“This is about equity, transparency and accountability”. People with districts that historically been economically disadvantaged and dealing with high levels of pollution. The Garcia bill is meant to increase oversight of the state’s powerful Air Resources Board and to recalibrate climate policies toward poor communities, seeking to mollify legislators who balked at what they called the ARB’s unbridled powers. Following a tense summer during which the fate of Senate Bill 32 (Pavley) and Assembly Bill 197 (E. Garcia) was cast in doubt, a majority of lawmakers pushed back against oil industry fear-mongering and sent the bills to Gov.
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“SB 32 requires the California Air Resources Board to impose severe command and control regulations to further reduce GHG (Greenhouse Gas) emissions”, said California Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Allan Zaremberg in a statement. Governor Jeerry Brown has promised to sign both bills quickly.
California’s existing restrictions on carbon emissions and cap-and-trade program for selling pollution credits have added an estimated 12 cents a gallon to retail gasoline prices and about $5 a megawatt-hour to wholesale electricity, according to reports from the state’s tax board and power grid operator.
The legislation approved this week extends the legal framework that underpins California’s wide-ranging efforts to fight climate change, the most aggressive in the nation.
Assemblyman Eduardo Garcia, D-Coachella, right, receives congratulations from Assemblyman Rob Bonta, D-Alameda, after his measure to give lawmakers more oversight over the state’s efforts to combat global warming was approve. Five of the newly supportive Democrats tacked on their support after the initial vote made clear the bill would pass.
Brown first set the state on a course to reduce greenhouse emissions by 40% by 2030, relative to 1990 levels, in an executive order. That would all need to happen before the legislature goes into recess, scheduled for next week.
“So bring it on”, Brown said.
The state on Tuesday said it failed to sell any permits offered to cover carbon emissions in 2016 and sold just 660,560 of the 10 million permits it offered to cover emissions in 2019, at the auction floor price of $12.73 a tonne.
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A previous version of the bill specifically allowed voters to take and share photos of their ballots, but the bill was amended in the Senate to include the broader language.
