California lawmakers passed some precedent-setting climate and environment bills before the clock ran out Thursday, Sept. 14 on the 2023 legislative session.
That includes a first-of-its-kind bill to make big corporations disclose their greenhouse gas emissions. Others would make it harder for oil companies to drill along the coast or abandon old wells, and still others would make it easier for offshore wind projects to advance.
Those bills need signatures from Gov. Gavin Newsom by mid-October to become law. If they aren’t vetoed, they’ll be added to the list of climate bills Newsom signed earlier in the session, including one that lets California regulators penalize oil companies found to be gouging drivers at gas pumps and one protecting Joshua trees.
Lawmakers also recently passed a resolution by state Sen. Lena Gonzalez, D-Long Beach, to endorse the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty, which is a global call to end new fossil fuel exploration and expansion, phase out existing production, and endorse clean energy alternatives. That makes California the largest global economy to support the proposal, which more than 100 governments worldwide have now endorsed.
“All in all, the legislature did some good work, and the governor has some important bills to sign,” said Christina Scaringe, a legislative specialist with the Center for Biological Diversity, when asked to look back over the session.
“But as the climate emergency rages all around us — every day bringing new stories of some terrible storm, fire, flood, or other catastrophe — the (California) Legislature needs to think bigger and do more.”
That’s because other legislation backed by Scaringe’s organization and others, such as a proposal to make California’s public pension funds stop investing with oil companies, did not make the cut this year.
Lawmakers also passed a budget this summer that cut $6 billion from climate initiatives. And regulators last month postponed the closure…
Read the full article here