At a Los Angeles ceremony, Gov. Fran Pavley, D-Agoura Hills, and Assemblymember Eduardo Garcia, D-Coachella, respectively.
Advertisement
SB 32 mandates that the state reduce its greenhouse gas emissions to 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2030. The state is on track to meet that goal, according to the governor’s office.
He says the ultimate goal is to cut climate-warming pollution by 80 percent under 1990 levels by 2050, though legislation that would have enacted that target was watered down.
Despite pushing the climate goals through, the centerpiece of the state’s effort to combat global warming remains in jeopardy. 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.
Now signed into law, Senate Bill 32, by Sen.
Republicans opposed the bill, saying it would hurt businesses and ratepayers and give too much powers to state regulators.
The news laws have expanded two programs, including the Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) and cap and trade program.
A second measure signed Thursday by the governor, AB 197, shifts the trajectory of the state’s environmental policies.
Since California became a green leader by passing the climate change law a decade ago, the state has seen a flourishing clean-energy industry, said Carlson, the UCLA law professor. That program allows companies to buy permits to pollute at auctions; the money is then spent to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Cap and trade has raised billions of dollars in recent years, but revenue from the program has slowed to a trickle, and it’s facing legal uncertainty from a years-long legal battle over whether the program amounts to an unconstitutional tax.
Manufacturers in California already have higher energy costs compared to counterparts across the country and setting a new climate goal without providing cost-effective options “contributes to an already challenging business environment for manufacturers”, Dorothy Rothrock, president of the California Manufacturers and Technology Association, said in a statement.
Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon, D-Paramount, previously hailed the legislation as way to clean the air while improving the economy.
Advertisement
“It’s going to take wisdom and it will take some balance that we don’t overdo it, but I’m not afraid that we’re going to get to that point”, Brown said.
