“We commend Governor Brown, Senator Pavley, Assemblymember Eduardo Garcia, and California Legislature for leadership to assure clean air, green jobs, and low carbon fuel options throughout California for upcoming decades”.
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With its Clean Car Law in 2002 and the Global Warming Solutions Act in 2006, California took a global lead in adopting policies to clear the air, transition to clean energy and reduce climate pollution, says Ms. Pavley. “Climate change is real, and knowing that, California is taking action”, Brown said. Brown had previously issued the new emissions targets as an executive order, but signing the legislation now codifies those targets into law.
The law dramatically deepens the state’s commitment to fighting climate change by cutting state emissions 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2030. Jerry Brown and legislative leaders embarked on a new era in California’s effort to combat climate change Thursday when the governor signed a law committing the state to some of the most drastic greenhouse gas emission reductions in the world. It will “keep California on the move to clean up the environment”, Brown said before signing the new legislation.
Last month a coalition of 177 businesses – among them Levi’s eBay, The North Face and Gap, Inc. – organized by Environmental Entrepreneurs (E2), sent a letter to California lawmakers urging them to support the bill.
Supporters overcame strong opposition from oil companies and other industry interests to pass the legislation a year after business-friendly Democrats in the Assembly derailed an even more ambitious proposal to limit the use of oil in the state.
Brown, at the event, chided Republicans in the U.S. Congress who have opposed measures to control climate change, and he said California lawmakers, for their part, were moving forward. SB 32 codifies an executive order Brown issued previous year.
The state has recently doubled down on its commitment to renewable energy, passing a bill in September of previous year that mandates utilities in the state to provide 50 percent of their electricity generation from renewable sources by 2030. He didn’t give a lot of details as to how that was supposed to happen-but legislators responded by passing laws, including one that implemented a cap-and-trade system.
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But his signing leaves in jeopardy the state’s best-known emissions reduction measure. And given the sheer scale of it ― California’s economy is now the world’s sixth largest ― the law could also serve as a model for worldwide efforts to reduce emissions. After impressive sales early on, the last two permit sales have fizzled, prompting concerns that funding won’t be available to continue programs in the long run.
