The following is a transcript of the Feb. 23, 2026, episode of Public Power Now. Learn more about subscribing to Public Power Now at Publicpower.org/Podcasts. Some quotes may have been edited for clarity.
Paul Ciampoli
Welcome to the latest episode of Public Power Now.
I'm Paul Ciampoli, APPA's News Director.
Our guest on this episode is Danielle Blacet-Hyden, Executive Director of the California Municipal Utilities Association.
She's been Executive Director of CMUA since January of 2025.
Prior to that, she held several other positions at CMUA, specifically Deputy Executive Director and Director of Water.
Danielle, thanks for joining us.
Danielle Blacet-Hyden
Thanks for having me.
Paul Ciampoli
I'm guessing that a lot of our member utilities at APPA are aware of CMUA, but for those who may not have a really deep familiarity with the association could you give us an overview of CMUA, including the services it provides to its member utilities?
Danielle Blacet-Hyden
The California Municipal Utilities Association has been around since the 1930s. It's the statewide trade association for publicly owned electric and gas utilities. We also have water and wastewater agencies as well throughout the state.
We have 86 members. They are energy, water, large, small, urban, rural, agricultural, all of the above. We have the largest municipal utility in the nation down to cities that have about 1,500 connections or so.
Our main purpose is advocacy. We represent our members in the legislature and with regulatory agencies.
We also have great conferences and distribute information to our members.
But really the thing that our members want from us and what we do best is advocating on their behalf.
Paul Ciampoli
I want to give you the opportunity to talk about what you see as the key challenges facing California public power utilities these days, and what are the ways in which CMUA is helping its member utilities successfully meet these challenges?
Danielle Blacet-Hyden
I would say the first is in California, we have 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.
We really believe that we need an all of the above strategy in order to get there, but 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%.
Electrification of the medium and heavy duty fleet. In California, we have an advanced clean fleets rule that governs bucket trucks and the medium duty vehicles.
And so having the demand 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.
And then cap and invest, which has been renamed, it used to be cap and trade. Right now, the regulatory proposals to reduce the allowances for our electric utilities, at least for most of them and that really reduces the benefits and programs that customers can get from their utility and so we have a big legislative and regulatory effort on that.
And then wildfire -- as I'm sure everyone throughout the nation knows, California is really the epicenter for a lot of the nation's major wildfires and so wildfire impacts, vegetation management, and then also related to that, changes in climate, including extreme weather events.
And the last thing I'd say is workforce. It continues to be an issue for our public power utilities and in terms of what CMUA has been doing, again, really 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.
And then also we do working groups and spread information and make 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.
Paul Ciampoli
Knowledge sharing sounds like it goes a long way in terms of achieving the overall public power mission there in California.
Danielle Blacet-Hyden
Yes, absolutely. We also serve as a thought leader and really push out a lot of our content that can be shared with policymakers to tell the public power story.
We're talking about affordability right now, which is on the minds, I think, of all utilities in California and nationwide and some of the other issues -- climate resilience -- we try and put out policy papers and do things that are going to help to tell that story from our utilities’ perspective.
Paul Ciampoli
And one question did occur to me – as you know, there's a lot of changes underway as it relates to organized electricity markets in the West.
Anything you guys are doing in that area?
Danielle Blacet-Hyden
We were supporters of the Pathways Initiative to create a west-wide market and so we've been following that really closely and we will continue to follow that through its implementation.
We know that there will be benefits from a cost standpoint and also just helping California to meet its clean energy goals and so we're very supportive of that effort and we'll continue to engage on it.
Paul Ciampoli
The seed that was planted in my head in terms of reaching out to you and conducting this interview was a story that I actually had published recently in our newsletter about the new Public Power, Public Water, Public Good campaign that CMUA in January announced in terms of its official launch.
And as you know, this is a new campaign to educate legislators, regulators, journalists, and the general public about the value and public benefits of community-owned, not-for-profit power and water utilities in California.
So I've got three questions I wanted to address to you related to this campaign, and I'll just go one at a time in terms of the bullet points.
The first one is, why did CMUA decide to launch this campaign?
Danielle Blacet-Hyden
In 2023, we did a strategic plan and we got a lot of good comments from our board and from our members.
And in addition to what I talked about earlier with advocacy being really what our members want from us, 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.
And so 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.
So we're very excited about it.
We just launched with an airport ad in the Sacramento airport and are getting ready to start with a lot of online advertising as well.
Paul Ciampoli
And any additional details beyond what you just said in terms of the elements of the campaign?
Danielle Blacet-Hyden
So advertising, education, we're really engaging with stakeholders, including ones that you wouldn't necessarily think about, for instance, the California Grocers Association -- energy is their number two cost after labor.
So we're doing a lot of work with those stakeholders and maybe we wouldn't always go to when it comes to issues in common to see if we can create those opportunities.
But really right now, what we're focused on is advertising and linking people back to our new microsite, which is connectwithcmua.org that has top 10 lists for what legislators and the general public and journalists should know about CMUA and its members.
And I have to give a shout out to about, I think, 23 of our members out of our 86 have financially supported the advertising campaign and we're very grateful for that.
Paul Ciampoli
And now you mentioned the airport ads so that's a nice segue to the last question I have with respect to the campaign.
Any further comments on the tools CMUA is utilizing to get the word out to target audiences about the campaign?
Danielle Blacet-Hyden
Yeah, so we did an advertisement in a local magazine, Comstock’s, that had a special utilities issue. So we put that out as well.
And then a lot of geo-located social media, it's highly technical stuff.
It goes well beyond my understanding of how they figure out how to get these messages in front of legislators.
And then the QR code directs people back to that microsite so I encourage your listeners to go check it out.
There's a lot of great resources, a lot of things that go beyond California that I think other states can use as well to promote that public power message.
Paul Ciampoli
You read my mind in terms of one other follow-up question I had for you.
If there's another state association that listens to this episode and is intrigued by the idea, what would you say is a key set of advice that you would give them in terms of like things to watch out for, what was learned during the process as you worked on this campaign?
Danielle Blacet-Hyden
I would say definitely don't let a small budget keep you from putting something like this forward.
We had some funds for a consultant and we did have funds to do some of the advertising, but a lot of what we have done is in cooperation with our members but hasn't been very expensive and you can really get that message out.
So I would, especially in the world of social media, I would definitely encourage even smaller associations to look at what they could provide to their members and the larger public when it comes to that.
We're in the middle of the campaign right now, so I'll probably have some lessons learned at the end of all of it, but right now we're just excited to really get it underway.
Paul Ciampoli
I wanted to give you the opportunity to talk about your long-term goals for CMUA.
Danielle Blacet-Hyden
I'm a lifetime advocate, and so I'm very excited about the fact that the strategic plan and our board has indicated that they really want us to be that go-to advocate on public power and public water issues.
And so my really long-term goal, I was kind of joking 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.
So we really are a leader in this space, but I'm hoping that when the new governor, we have an election coming up in November, thinks about water, energy, utilities, he or she gives me a call.
We also have great events, but they are all in the first quarter of the year, so I want to add more offerings.
We're going to be doing a load growth symposium in June and I want to give a shout out to NWPPA for their great event last month.
And then administrative goals like building our reserves so that we are financially sustainable.
Paul Ciampoli
Danielle, thanks so much for taking the time to speak with us today and I would love to have you back at some point in the future to, at a minimum, talk about lessons learned from that campaign when that's wrapped up.
And obviously, there's a lot of other exciting things that are going on at the association, so I want to extend that invitation to you right now.
Danielle Blacet-Hyden
Yeah, absolutely. Thank you so much.
And I would definitely encourage listeners from other state associations, we have a gathering through APPA where we meet once a year, but I'm always available for conversations about what's happening in California and how maybe that can translate to other places around the nation.
Paul Ciampoli
Okay, great.
And I would just also, just as I mentioned at the earlier in their conversation, for listeners interested in more details on the campaign, you can go to our website where there's a newsletter article that was posted about it.
So Danielle, thanks again for taking the time to speak with us.
Danielle Blacet-Hyden
Thank you so much.
Paul Ciampoli
Thanks for listening to this episode of Public Power Now, which is produced by Julio Guerrero, Graphic and Digital Designer at APPA.
I'm Paul Ciampoli and we'll be back next week with more from the world of public power.
