The climate bills headed to Governor Newsom's desk
(And a few that sadly didn't make it this legislative session.)
Taking stock of California's 2023-2024 legislative session.
The 2023-2024 session ended at midnight on Saturday, August 31, with a few wins and more disappointing compromises for Climate Action California and our allies working for effective climate policy. Now it's all on Governor Newsom's desk. He has until the end of September to sign or veto many hundreds of bills. Any he doesn't touch by his deadline go into effect.
Here’s a partial roundup of Climate Action California’s priority bills, now awaiting the Governor's signature. Note that the Governor has called a Special Session to work on bills addressing the state's high energy costs. There is some debate about when, or even whether, this will happen: Watch this space!
Some hard-fought wins for the climate
AB 1866 (Hart): Addresses California's the idle wells problem by requiring owners of idle oil and gas wells to plug and remediate them on a set schedule, or pay a fine equal to the average cost of safely closing a well.
AB 2716 (Bryan): Originally targeted low-production oil and gas wells near homes and other sensitive sites generally; in Appropriations the scope was narrowed to apply only to the Inglewood oil field in Los Angeles. The bill would require the state to identify such wells by July 2025, notify owners by July 2026 that they have 24 months to shut down the well, and then impose a $10,000 daily fine for exceeding the limit, with funds going towards environmental cleanup.
AB 3233 (Addis): Our friends at 350 Bay Area Action write, “AB 3233 will reaffirm local governmental authority in California to regulate, limit, or phase out oil and gas operations in their jurisdictions. If signed, this bill has another important benefit — it will reduce the oil industry’s threats and intimidation created by uncertainty under the law.”
SB 59 (Skinner): Gives the Energy Commission the option, after study, of requiring EV batteries be bi-directional (capable of sending energy to the grid) at some undefined future date. Much reduced from the original (SB 233, had a mandate and a target date), but still worthwhile
AB 1465 (Wicks): Allows local air districts to triple civil penalties on refineries and other non-vehicular sources of air pollution
SB 1374 (Becker): Permits schools and multi-family buildings generating solar energy to be more generously compensated by the utility, as they aggregate their electrical meters for net metering purposes.
SB 219 (Wiener and Stern): A compromise negotiated with the Governor's office to ensure implementation of the laws passed and signed last year (SB 253 and SB 261) that require large businesses to report both their greenhouse gas emissions and their climate-related financial risk. Newsom had proposed a two-year delay.
Setbacks: Better late than never?
Julie Cart of CalMatters writes:
Leak detection at oil wells near residential areas in California will be delayed by more than three years in a compromise hammered out in the Legislature [on Aug 31] hours before the end of the year’s legislative session.
In a separate vote, lawmakers also reinstated funding this year for three state agencies to enforce the two-year-old law that requires oil companies to monitor oil operations within 3,200 feet of homes and schools to detect leaks into the air and water.
The two bills will now go to Gov. Gavin Newsom for his signature.
Two weeks ago, the Newsom administration floated a plan to extend the law’s various deadlines — by more than four years for leak detection reporting — because state officials needed more time to implement them. Environmentalists supported a two-year delay. In the end today, the Legislature settled on three and a half years, setting a new deadline of July 2030 for leak monitoring; the original law’s deadline was January 2027.
The Assembly passed the budget bill [AB 180] in a 42 to 15 vote and the bill changing the deadlines [AB 218] in a 45 to 14 vote. The Senate voted 31 to 9 and 30 to 9, respectively.
A bad hydrogen bill that made it
The original version of SB 1420 (Caballero, Archuleta, Dodd, and Newman) was whittled down in a series of committee hearings, but CAC's experts find that it still sets back the development of truly clean and renewable hydrogen. Although not permitting fossil-based hydrogen or hydrogen manufactured with power generated from "combustion," it opens the door to hydrogen produced with carbon-intensive biogenic feedstocks and to electricity from the grid.
Defeating this hydrogen bill was a high priority for us and allies, but... it passed. We are urging the Governor to veto it.
Bills that didn't make it this session—we hope they come back in 2025-26!
ACA 16 (Bryan): Would have amended the California Constitution to establish a right to clean air, water, and a healthy environment. The Chamber of Commerce, Western States Petroleum Association, and the rest of the usual suspects were having none of it, and Asm Bryan pulled the bill rather than taking poisonous amendments.
SB 1497 (Menjivar). Would have made the biggest fossil fuel polluters pay for the climate harms they have caused in California. A very similar bill became law in Vermont, while New York’s version made it through the legislature there and awaits Governor Kathy Hochul’s signature (it’s not clear yet whether or not she’ll sign it)
SB 308 (Becker): Carried over from last year and finally killed in Assembly Appropriations, this bill would have required the California Air Resources Board to set up a market-based program where large emitters of greenhouse gasses must purchase credits for their emissions, with the proceeds supporting development of carbon dioxide removal from the atmosphere.
SB 252 (Gonzalez): Carried over from 2023, when it passed the Senate; finally killed by the chair of the Assembly committee overseeing pension funds, who simply refused to hear it. This would’ve mandated a divestment from fossil fuels for the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) and the California State Teachers’ Retirement System (CalSTRS) Boards, the two largest public pension systems in the nation.
SB 1018 (Becker): Aimed to exclude certain solar and wind generators from being classified as electrical corporations if the power is transmitted exclusively and directly through private electric lines to a facility owned by a different corporation or person that uses the energy only for (1) an electrolyzer technology facility that produces hydrogen from water, or (2) a facility using the electricity to provide industrial process heat, but not for departing electric load.
AB 2761 (Hart and Lowenthal): This bill would have prohibited perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) and polyvinyl chloride (PVC) in plastic packaging, with some exceptions for medical, drug, and federally regulated products. It would also authorize civil penalties for violations.
SB 1073 (Skinner): Would have authorized state agencies (such as CalTrans) to "enter into forward contracts" (i.e., order ahead) to purchase low-carbon cement or concrete products up to 10 years in advance of delivery. The aim was to facilitate the commercialization of low-carbon concrete, cement, and supplementary cementitious materials, and to further the state's goals of achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions in the cement sector by 2045.
Contact the Governor here: https://www.gov.ca.gov/contact/
He's reviewing 1000 bills as you reported recently. Let's make sure these hard-fought victories get signed into law!