The 2023-2024 Legislative Session Wraps Up

The 2023-2024 "regular" legislative session has ended with Governor Newsom's signature or veto on a slew of bills. (A Special Session called by the Governor to consider some energy issues he couldn't jam through at the last minute lurches on at this writing—watch this space for more news about that if anything comes of it.)

Advocates for strong climate legislation can celebrate a few wins and more disappointing compromises.

Here’s a partial roundup of Climate Action California’s priority bills.

Signed by Governor Newsom

  • AB 1465 (Wicks): Allows local air districts to triple civil penalties on refineries and other non-vehicular sources of air pollution
  • AB 1866 (Hart): Addresses California's vast idle wells problem by requiring owners of idle or abandoned oil and gas wells to plug and remediate them on a set schedule, or pay a fine equal to the average cost of safely closing a well.
  • AB 2716 (Bryan): Targets low-production oil and gas wells in the huge Inglewood oil field in Los Angeles, where companies keep them dribbling for years in order to avoid the cost of closing them. The bill would require the state to identify such wells by July 2025, notify owners by July 2026 that they have 24 months to shut down the well, and impose a $10,000 daily fine for missing the deadline, with funds going towards environmental cleanup.
  • AB 3233 (Addis): Gives cities and counties the authority to restrict oil/gas operations with their jurisdictions
  • SB 59 (Skinner): Gives the Energy Commission the option, after study, of requiring EV batteries be bi-directional (capable of sending energy to the grid) at some undefined future date. Much reduced from the original (SB 233, had a mandate and a target date), but still worthwhile
  • SB 219 (Wiener and Stern): A compromise negotiated with the Governor's office to ensure implementation of the laws passed and signed last year (SB 253 and SB 261) that require large businesses to report both their greenhouse gas emissions and their climate-related financial risk. Newsom had proposed a two-year delay.
  • SB 1420 (Caballero, Archuleta, Dodd, and Newman):  We opposed this bill! The original version was whittled down in a series of committee hearings, but CAC's experts find that it still sets back the development of truly clean and renewable hydrogen. Although not permitting fossil-based hydrogen or hydrogen manufactured with power generated from "combustion," it opens the door to hydrogen produced with carbon-intensive biogenic feedstocks and to electricity from the grid.

And a disappointing veto

Bills that didn't make it this session—we hope they come back in 2025-26!

  • ACA 16 (Bryan): Would have amended the California Constitution to establish a right to clean air, water, and a healthy environment. The Chamber of Commerce, Western States Petroleum Association, and the rest of the usual suspects were having none of it, and Asm Bryan pulled the bill rather than taking poisonous amendments.
  • SB 1497 (Menjivar). Would have made the biggest fossil fuel polluters pay for the climate harms they have caused in California.
  • SB 308 (Becker): Carried over from last year and finally killed in Assembly Appropriations, this bill would have required the California Air Resources Board to set up a market-based program where large emitters of greenhouse gasses must purchase credits for their emissions, with the proceeds supporting development of carbon dioxide removal from the atmosphere. 
  • SB 252 (Gonzalez): Carried over from 2023, when it passed the Senate; finally killed by the chair of the Assembly committee overseeing pension funds, who simply refused to hear it.
  • SB 1018 (Becker): Aimed to exclude certain solar and wind generators from being classified as electrical corporations if the power is transmitted exclusively and directly through private electric lines to a facility owned by a different corporation or person that uses the energy only for (1) an electrolyzer technology facility that produces hydrogen from water, or (2) a facility using the electricity to provide industrial process heat, but not for departing electric load.
  • AB 2761 (Hart and Lowenthal): This bill would have prohibited perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) and polyvinyl chloride (PVC) in plastic packaging, with some exceptions for medical, drug, and federally regulated products. It would also authorize civil penalties for violations.
  • SB 1073 (Skinner):  Would have authorized state agencies (such as CalTrans) to "enter into forward contracts" (i.e., order ahead) to purchase low-carbon cement or concrete products up to 10 years in advance of delivery. The aim was to facilitate the commercialization of low-carbon concrete, cement, and supplementary cementitious materials, and to further the state's goals of achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions in the cement sector by 2045.