It’s all over but the signing…

The legislative session ended somewhat messily,* with MOST of Climate Action California’s surviving priority bills now on the Governor’s desk. So far Governor Newsom has not taken action on any of these measures, a nail-biter delay that is typical for climate bills, for some reason. He’s got two weeks from today, until September 30, to sign or veto roughly a zillion bills.

This is the crunch time for the bills that will make the biggest difference for the climate and California’s waning leadership on climate action. Our policy teams have sent or signed letters urging Governor Newsom to approve our priority bills and many others, and now it’s down to individuals to weigh in. That’s all of us! And it’s easy:

1. Start on this page on the Governor’s website.
2. Under “Topic,” select the “An active bill” option and scroll through the long and clunky dropdown to the bill number.
3. Click “Leave a Comment,” and “Next.”
4. Add your subject line, for example “Please sign AB 2313 (Berman)” and write a brief or detailed message.
5. On the next page you’ll add your name and email, and click “Submit.”
6. Repeat for as many bills as you have time!

Right now I’m asking everyone to weigh in on three very high priorities for Climate Action California. It’s hard to predict what the Governor will do, but we believe he needs a lot of encouragement to sign these bills:

• SB 954 (Blakespear) California Environmental Quality Act: exemptions: natural and protected lands: advanced manufacturing: childcare facilities. This bill undoes major damage to California’s environmental protections, which was jammed into the budget at the end of the 2025 legislative session. It narrows the definition of “advanced manufacturing” projects that were exempted from CEQA, and restores most habitat conservation and tribal consultation requirements.
• AB 2313 (Berman) Gas corporations: gas distribution service line replacements: alternatives. When a gas line needs repair or replacement, this bill requires gas utilities to offer cash incentives to customers for purchase of electric appliances instead. Because installing gas lines is so expensive, even very large incentives will save the utility money, and accelerate our transition away from fossil gas—one of the most potent greenhouse gases.
• AB 113 (Gabriel, a budget bill). This is the legislature’s late-breaking fix-it bill, restoring some of the signed budget’s funding cuts to many climate/energy/transportation programs (see * below). The Governor has a line-item veto, so messages to him should include a strong statement such as “Please sign AB 113 without reducing any of the funding it restores to programs that matter to all Californians.”

Those are just three of our faves. Please take a minute and tell the Governor to do the right thing! And then, if you can, take a look at our list of bills the Governor must decide about, and pick your own priorities to ask him to sign! 

*Some of the messy parts: 
Governor Newsom’s late-breaking push for a wildfire bill. Too close to the last minute, Governor Newsom dropped a package of wildfire-related needs and wants on the legislature, essentially pitting insurance companies against the investor-owned utilities. His proposal, apparently designed to placate the utilities’ shareholders, seemed likely to leave fire victims in LA and around the state responsible for most of the costs of rebuilding their homes and lives. But the Assembly wasn’t having it, and the compromise gut-and-amend, SB 492, never got a vote. (I guess that’s life as a lame duck.)

Last-minute budget machinations. Meanwhile the Senate, the Assembly, and the Governor worked for much of August to arrive at a “three-party agreement” that would address some of the problems signed into the budget at the end of June, compensate for some of the Trump administration’s vengeful funding cuts, and backfill some of the deficits in climate spending caused by the Air Resources Board’s (CARB’s) highly regrettable changes to the Cap & Invest program (formerly Cap-and-Trade) and resulting reductions to the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (GGRF). Negotiations went on for so long that the Joint Legislative Budget Committee had to gamble on designating AB 113, their significant budget repair bill as an “urgency” measure that would require two-thirds votes to pass, so it could be voted on AFTER the statutory end of the session. But pass it did, and we’re now waiting for the Governor to sign it without blue-penciling program funds he cut in the budget he signed in July. AB 113 (Gabriel) is the third bill on our priority list for messages to the Governor!