June 18, 2026
By Rinaldo S. Brutoco,
Tom Steyer just missed being in the runoff for California governor, finishing less than 2% behind Steve Hilton, who will now face Xavier Becerra in November.
It was an impressive race in which Steyer reportedly invested over $200 million of his own resources. While some have criticized him for that, the Academy has long believed that individuals who have prospered in business have both the opportunity and the responsibility to devote a portion of their resources, experience, and leadership to the public good. That principle has been central to the Academy’s mission since its founding in 1986.
As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, the World Business Academy does not endorse candidates for public office and therefore did not comment on the gubernatorial primary campaign while it was underway. Now that the election has been decided, however, it is entirely appropriate to discuss the ideas that were presented and the challenges that remain.
Several of the issues emphasized by Tom Steyer during the campaign, including utility reform, housing affordability, environmental stewardship, corporate accountability, and economic justice, are issues the Academy has examined and written about for decades. While his campaign has ended, the importance of those challenges has not diminished. Nor has the opportunity for visionary private leadership, working alongside mission-driven organizations, to help address them.
Whatever one thinks about the outcome of the primary election, Tom Steyer’s candidacy was only the latest chapter in a career that has combined business success, philanthropy, environmental advocacy, and public engagement. His record of achievement as a businessman and founder of Farallon Capital, together with the many enterprises and initiatives he has supported over the years, is widely recognized as both distinguished and consequential.
It is true that not every investment he made is one he would be proud of today (his investments in coal more than a decade ago are not ones which he likely would repeat today). More relevant than any individual investment, however, is what Steyer’s career has taught him about the responsibilities of business and the need for structural reforms that create broader economic opportunity.
His observations regarding the trajectory of our increasingly “K shaped” economy, and the role that both public institutions and private leadership must play in addressing it, are extraordinarily relevant and timely. In a similar vein, his work as a philanthropist and environmental advocate over the past decade would be equaled by very few business leaders. He observed this in his own words:
“For 14 years I’ve made good on my pledge to give my wealth to charity while I’m alive, funding clean energy, affordable housing and youth voter mobilization efforts nationwide. But I’m under no illusions that individual philanthropy is a substitute for structural reform. Piecemeal donations — even to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars — are far less effective than a system that serves working people by design. But in a world where Citizens United is the law of the land, achieving that system is fundamentally a battle of money. And money does not tend to be on the side of working people.”
Those sentiments are precisely what the Academy has promoted for nearly 40 years. Or, as recently summarized by Leah Sullivan from Pasadena in a letter to the LA Times:
“In my opinion, we ought to publicly celebrate and reward persons of wealth who support a fair and democratic society; who actively care about the only resource that permits life, our planet and environment; and who feel compassion for the suffering of others. It’s a winning strategy.”
We agree. The Academy has long believed that meaningful societal change does not depend on holding elective office. Throughout modern history, many of the most significant advances in environmental protection, public health, education, and economic opportunity have been initiated by private citizens, mission-driven institutions, and business leaders willing to devote their talents and resources to the public good.
Incredibly talented executives like former Unilever CEO Paul Polman have been proving that for decades. Tom Steyer has also done so through numerous initiatives, including Beneficial State Bank, One Roof, Inc., TomKat Ranch, NextGen America, the climate change-focused investment firm Galvanize Climate Solutions, and his 2024 book, Cheaper, Faster, Better: How We’ll Win the Climate War. While these efforts span finance, climate, agriculture, civic engagement, and public policy, they share a common objective: applying private-sector leadership and resources to challenges of broad public importance.
So, with all this behind him at only 69 years of age, where does Tom go next? One opportunity stands out. Among the many issues Steyer emphasized during his campaign, perhaps none is more immediately actionable than his promise to reduce electricity costs statewide by 25%.
Unlike many campaign pledges that depend on legislative action, this objective can be pursued through private-sector leadership, innovative financing, and strategic partnerships. The Academy believes this is precisely the kind of challenge where Steyer’s experience, resources, and public-interest commitments could continue to make a meaningful difference without having to serve as governor.
It turns out that reducing electrical costs by 25% is not only possible but could also accelerate California’s transition to renewable energy. In fact, the Academy has spent years developing and refining a practical framework for accomplishing precisely that objective.
The Academy has published numerous articles, produced one 20-minute industrial video and one 5+ minute video starring Gavin Newsom, Jigar Shah, Deepak Chopra and Rinaldo Brutoco that describes in detail how the entire State of California could be converted to a 100% green electrical system within 10 years at no additional cost to ratepayers.
How is this possible? By taking advantage of the dramatically lower cost of locally-generated renewable energy (e.g. 5¢/kilowatt for solar) and deploying it through a statewide network of interconnected microgrids. This system was endorsed by former Senior Engineer and Principal of the California Independent System Operator (CAISO), Lorenzo Kristov, Ph.D., in a paper he co-authored with Paul Di Martini of Caltech (21st Century Electric Distribution System Operations) and supported by a separate paper written at the same time by Brutoco (The Role of Fuel Cells within a Microgrid System)
The system these papers and videos describe is one where locally produced renewable energy is produced and used locally by a battery or “fuel cell assisted” microgrid. In a further refinement, the Academy has determined that the 3000+ local substations in California could be at the heart of each microgrid and further connected to a statewide system of green hydrogen. The advantage of this deployment strategy is that it would leave the existing electrical companies in the business of owning the substations, and the existing gas distribution companies in the business of piping hydrogen gas to each substation. A paper describing the system in greater detail is in the process of being prepared by the Academy for distribution later this year.
One of the additional benefits of an interconnected microgrid system is that it would avoid the use of all long-distance transmission lines. It is a well-accepted fact that over 80% of the forest fires in California originate from sparking that transmission lines unavoidably create. The collateral economic benefit from eliminating all those forest fires itself would be enough to pay for the implementation of the microgrid system, which would be very profitable if only charging 75% of the currently existing rates in the state of California—exactly as Steyer promised.
California’s challenges remain, and many of them require leadership that extends beyond the boundaries of elected office. Reducing electricity costs while accelerating the transition to a cleaner, more resilient energy system is one such opportunity. The Academy stands ready to contribute its research, intellectual property, and decades of work to help transform this vision into practical projects that benefit Californians statewide.