California Case Study
An Unlikely Win for California Ratepayers
280+
California small business owners activated
1 Week
To exceed the campaign’s original advocacy goal
Victory
SB 886 signed into law
The Challenge
As California wrestled with the enormous electricity demands of AI and data centers, lawmakers faced a fundamental question: who should pay for the grid infrastructure needed to serve them?
SB 886 sought to protect existing electricity customers from absorbing costs created by massive new data-center loads.
But passage was far from certain. The bill faced significant opposition from utility, technology and business interests, while lawmakers considered competing approaches to the same problem. Negotiations continued into the final days of the legislative session.
One voice was largely missing from that debate: California’s small businesses.
What Neighbors Did
Neighbors for Strong Communities launched a statewide campaign to find small business owners already struggling with rising utility and operating costs and help them participate.
Rather than giving people a generic form letter, we asked them what rising costs were actually doing to their businesses.
Their answers were striking.
“There are times when I have to choose whether to lay off employees, or pay my outrageous power bill.”
“We’re having to close our business of 35 years due to high costs.”
“I don’t want to pass those costs onto my customers… I can’t cut any more.”
Those experiences became personalized communications delivered directly to Governor Gavin Newsom and legislative leaders.
The Response
Our initial goal was to mobilize 250 small business owners.
We exceeded it in the first week.
More than 280 California small businesses ultimately participated, joining a broader campaign that also brought together business and community organizations, local elected officials and other validators around the principle that California could welcome AI investment without making existing customers subsidize it.
Their stories also became more than letters. They helped identify real Californians who could speak with reporters, participate in coalition activity and put a human face on an otherwise highly technical policy debate.
The Victory
After weeks of negotiations and competing proposals, a late-session compromise preserved key ratepayer protections.
SB 886 passed the Legislature on its final day of session.
On September 21, 2026, Governor Newsom signed it into law.
The campaign objective had been achieved — and hundreds of small business owners who normally would have had little access to a technical Sacramento policy fight had helped make sure their experiences were part of the debate.
The Takeaway
Big policy fights shouldn’t belong only to the organizations with lobbyists.
Neighbors helps people affected by consequential public decisions tell their own stories, reach the people making those decisions, and become part of campaigns capable of winning.
Real people. Real stories. A voice that matters.