depending on where the rideshare picks you up or drops you off.

The idea behind the proposal is to encourage the use of the long-awaited, much-delayed and over-budget Automated People Mover once it opens and decrease congestion in the central terminal area, the area of the airport that’s also known as the horseshoe.

David Reich, a deputy executive director for the city agency that manages the airport, told LAist that if the proposal is approved, LAX doesn’t plan on increasing the fee until after the Automated People Mover opens, which could be later this year.

The proposed increases

When the Automated People Mover opens, there will be new curb space for drop-off and pick-up. Known as the “ground transport center,” this new curb space will be a 4-minute trip from the terminal area via the Automated People Mover, according to Reich.

LAX-it will shut down as a rideshare and taxi lot once the train opens, Reich said.

If the proposal is approved, getting an Uber or Lyft to and from the ground transport center will come with a $6 airport fee.

Even once the Automated People Mover opens, you will still be able to get rides directly to and from the curbs along the horseshoe, but they will come with a $12 fee.

The proposed increases would also apply to taxi and limousine services, which currently operate under a slightly different fee structure than rideshare companies.

The increased fees are expected to generate as much as $100 million in the first year the Automated People Mover is usable, according to a report to the board.

Why the different fees for the different locations?

In a report to the board, Reich said the Automated People Mover represents a "significant investment” that aims to “fundamentally reshape how vehicles move through the airport.”

The idea behind having a higher fee for direct access to the curbs along the horseshoe is to encourage “use of new, high-capacity infrastructure” and preserve central terminal access for trips “that most require it.”

Uber is trying to fight the increases

Uber is trying to mobilize the public to fight the proposed fee increases.

“Raising the LAX rideshare fee from $5 to $12 at the curb would punish travelers, working families, and seniors who depend on affordable, reliable transportation,” Danielle Lam, the head of local California policy for Uber, said in a statement.

On Monday, Uber sent an email to passengers who recently used the rideshare service, urging them to write to city officials to “stop this massive fee hike.”

Lyft has not responded to a request for comment.

Ten state lawmakers who are members of the L.A. County delegation sent a letter on Monday to the board expressing their “strong opposition” to the proposed increases.

“Many Angelenos rely on a mix of options, including rideshare services and friends or family dropping off loved ones,” the legislators wrote in the letter. “Managing congestion cannot realistically rely on steep fee increases for certain transportation options.”

Eight of the 10 legislators who signed the letter have received campaign contributions from Uber or Lyft, according to an LAist analysis of state campaign contribution data.

Other ways to access the airport

Now is probably a good time to remind folks that there are other ways to get to the airport that don’t involve rideshares, taxis or even lifts from families and friends.

The FlyAway bus offers regularly scheduled rides from the airport to Union Station in downtown L.A. and Van Nuys. You can see the schedules here. 

Last year, the countywide transportation agency unveiled the LAX/Metro Transit center, which is accessible from the C and K rail lines and several bus routes. For now, an LAX shuttle is bringing travelers from the station to the airport. It will be one of the stops on the Automated People Mover once it opens.

The Newport Beach City Council is considering demolishing part of its quirky, beloved sculpture garden in Civic Center Park to make way for a new police station.

The city has been trying to figure out how to replace its aging police headquarters for years. It bought a property in 2022 with that intent. But an ad hoc City Council committee decided, controversially, it might be better to instead build a new station on the parkland next to city hall.

What’s so great about the sculpture garden?

The sculpture garden is a “museum without walls” treasured by art and nature lovers alike. It houses the quirky and once-controversial “Bunnyhenge,” included on the popular Atlas Obscura travel guide. Opponents of putting a new police headquarters on park grounds say it would compromise the environment, and decimate the sculpture garden.

What do supporters of the new station idea say?

Supporters say the current police station, built in 1973, is long overdue for an upgrade, and that the police force needs more space for things like servers to store digital evidence. The council ad hoc committee that studied the issue says the Civic Center parkland makes the most sense for a new building because the city already owns the land, and it would consolidate the city’s main services in one place.

Is it a done deal?

Far from it. The City Council is holding a study session Tuesday to present the plan publicly and gather input. If the council decides to go forward, the next step would be to hire a consultant to design the building and get started on an environmental impact report.

Here’s how to learn more and weigh in:

A new exhibit in L.A. — Vehicles of Expression: The Craft of the Skateboard — arrives this weekend, highlighting the cultural impact, history and artistry of handmade skateboards.

It’s the latest exhibit at Craft in America Center, a museum and library that highlights handcrafted artwork.

Todd Huber, skateboard historian and founder of the Skateboarding Hall of Fame, said before 1962, it wasn’t possible to buy a skateboard in a store.

“Skateboarding started as a craft,” Huber said on AirTalk, LAst 89.3’s daily news program. “Somewhere in the 50s until 1962, if you wanted to sidewalk surf, as they called it, you had to make your own out of roller skates.”

What to expect

Emily Zaiden, the director and lead curator of the Craft in America Center based in Los Angeles, told LAist’s AirTalk the exhibit was tricky to curate.

“What we wanted to do was focus on both the history and then expand into how this has been an object that people have interpreted in so many different ways since the very beginning,” Zaiden said.

Artists who craft skateboards not only think of design, but also of the features that give riders the ability to do tricks, such as wheelies and kickflips.

“The ways that people have constructed boards, engineered boards, design boards … people are really renegade, which I think is really the spirit of skateboarding overall,” Zaiden said. “This very independent, out-of-the-box approach and making boards that allow them to do all kinds of wacky tricks and do all kinds of things that no one imagined possible physically with their body, but through the object of the board.”

Know before you go

The exhibit at Craft in America Center opens to the public on Saturday. Admission is free. The museum is open from noon to 6 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday.