November 7, 2025
Exploring Solutions to California’s High Electricity Costs
The 2025 Seventeenth Annual Lesley K. McAllister Symposium focused on solutions to address California's high electricity costs. Policymakers, practitioners, academics, and other experts discussed a range of potential solutions to address California's high electricity costs, including utility ratemaking reform, alternative infrastructure financing mechanisms, off-bill funding sources for energy programs, net energy metering and net billing tariff reforms, fixed charges, and the role of potential Western market integration.
The Lesley K. McAllister Symposium on Climate and Energy Law is co-hosted by the Energy Policy Initiatives Center (EPIC) and the San Diego Journal of Climate & Energy Law.
For more information on previous Symposia, see our website.
Welcome
- Robert Muth, Vice Dean, USD School of Law
- Carly Steele, Editor-in-Chief, San Diego Journal of Climate and Energy Law
- Scott Anders, Director, Energy Policy Initiatives Center, University of San Diego School of Law
Keynote Panel
- Assemblymember Tasha Boerner, California Assemblymember, District 77; Member, Committee on Utilities and Energy
- Nancy Skinner, Commissioner, California Energy Commission
- Scott Anders, Director, Energy Policy Initiatives Center, USD School of Law
Panel 1
INFRASTRUCTURE
Panelists
- Ethan Elkind, Director, Climate Program, Center for Law, Energy & the Environment, UC Berkeley School of Law
- Michael Wara, Senior Research Scholar, Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment
- Antonia Castro-Graham, Vice President Policy & Regulatory Affairs, Avantus
- Laura Godfrey Zagar, Partner, Perkins Coie
Moderator
- Hillary Hebert, Principal, HMH Energy Consulting Inc.
Panel 2
REGULATORY REFORMS
Panelists
- Dan Skopec, Senior Vice President & Chief Regulatory Officer, SDG&E and SoCalGas
- Matt Freedman, Senior Renewable Attorney, TURN
- Rachel Peterson, Executive Director, California Public Utilities Commission
- Ed Randolph, Partner, Caliber Strategies
Moderator
- Rob Nikolewski, Energy Reporter, The San Diego Union Tribune
Panel 3
OTHER BIG IDEAS
Panelists
- Merrian Borgeson, Chief Scientist, NRDC
- Andrew Campbell, Executive Director, Energy Institute at Haas, UC Berkeley Haas School of Business; Member of the Western Energy Markets Governing Body
- Sylvie Ashford, Energy and Climate Policy Analyst, TURN
- Madison Vander Klay, Senior Manager of Government Affairs, Building Decarbonization Coalition
Moderator
- Veera Tyagi, General Counsel, San Diego Community Power