In a recent interview with APPA, Danielle Blacet-Hyden, Executive Director of the California Municipal Utilities Association, provided details on a new CMUA campaign to educate legislators, regulators, journalists, and the general public about the value and benefits of community-owned, not-for-profit power and water utilities in California.
Blacet-Hyden has been Executive Director of CMUA since January 2025. Prior to that, she held several other positions at CMUA, specifically Deputy Executive Director and Director of Water.
At the start of 2026, CMUA launched the new Public Power, Public Water, Public Good campaign.
“In 2023, we did a strategic plan, and we got a lot of good comments from our board and from our members,” Blacet-Hyden noted in an episode of APPA’s Public Power Now podcast.
Noting the importance of advocacy to CMUA members, “there were several pieces of the plan that talked about telling that public power and water story, getting in front of policymakers, becoming the go-to organization for public power and public water in California.”
All of those things “combined together and just really wanting to put our face in front of legislators and regulators led to us putting together this plan and this campaign.”
The campaign launched with an ad in the Sacramento airport. There also is geotargeted online advertising as part of the campaign. Later this spring, CMUA also plans to release a toolkit to its members so that they can use the campaign’s branding and assets in their own communications and marketing.
“We're also really engaging with stakeholders, including ones that you wouldn't necessarily think about, for instance, the California Grocers Association — energy is its number two cost after labor,” she said.
“We're doing a lot of work with those stakeholders when it comes to issues in common to see if we can create those opportunities.”
CMUA is also focused on linking people back to the campaign’s microsite, which is connectwithcmua.org and has top 10 lists for what legislators and the general public and journalists should know about CMUA and its members. A QR code directs people back to that microsite.
She noted that more than 20 of CMUA’s 86 members have financially supported the advertising campaign, “and we're very grateful for that.”
In terms of other steps CMUA has taken to get the word out on the campaign, Blacet-Hyden said the association ran an advertisement in a local magazine, Comstock’s, that had a special utilities issue.
Long-Term Goals
In the podcast episode, she also discussed her long-term goals for CMUA.
She has remarked about the fact “that we have such a great team and they're like a football team in the playoffs and it gets to the playoffs every year, and my goal is to get them to the Super Bowl and to win it.”
CMUA is “a leader in this space, but I'm hoping that when the new governor — California has an election coming up in November — thinks about water, energy, utilities, he or she gives me a call.”
Blacet-Hyden also pointed out that CMUA offers great events, “but they are all in the first quarter of the year, so I want to add more offerings.”
CMUA held its annual lobbying day in Sacramento in January and its Annual Water and Power Conference in March. The association is adding a new data center/AI event in June and a general managers’ summit in the fall—and continuing an annual event for customer service professionals, as well as a yearly wildfire mitigation forum.
Administrative goals include “building our reserves so that we are financially sustainable.”
Challenges Facing California Public Power Utilities
She was also asked to detail what she sees as the key challenges facing California public power utilities these days, and the ways that CMUA is helping its member utilities successfully meet these challenges.
The CMUA Executive Director noted that California has very ambitious clean energy goals.
“At this point, 100% of electric retail sales is supposed to come from renewable and zero carbon resources by 2045, and we actually have some members that have more ambitious goals than that,” she said.
“We really believe that we need an all-of-the-above strategy in order to get there, and our members are well on their way and they're doing everything they can, but it is a challenge to get to that ultimate goal of 100%.”
With respect to electrification of medium- and heavy-duty fleets, in California, the state has an Advanced Clean Fleets rule that governs bucket trucks and the medium-duty vehicles.
And so having the new demand for those all-electric vehicles “and also just the availability of the vehicles has been a challenge for our members, and we continue to work through the regulatory process on that.”
Workforce also presents a challenge. “It continues to be an issue for our public power utilities and in terms of what CMUA has been doing…we advocate on our members' behalf in both legislative and regulatory arenas to showcase the challenges, what it means for our utilities on the ground, and how both of those branches can really help to mitigate some of those issues.”
In 2023, CMUA and its partners launched the California Water, Wastewater and Energy Workforce Development Program, a $4 million effort funded through a state grant. The program has funded several training and career advancement opportunities statewide designed to help elevate new and existing workers in the utility sector.
CMUA also convenes working groups, provides information and makes sure “that our members all know what the other ones are doing so that they can be better prepared and institute some of those innovative projects that our members are known for.”
