Fusion will transform the energy sector

By Catherine Blakespear, Anna Caballero, and Jerry McNerney

Fusion energy offers a pathway to clean, safe, and reliable energy capable of meeting humanity’s needs for generations. For decades, California has quietly led in the race to fusion energy. Now, as breakthroughs become routine and the pursuit of fusion enters its final phase, we have introduced several bills to ensure California maintains its role as the center of fusion research and development.

California’s fusion ecosystem is the largest in the nation. World-leading federal research facilities like the DIII-D National Fusion Facility (located in San Diego) and the National Ignition Facility at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory are some of the primary drivers of our fusion innovation system. A thriving startup sector has also emerged in our state, attracting billions of dollars in private investments driven by the goal of constructing the first fusion energy power plant in the next decade. Combined with the largest network of fusion science and engineering programs in the nation at campuses throughout the UC and Cal State systems, the California fusion ecosystem is unlike any other in the world.

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