Cutting Through the Noise: Secretary Wade Crowfoot (CNRA) & Robert Chun (CEC) on Federal Impacts on California
As California contends with Federal attacks on clean energy development and threats to the state’s authority to regulate emissions, state leaders remain resolute in advancing the state’s climate and clean energy goals. VX News excerpts the latest from California Natural Resources Speaker Series from July 10 Cutting Through the Noise: Federal Impacts on California and What We’re Doing About It with CRNA Secretary Wade Crowfoot and Robert Chun, Chief of Staff to California Energy Commission Chair, David Hochshild, who details the tax credit sunsets, regulatory freezes, and cuts to clean energy deployment—and highlights how California is mobilizing to protect progress and sustain momentum. Despite the headwinds, both leaders underscore that innovation, public resolve, and market forces continue to drive a clean energy future that Washington cannot derail.
Secretary Wade Crowfoot: The California Energy Commission is one of our state agencies that coordinates with others to really advance the state's energy goals — to reach 100% clean energy in the next 20 years, and do it in a reliable, safe, and affordable way. And of course, transition transportation to reduce pollution that impacts our communities and contributes to climate change.
Robert, huge thanks for being here. Give us a sense of what's happening in the energy sector.
Robert Chun: Thank you, Secretary. It's great to be here. As the Secretary indicated, we're working to get California to a 100% clean energy future. So let me walk through some of the big changes we're seeing.
I think the first thing we're seeing is the administration ending our longstanding tax credits for clean energy. For decades, Congress has invested in clean energy through two major tax credits: the ITC and the PTC, or the Investment Tax Credit and the Production Tax Credit. But under legislation passed by Congress this month, those credits are going to sunset, and sunset pretty quickly. They'll only apply to projects that are placed into service by December 2027 and those that start construction by July 2026.
The data we're seeing suggests this bill is going to make energy more expensive for Americans. There’s a great modeling group at Princeton called REPEAT that has actually run the numbers, and they expect the typical American household to pay around $200–$300 more for energy each year because of this bill. They also expect we’re going to add a lot less new capacity to the grid, which could impact reliability and the growth of new industries like AI. So, we’re doing everything we can to help projects get across the finish line in time to access those tax credits.
I’d say the second thing we’re seeing is the administration eliminating or freezing programs that Congress had previously authorized to support clean energy. Honestly, there are too many examples to count, but I’ll give you one.
A few years ago, Congress created the Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations at the Department of Energy to bridge that divide between R&D and commercial deployment. Based on public reporting, we now believe the administration has reduced that office’s staff from 250 people down to just 35, and that’s about a 90% reduction in force in that office alone.
The administration has also announced it’s canceling 24 of the awards that that office managed, totaling about $3.7 billion. At least $800 million of those grants were supposed to go to California, including for projects in low-income communities with high levels of pollution. That’s just one example.
The Department of Energy started the year with about 16,000 employees. Based on public reporting, we believe nearly 4,000, or 25%, have accepted early resignation offers. We’ve seen similar reductions in headcount at other agencies like the Department of Interior and the EPA. We're also tracking uncertainty around other key programs like NEVI and ENERGY STAR. It's a little too early to say exactly what the administration intends to do with each of these programs, but we're monitoring each one very closely so we can mitigate the impacts for Californians.
I’d say the third thing we’re seeing is the administration removing some basic energy efficiency regulations that exist to protect consumers. DOE has been setting appliance standards for about 50 years. The typical American household saves more than $500 because of these efficiency standards, but in recent months, DOE has announced they intend to roll back 18 of those rules. That’s not only unlawful, it’s also deeply costly for consumers. That rollback is estimated to cost consumers about $43 billion in the years to come. It’ll create instability for manufacturers and unnecessarily increase demand at a time when we’re trying to scale up AI, EVs, heat pumps, and more.
And the fourth thing, just to close it out, is the administration making it harder to protect clean air through zero-emission transportation. Since the Clean Air Act was adopted in 1970, the EPA has granted California hundreds of waivers. Those waivers allow us to set innovative standards to address some of our unique air quality challenges. They allow us to run our clean cars and trucks programs, which promote zero-emission vehicles to improve air quality.
But earlier this year, Congress illegally used the Congressional Review Act to revoke those waivers. Governor Newsom and Attorney General Rob Bonta have filed lawsuits to defend us from those actions. If the administration succeeds, it will make it harder to improve air, especially in places like the San Joaquin Valley and L.A. It will also cost Californians more: on gas, oil changes, and the like.
We’re fighting back with everything we’ve got. That’s a quick tour of the challenges we’re facing. But I think it’s also important to underscore that California can and will make tremendous progress on clean energy — even during this administration.
Secretary Wade Crowfoot: You know, it's alarming and discouraging, the way that clean energy is being attacked, and it's impacting real, great projects that create jobs in California. Give us a sense of optimism around our progress moving forward.
Robert Chun: Sure thing. I’d say this: during the first Trump administration, a lot of folks worried we'd lose momentum on clean energy. But they were actually wrong.
If anything, the clean energy transition accelerated during those years. A lot of folks don’t realize we actually retired more coal under Trump’s first term than under Obama’s second.
When Trump entered office, coal powered more than 30% of the grid. When he left in 2020, it powered less than 20%. Why? For the same reason we moved away from whale oil. We invented better, cheaper, cleaner stuff.
Today, solar and wind are the cheapest and most abundant energy around. They’re the reason more than 95% of additions to the U.S. grid each year are clean. I think that’s the big lesson of the first Trump administration; they can slow the transition to clean energy here and there, but they can’t stop it. We shouldn’t back down from our vision of a clean energy future or lower our expectations for what we can achieve here in California.
Secretary Wade Crowfoot: That’s amazing, Robert, and that’s so well put and cogent. That’s a great end to our dive into five specific areas.
I want to bring everybody back to make a couple of important points. One is: California remains committed and focused on our priorities and our values. I speak for Governor Newsom, but I’d also go so far as to speak for the legislature, which has passed state laws in this respect. We’ve got a strong set of state leaders maintaining progress in each of these areas.
And all of us who joined today, over 1,000 people, none of us are powerless. As our colleagues would share here on screen, there’s something that each of us can do. I want to bring up our last slide in the last couple of minutes on what you can actually do. We broke it down into four specific ways:
Stay informed. Stay connected to allies working on these topics across your communities and across California. We put out a regular information source, which includes social media and what we call “The Buzz.” And of course, follow other state agencies as well.
Make your voice heard. Sarah explained that a lot of the cuts we talked about today are proposed cuts being discussed in Congress. They affect infrastructure, services, and data that protect all communities. There’s strong bipartisan support to maintain these programs, but they need to hear from us.
Share your story. We have to communicate the real impacts of these changes on our lives and our communities. Media is doing a good job, but we have to keep sharing.
Build bridges. Here’s another optimistic point: In 2025, conservation leaders across the political spectrum came together to defeat a proposal by a Utah senator to sell public lands. Ten million acres of California public lands would’ve been eligible for sale. It was a broad-based coalition: environmental groups, hunters, anglers, local governments, and tribes that pushed back.
We understand the political reality in Washington, D.C. right now. But these are issues that we all care about, regardless of party or ideology. So build connections with people who may speak differently or have a different influence in D.C.
I'm so thankful for the work everybody is doing, both on this call and across state government. For those displaced federal employees, we’ve got great opportunities in state government. You can reach out to our career center to learn more.
We are stronger together, and knowledge is power. I hope this last hour has been useful, just sharing all that’s happening in a factual way, and hopefully providing some optimism.
Secretary Crowfoot hosts monthly discussions with leaders and big thinkers from across California to discuss emerging natural resources issues. This open forum allows for new and different perspectives about how we best steward California’s resources. These events are public, live-streamed on YouTube, and recorded for later viewing. Links to each of these discussions are presented below.
