Jerry Brown on Thursday signed into law two precedent-setting bills (SB 32 and AB 197) created to accelerate the state’s reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by deemphasizing the burning of fossil fuels while increasing reliance on renewable energy, storage and efficiency. Jerry Brown is set to extend the nation’s most ambitious climate change law by another 10 years on Thursday as California charts a new goal to reduce carbon pollution.
Advertisement
Lawmakers last month approved a 10-year extension of the state’s landmark climate change law. He noted that this pair of bills will require California to cut GHG emissions at least 40% below 1990 levels by 2030, along with investing in communities hardest hit by climate change.
Amid a chorus of praise from California’s environmental and climate activist groups, California Gov. It will “keep California on the move to clean up the environment”, Brown said before signing the new legislation.
At a Los Angeles ceremony, Gov. Otherwise, he said, the state would have to rely on more drastic policies to reach its emissions goals.
The legislation is an expansion of a 2006 law that set a goal of reducing climate-changing pollutants to 1990 levels by 2020. The bills, SB 32, sponsored by Senator Fran Pavle, and AB 197, sponsored by Assembly Member Eduardo Garcia, had been introduced in 2014 and 2015, respectively.
California is on track to meet that goal, according to the governor’s office, which aims to cut emissions to 80percent below 1990 levels by 2050.
The governor, who has traveled the world promoting greenhouse-gas reduction efforts, issued an executive order past year setting the 2030 goals contained in SB32.
AB 197 calls on the state to focus its pollution-reduction efforts on “disadvantaged” communities and to increase public oversight of climate programs.
He said the legislative analyst also questioned the state’s methodology for calculating emission reductions.
“This is big, and I hope it sends a message across the country”, Brown said.
Critics have also questioned the viability of the cap-and-trade program, which caps the amount of greenhouse gas companies can produce – but allows for the purchase at auction of emission permits, and allows businesses to trade credits among themselves.
Johannes Escudero, executive director of the RNG Coalition, said, “LCFS will stay and renewable natural gas will continue as a major success story”.
Advertisement
Pavley’s SB 32 comes a decade after her AB 32, which compelled the Golden State to enact the nation’s most stringent greenhouse gas reduction goals. We’ve done so much on this front, and we can’t turn back now.
