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IN THIS ISSUE – Billions in New State Spending?: “Don’t Switch That Channel Just Yet”

STATE BUDGET

NEWSOM, TWO VIEWS

WATER & POWER

Capital News & Notes (CN&N) harvests California policy, legislative and regulatory insights from dozens of media and official sources for the past week. Please feel free to forward this unique service.

READ ALL ABOUT IT!!

FOR THE WEEK ENDING JUNE 18, 2021

 

Legislature & Governor Slow-Walk a $266-Billion Budget

Politico

The state Legislature passed a budget this week. Now lawmakers will work to strike a budget deal by the end of August.

If that sentence fell somewhere between confusing and paradoxical, here’s a little California budgeting refresher: legislators faced a constitutional deadline Monday to pass a deal or forego pay. The tension-free, party-line votes met that requirement while reminding Capitol-watchers of how far we’ve come from the caustic all-night budget battles of years past.

But that doesn’t mean the fiscal infighting is finished.

Indeed, some of the more contentious issues remain unresolved. Legislative Democrats and Gov. Gavin Newsom still haven’t cemented accords on funding for tattered local public health systems and on the universe of undocumented immigrants who should be covered by Medi-Cal.

The latter is a perennial fight that tends to set California’s progressive values against fiscal caution. Lawmakers want to offer coverage to people over the age of 50 regardless of immigration status; Newsom hasn’t committed to going that far, countering with 60.

So the center of the action is now between the governor and the Legislature. As Senate Budget Committee Chair Sen. Nancy Skinner put it, “This is the Legislature’s budget. We are working hard to reach a three-party deal that includes the administration.”

Rather than wrangling over painful cuts in a time of scarcity, Newsom and legislative Democrats are operating from a place of abundance. That’s allowed both branches to tout “transformative” or “historic” proposals. Legislative Democrats called this budget the best they’ve voted on. Even if not aligned with Newsom on all the details, having money to spend makes for a far less acrimonious process.

That process doesn’t sit well with sidelined California Republicans. Even GOP members were not immune to the allure of cascading cash, pointing to money for small businesses and the disabled to concede there’s plenty to like in the budget. But long-serving Sen. Jim Nielsen derided the document voted on yesterday as “a fake budget.” Assemblyman Vince Fong warned larger allocations do not ensure more effectiveness, protesting that lawmakers were being asked to vote without having “details that will determine whether programs will work or not.”

WHAT’S NEXT? The budget generally involves a bifurcated process of budget bills that set out the amounts and trailer bills that enact the policies. Trailer bills and junior budget bills will hit the Senate and Assembly floor in the coming weeks as deals are struck.

Nielsen predicted an “obscene” deluge of trailer bills as legislative leaders and Newsom hammer out details and then transform them into law.

Don’t switch that channel just yet.

 

State Budget – The Reality Show

CalMatters commentary by Dan Walters

The Legislature’s Democratic supermajority put on something of a show this week as they pretended to pass a new state budget.

There were floor speeches, formal roll call votes and a deluge of self-congratulatory statements after the day’s activities.

“The budget we’re sending to Governor Newsom reflects responsible budgeting as the Legislature’s top priority and makes vital investments in California’s future,” Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon and Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins said in a post-session statement.

However, it was just a sham driven by the state constitution’s requirement that legislators pass a budget by June 15 or see their salaries suspended.

Republican Sen. James Nielsen captured the situation when he said, “This is a fake budget. It’s a feel-good budget. It’s a let-us-get-paid budget. But what we’re voting on is not going to be the budget.”

It’s not going to be the budget because Rendon and Atkins still must settle disagreements with Gov. Gavin Newsom, not only on how much to spend but even how much revenue they have to spend.

The two budgets are perhaps 90% in agreement but in a spending plan that tops $200 billion, 10% is still a lot of money.

Monday’s charade caps decades of political wrangling over how state budgets should be drafted.

Until the early 1970s, budgets were typically written in secret by a few legislators and the governor’s office but that practice ended when one legislator, facing a tough re-election campaign, loaded up a budget with pork barrel projects for his district.

The legislator was stripped of his position, his budget was set aside and new, seemingly more transparent, procedures were adopted. Eventually, however, the process drifted back into secret negotiations between the governor and a “Big 5” of legislative leaders that included Republicans because the budget required two-thirds votes for enactment.

A decade ago, the Big 5 became the Big 3, excluding Republicans, after voters approved a 2010 ballot measure, largely sponsored by public employee unions, that reduced the vote needed to pass a budget to a simple majority.

Proposition 25’s sponsors cited months-long delays in passing budgets during Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger’s governorship as a rationale and included the threat of legislators’ losing their salaries to make it more attractive to voters.

The revised system had its first test in 2011, the first year of Jerry Brown’s second governorship. The Legislature sent a budget to Brown and he vetoed it, declaring it to be unconstitutionally unbalanced.

Then-Controller John Chiang backed Brown by suspending legislators’ salaries. The Legislature sued and won a judicial declaration that only the Legislature itself could determine whether the June 15 deadline had been met.

Legislators were thus empowered to pass what they deemed to be a budget bill by June 15, even though — as is happening this year — it may not be a finished product.

Proposition 25 contained another piece of procedural mischief, allowing any bill the Legislature declared to be connected to the budget to also be enacted with simple majority votes. Thus, budget “trailer bills” often became vehicles for major changes in state policy without full committee hearings and other traditional exposure.

The misuse of trailer bills sparked another ballot measure in 2016, Proposition 54, requiring that bills be in print — and available for public viewing — for at least 72 hours before enactment. It didn’t stop the procedural abuses, but at least made them more obvious.

Newsom and legislators will eventually settle their differences, but the complete budget picture will not emerge for weeks and even months as trailer bills and budget modification measures dribble out of the Capitol.

https://calmatters.org/commentary/2021/06/california-legislature-passes-budget-newsom-surplus/

 

Gov. Newsom’s Swagger is Back…“There’s Nothing More Fun Than Feeling Like You’re Oprah”

Politico’s California Playbook

Newsom slow-jogged with swagger onto the stage of “The Late Late Show with James Corden” with an air of confidence and relaxation we haven’t seen in a long time.

“We’ve turned the page,” Newsom said. “California has one of the lowest case rates, positivity rates, one of the highest vaccination rates in the United States of America. So, we’re moving. Let’s get this behind us.”

The Democratic governor stopped by CBS studios in Hollywood as part of his reopening tour, and he urged Corden to bring back full audiences. (“The Late Late Show” has been taping in studio with no one except employees on hand.) Earlier Tuesday, Newsom held court with Minions and Transformers during a game show-style lottery that rewarded some lucky vaccinated Californians with $1.5 million prizes. Then he promoted free passes to Six Flags Magic Mountain for people who get newly vaccinated.

“You know what, there’s nothing more fun than feeling like you’re Oprah,” Newsom said this morning at Six Flags. “A million dollars for you, a million dollars for you, a million for you, 50,000 for you.”

ON CORDEN’S SHOW, Newsom’s appearance felt like a victory lap and a sigh of relief. But then reality set in. Corden asked about his looming recall election and about his favorite restaurants, a nod to Newsom’s infamous November dinner at the French Laundry that violated his own pandemic precautions.

“Talk about regrets, my friend,” Newsom said.

Newsom pivoted to issues like homelessness and drought when asked about how he’s handling the recall, and he called Tuesday’s reopening an “exciting but sobering day,” pointing to the more than 60,000 Covid-19 deaths in California since the pandemic hit. “Late January, I was ordering body bags from outside of the state because we had run out,” he said.

He vowed to defeat the recall and said the word for this past year is “humility.” “I’ve only been in office 29 months,” Newsom said. “I feel like I’ve been here 20 years.”

The grand reopening Newsom had been trumpeting for months stumbled into uncertain territory earlier this month. Even as Newsom hyped a June 15 sea change, California’s workplace regulators delivered a more equivocal result at a bewildering meeting that saw Cal/OSHA reject relaxed rules only to immediately reverse.

Confusion followed. Individual workers and businesses worked to decipher the state of play, and June 15 began to appear to some people less like a sea change than a shift of direction. Newsom said initially that he was still studying the issue and waiting for the dust to settle, and he reiterated that the state would need to continue tweaking the rules — a reminder that as the coronavirus endures, so too will some restrictions.

Pressed yesterday on whether he might need to clamp down again if outbreaks flare up, Newsom deflected but acknowledged it could happen.

There was nary a mask to be seen as Newsom visited a Bakersfield gym. A t-shirt-clad governor, First Partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom and Bakersfield Mayor Karen Goh all strode to the mic with their faces fully visible. The governor went through his now-familiar reopening stump speech about the state’s resurgent economy and its brimming budget outpacing Florida and Texas, framed by an image of the “California roars back” slogan that he never fails to invoke in some form.

Diminishing or discarding capacity limits and mask mandates will add to that momentum, although some businesses will continue requiring masks and some Californians will choose to keep them.

Forget for a second the surreal imagery of the governor conversing with Optimus Prime. The sight of elected officials breathing and speaking freely — in the type of indoor venue that has been closed or constricted for months, isolating us and hamstringing the economy — was a potent reminder of returning to normalcy. The months ahead will bring more of that, which undoubtedly will buoy Newsom’s political prospects.

And the first major ad from Newsom’s recall defense dropped yesterday, too.

 

COVID Fallout Lands at Newsom’s Feet As California Tries to Regain Balance

CalMatters

Gov. Gavin Newsom is peeling back COVID-19 restrictions and handing out prizes, but as California tries to regain its balance, much of the fallout is landing at his feet.

Cal/OSHA, the state’s workplace safety agency, voted Thursday to allow most fully vaccinated workers to forgo face masks — the fourth time it’s changed its mind in two weeks. Newsom immediately signed an executive order allowing the rules to go into effect immediately — normally, they would be subject to a 10-day review period.

But the new rules were still met with pushback from California’s business community, which urged Newsom to provide clarity on regulations that “continue to raise questions related to privacy, liability and duration.” Among business leaders’ concerns were requirements to provide N95 masks for workers who want them and confusion over determining employees’ vaccination status. Labor groups, meanwhile, voiced concern that relaxed regulations could put workers at risk.

Newsom was met with further pushback during a Thursday tour of Oakland small businesses. Although Newsom had promoted the tour as “small businesses roaring back,” business owners challenged that narrative, citing extreme difficulty in hiring employees.

Davina Dickens, owner of Graffiti Pizza: “I know, from first-hand experience, a handful of people who don’t want to work because they’re getting unemployment. I don’t think the governor and I agreed on that one.”

Another Newsom assertion — that California saw a week-over-week increase in vaccinations after launching the vaccine lottery — was complicated by a Sacramento Bee investigation that found the increase was largely due to 12- to 15-year-olds getting their second shot of the Pfizer vaccine, not people getting their first dose.

Indeed, for the past year and a half, Newsom has dominated the pandemic headlines, whether receiving adulation or harsh criticism. But what has his life been like behind the scenes? In a sit-down interview, I talk with the governor about everything from his family’s new pet rooster — which, by the way, he doesn’t want — to his weekend escapes to Auburn to threats on his life.

Link to interview:

https://calmatters.org/politics/2021/06/gavin-newsom-covid/?mc_cid=3fdae4edf5&mc_eid=2833f18cca

 

Epic Drought, Record Heat, Shaky Power Grid…?

Sacramento Bee

California’s shaky power grid is on a collision course with an epic drought that’s depleting a major source of supply: hydroelectricity.

The Western heatwave that began Wednesday has the manager of the state’s grid, the California Independent System Operator, warning of potential power shortages through the weekend. Although the organization stopped short of predicting another round of rolling blackouts, it appealed to Californians to conserve energy to get the state through a tough week. The National Weather Service said temperatures are expected to reach 110 degrees Thursday.

“Conservation may be needed to stabilize the grid,” Marybel Batjer, the president of the Public Utilities Commission, told a legislative committee Wednesday. The Independent System Operator issued a Flex Alert for Thursday, calling on Californians to save electricity.

Even if the state avoid blackouts this time, energy experts say slumping hydro supplies will complicate California’s efforts to keep the lights on during future heatwaves this year.

“As we get into late summer and fall, hydro’s going to be an issue,” said Severin Borenstein, a member of the board of directors of the Independent System Operator.

Already, California’s hydro supplies are down 40% compared with a year ago, according to BloombergNEF, an economics research arm of Bloomberg news.

The situation is certain to get worse as reservoirs wither in the coming months. Water levels at Lake Oroville, one of the largest reservoirs in the state, could sink so low this summer that the Edward Hyatt Power Plant would have to shut down — the first time that’s happened since the reservoir was built in the 1960s.

Oroville was barely one-third full Wednesday — and the water was just 60 feet above the level at which electricity generation would likely shut down.

Although natural gas-fired plants remain the single-largest source of electricity in California — generating 34% of the power in 2019, according to the California Energy Commission — hydro is a significant contributor in a non-drought year. In 2019 hydro was responsible for almost 17% of the state’s power, more than solar. But in a drought year, hydro practically disappears; it generated just 6% of the power in 2015.

The grid manager has already told power generators and transmission line operators to defer scheduled maintenance, and warned that shortages could pop up, especially late Thursday. If Flex Alerts are issued, consumers will be urged to turn thermostats up to 78 and avoid using heavy appliances in late afternoon and early evening.

If conditions worsen, more stringent conservation measures could kick in. The big utilities such as PG&E Corp. could cut power to their “interruptible” customers — those that pay discounted rates but agree to be taken offline in a pinch.

A heatwave comparable to this week’s overwhelmed the power grid last August, producing two consecutive nights of rolling blackouts. They were the first power shortages to strike the grid since the 2001 energy crisis, when power traders were deliberately manipulating supplies.

A big part of the problem last year was the state’s heavy reliance on solar power, as temperatures remained hot even after the sun went down. Despite that, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration has refused to waver from the state’s goal of building a carbon-free power grid by 2045, as dictated by state law.

This year the big utilities are expected to have added 3,500 megawatts worth of new capacity by August, including industrial-sized battery facilities to store solar energy for nighttime consumption.

That additional capacity should be enough to stave off blackouts — so long as California is able to import supplies in a pinch from nearby states. But if the entire West is blanketed in triple-digit temperatures — like this week — then imports will become scarce, just as they did last August, because other states will want the power that otherwise would flow to California.

“There will be strong competition for this uncommitted supply as the load centers in the desert Southwest will be bidding for the same uncommitted energy supply to meet their own demand under these extreme heat conditions,” said Dan Williams, an analyst with power consultant Customized Energy Solutions.

Imports play a critical role in California; they amounted to nearly 28% of all the power consumed in the state in 2019, according to the California Energy Commission.

Yet normally reliable suppliers like the hydro stations of the Pacific Northwest don’t have as much reserve power this year, as the drought takes its toll in that region. Those plants will generate enough electricity to supply local demands but there “might not be available during the late afternoon, early evening hours, when California needs it,” said Robert McCullough of McCullough Research, an electricity-consulting firm in Portland.

https://www.sacbee.com/news/california/water-and-drought/article252163238.html?mc_cid=50576a1920&mc_eid=2833f18cca#storylink=cpy

 

First Water Shortage Notice Sent to Delta Diverters

CalMatters

In a sign of worsening drought, state water regulators this week warned about 6,600 users to stop diverting water from the San Joaquin-Sacramento Delta watershed, stretching from Fresno to the Oregon border.

The notifications, which indicate that demand from farmers and cities is exceeding supply, are the widest-ranging move by state regulators since 2015 to restrict the use of water rights in a major watershed.

The notices follow similar warnings sent in the last several weeks to 102 water rights holders in the smaller Scott River basin in Siskiyou County, and 930 in the upper Russian River basin.

The Delta watershed’s supply is “insufficient” and “not lawfully available” for users with claims to the water dating after 1914, and those who keep pumping could face a cease and desist order and fines of up to $1,000 a day, according to the notices from the State Water Resources Control Board.

But so far compliance is considered voluntary and there are major barriers to enforcement, according to Erik Ekdahl, deputy director of the water board’s division of water rights.

The notifications come as extreme drought envelopes 85% of the state, and water levels in major reservoirs have dropped far below historic averages. Starved of snowmelt and taxed by high temperatures, water supplies have fallen about 800,000 acre-feet short of projections — an amount that could supply more than 1 million households for a year.

“It’s probably the worst drought in about 45 years in much of Northern California and the Central Valley,” said Ekdahl. “In other parts of the state, like the Russian River, it’s probably the worst drought since the (1930s) Dust Bowl.”

The notices were issued to users whose claims on the Delta water date after 1914 — so-called “junior” water rights holders. That year was when California enacted its water rights law.

This includes 2,300 users with more senior water rights, warned that they might face insufficient water supplies and halted diversions as summer continues and the state’s reservoirs drop even lower.

Many growers and municipalities are supposed to now rely on other sources, such as groundwater. Others can invoke their more-senior water rights that allow them to keep pumping — at least for now.

Carmichael, a Sacramento suburb with a post-1914 water right, “will comply with any curtailments, and that would entail reduced diversions. That affects supply,” said Ryan Ojakian, legislative and regulatory affairs manager for the Regional Water Authority, which represents Sacramento-area water suppliers that include Carmichael.

The Carmichael Water District is looking to groundwater and supplies from a neighboring provider through a pipeline completed during the last drought. The water district’s board is also readying a request for 15% conservation from its customers, Ojakian said.

“Given that Carmichael was curtailed in the last drought, these are things that we’ve been thinking and preparing for over the course of years,” he said.

Others say deteriorating water quality in the Delta will have a greater impact on supply than the notices will, particularly for those with senior water rights that precede 1914 or involve properties that abut waterways. State and federal officials have petitioned to relax water quality requirements in the Delta in order to store more water in major  reservoirs.

“I think our harm is going to come not from the curtailment, but from their export of water that should be left in the watershed to maintain quality,” said Dante Nomellini Sr., who represents the Central Delta Water Agency.

Environmental groups, too, are skeptical that the notices will significantly reduce water use — pointing to a study by University of California researchers that reported that the state has issued far more water rights than there is water to supply them.

“We’re sending out notices that you can’t have something, but it’s already oversubscribed, so it’s paper water,” said Barbara Barrigan, executive director of Restore the Delta. “It’s really a paper chase for paper water. It’s not a meaningful action yet.”

State officials don’t know yet how much water the thousands of Delta watershed warnings issued today will save partially because they have limited information on water use.

“It’s really unclear at this point what the outcome would be in terms of the volume of water saved,” Ekdhal said.

Rudy Mussi, who farms on Roberts Island and Union Island on the Delta, said many growers with junior water rights also have more senior water rights they can rely on when the state issues restrictions.

At this point in the growing season, it would be difficult for farmers to stop using water because many have already planted or made plans to plant, he said.

State officials have asked those receiving the notices to report back about whether they plan to comply — but so far, reporting has been limited. Only about 10% of water rights holders in the Russian River watershed who received similar notices have notified the water board about their plans, Ekdahl said.

“It does seriously raise questions about how effectively you can manage during drought when you can’t easily and quickly ask people for information related to whether or not they’re going to curtail,” he said.

The water board’s notices for the Delta watershed aren’t technically legal orders: They’re enforceable warnings. Cease and desist orders could be the next step for users who don’t comply and they could face fines of up to $1,000 per day or $2,500 per acre foot of water diverted illegally, according to the notices.

“Water supply in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta watershed is insufficient to support lawful diversion under any post-1914 appropriative water right,” the notice says. “Diverting water that is not lawfully available for your water right may subject you to a cease and desist order, prosecution in court, or administrative fines….”

But enforcement faces major hurdles, according to Ekdahl. Inspections are scheduled ahead of time and inspectors must catch a water diverter in the act. Then there are hearings, enforcement orders and opportunities for the water user to appeal the decision or even sue.

“If this seems like a lot – it is,” Ekdahl said. “The process is not designed for fast or easy resolution, and we do not have existing authority to require interim or immediate cessation of alleged illegal diversions.”

During the last drought, the water board staff conducted roughly 2,200 inspections over a two-year period, he said. Eight ended in settlements and four in formal enforcement actions.

This time, the water board has fewer employees to conduct inspections. “The drought just emerged so quickly,” Ekdahl said. “We’re not likely to have a bunch of additional people this summer.”

Until the water board receives more resources, the state’s regulators will rely on 20 to 25 workers for the entire state, and focus inspections where they’ve received complaints.

State water officials hope that curbing diversions from overtaxed rivers will protect flows and reservoir supplies as insurance against another dry winter.

“Last year was really, really dry. And this year is even worse. And collectively, between the two, you have this kind of almost-as-bad-as-it-gets scenario,” Ekdahl said. “I do think it’s critical that we start to manage our supplies looking at next year, because, while (the drought) may have a two-year pacing, what if it’s four? What if it’s six?”

https://calmatters.org/environment/2021/06/drought-california-rivers-water/?mc_cid=3122a10f9f&mc_eid=2833f18cca

 

Newest Climate Change Malady: “EV Range Anxiety”; Need for Charging Infrastructure Accelerates

Sacramento Bee

California wants to eliminate the sale of new gas-powered vehicles by 2035, but consumers worry about how far they can drive on a single charge with an electric car.

Chief among drivers’ concerns is range anxiety, a fear that your vehicle will run out of range before you reach your destination, according to a survey by Consumer Reports. Drivers also worry about finding an electric charger on road trips and long commutes.

Many electric vehicles today have a range of over 200 miles. The Tesla Model 3 has a range of 353 miles and the Chevy Bolt can go 259 miles on a single charge, according to each manufacturer.

“Consumers have to be interested and willing to purchase these vehicles,” said Brian Maas, president of the California New Car Dealership Association. “That means the vehicles are going to have to meet the needs of customers in terms of how they fuel the cars, the range of the vehicles, their cost, their utility.”

Nissan says the 2021 Nissan Leaf has a range of 226 miles, up from its 2018 version with only a 151-mile range. Tesla reports that its 2021 Tesla Model S has a range of 390 miles, the longest ranged electric car to date. And many models with over 400-mile ranges will join the market soon. That would be enough to drive from San Francisco to Los Angeles on a single charge.

One of the major challenges in selling electric vehicles, according to Maas, is explaining how to refuel the vehicle.

“In selling zero-emission vehicles, consumers need to understand how electric charging works, where they can get charging, what levels of charging are available,” Maas said. “That’s a whole new conversation that we haven’t seen in decades in the automotive industry… And it’s something that dealers are doing their darndest to learn.”

California already has more than 73,000 electric chargers, but a report from the California Energy Commission (CEC) projects the state will need 1.2 million public and shared private chargers by 2030 to support the number of electric vehicles on the road.

“I think we could definitely do it,” said Assembly Member Phil Ting, D-San Francisco, who wrote the 2018 bill requiring the CEC to review ZEV charging needs every two years.

Currently, the state is behind by 54,000 chargers to meet a 2025 benchmark, but Gov. Gavin Newsom’s 2021-22 budget proposal includes $500 million to help close that gap.

Ting says this money is “an initial start,” but what’s really needed is for the California Public Utilities Commission to move faster to let the three largest independent utilities in the state build charging infrastructure.

“What we need to do is really unlock the private capital that’s dying to build out charging infrastructures,” Ting said. “We need to streamline that process, make it go faster. So money isn’t the only issue.”

Level 1 charging is the easiest but slowest method of charging your electric vehicle. All electric cars come with a cable that’s compatible with standard outlets so you can do this at home. This method adds about 3.5 to 6.5 miles per hour of charging.

Level 2 charging requires the installation of a charging station, which costs about $350 to $900 to purchase the station and another $400 to $1,700 to install. These are the stations most commonly used at home and public locations. These chargers add about 14 to 35 miles per hour of charging.

Level 3 or Direct Current (DC) fast chargers cost $10,000 to $40,000 to purchase, plus an additional $4,000 to $50,000 to install. However, they have the greatest return in range per hour, adding about 300 miles per hour of charging.

Although the up-front cost of purchasing an electric vehicle is currently about $19,000 more than a gas-powered vehicle, a Consumer Report study shows that over the life of the vehicle, electric cars save consumers $6,000 to $10,000.

For one, electricity prices are simple compared to fluctuating gasoline prices, so electric vehicle drivers can save about $800 to $1,000 per year. And as more Californians switch to electric vehicles, this will drive down electricity prices.

At the average cost of electricity in California right now, it would cost about $6.63 to fully charge an electric vehicle with a 150-mile range. In comparison, at California’s average gas price of $3.11 per gallon, it costs about $18.66 for enough gas to drive 150 miles.

You’re most likely to find charging stations clustered in places where people can occupy themselves while they wait — at shopping centers and outside workplaces — or where interstate highways cross.

Public chargers are mostly concentrated in cities and large commercial areas and mostly absent from dense urban residential neighborhoods, according to a recent infrastructure deployment assessment report by the CEC.

https://www.sacbee.com/news/california/article252068183.html?#storylink=cpy