Its is reducing emissions. It's a lot easier to reduce emissions on X amount of power if it's made at a big plant than if it's generated at every house. Not only are large plants more efficient but the cost of the emissions gear is amortized over a lot of power. The power you get from the PoCo caused way fewer emissions than the same power coming from your home generator. That's not even including solar, of which there is a lot in CA.
Of course if the state would make PG&E actually maintain and update their equipment, there'd be way fewer outages and thus fewer home generators running. But our states' politicians haven't been able to do that for 40 years or more.
My concern is that the battery backup systems can't run for days on end, and even if PG&E maintained their lines properly we'd be getting outages that long. It's what happens when you're in steep mountains with big trees and lots of rain. The battery "generators" on the market now are no where near enough for that, and I don't think they will be by 2024. I also don't think that there will be big or even medium size battery chainsaws by then. They're pretty important unless you want to hire a $2500/day crew for every tree you need taken down, and don't make firewood. I don't think CARB is even aware people like us exist. I would not mind using battery everything if it worked for my needs but it doesn't yet.
I have a generator already, I can get another one before the deadline, and I can load up on good chainsaws. It'll be tough for newcomers who can't get that stuff because the rest of us won't be selling. Folks who have the money (and sunlight) for a solar and battery installation can do that but those aren't cheap....and if the power's out for days in a winter storm you're not going to get much solar power so you still need a generator
