Daily Business Report: Wednesday, November 26, 2025
North County Transit District Struggles to Afford the Price of Being Carbon Free
By Jenna Ramiscal | Voice of San Diego
Hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe, but the North County Transit District has to truck it in from almost 100 miles away to fuel their zero-emission buses.
The carbon free fuel costs so much, the transportation agency serving 340 square miles of northern San Diego County says it can only run a few hydrogen fuel cell buses at a time. Shawn Donaghy, the district’s CEO, is worried the cost of the hydrogen program might force the district to choose between cutting back bus services to buy fuel or halting their hydrogen zero-emission efforts altogether.
“If we don’t start to see a relief (in) cost, and we have to continue to buy zero-emission buses, it will come at an expense to service,” Donaghy said. “We really don’t want that.”
California is about to cut power company profits to historic lows. Your bill will barely drop
By MALENA CAROLLO | CalMatters
With California electric rates stuck at nearly the highest in the nation, the state’s utility regulator is poised to lower the payout shareholders can receive from California’s three large investor-owned power companies.
In a proposed decision, the California Public Utilities Commission recommended dropping the “return on equity” by 0.35% each for Pacific Gas & Electric, Southern California Edison and San Diego Gas & Electric. If approved, shareholders of all three companies would see a potential return next year of just under 10%. Such returns for PG&E and Edison haven’t dipped below double digits in at least 20 years.
Utilities said the decline would affect their ability to bring in needed investment for their work. Critics of the decision said that the decline is too small to meaningfully impact ratepayers’ bills, even if it’s a step in the right direction.
California’s Economy Grows More Dependent on AI
By Marc Joffe | The Epoch Times
While California’s economy continues to produce some impressive headline numbers, its trajectory is becoming increasingly dependent on the tech sector. And now that tech has gone all in on artificial intelligence, the state’s finances are vulnerable to either a bursting of the “AI Bubble” or an exit of AI innovators to other states.
Gov. Gavin Newsom has focused the public’s attention on California’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) relative to that of major countries. Most recently, California passed Japan to become the world’s fourth-largest economy in 2024.
The importance of this ranking should not be exaggerated. Because different states and countries have different costs and different populations, nominal GDP tells us little about relative living standards. If we adjust GDP to equalize purchasing power, California falls to number 11 in the world, but still near or above countries with many times our population.
