Newsom signs array of environmental bills regulating oil wells, emissions and carbon removal
Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a sweeping package of environmental bills Friday, touting them as California’s most aggressive effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
The measures include proposals the governor urged lawmakers to pass in the waning weeks of their legislative session. They establish clean energy targets, buffer zones around new oil and gas wells and require the state to devise regulations for removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
“There’s no other jurisdiction in the world, think about that, that’s doing what the state of California’s doing,” Newsom told a crowd of reporters and lawmakers in Vallejo. “This is about law, this is not about ambition, this is not an executive order, this is not a promotion, this is a promise that we now need to deliver.”
State lawmakers who authored bills signed Friday said their passage was the result of a years-long process.
“If we talked about having this ceremony a year ago, I think none of us in the legislature would have thought it was possible,” said Sen. John Laird, a Santa Cruz Democrat.
He, and other lawmakers, saluted Newsom’s late push.
“I’m extremely grateful for the governor and his team,” said Sen. Lena Gonzalez, a Long Beach Democrat. Adding, they “stuck by us to ensure we saw these bills through.”
One bill — committing the state to reducing its emissions by at least 55% below 1990 levels — did not clear the legislature.
But the ones that did included: AB 1279, which requires California to reach net zero greenhouse gas emissions by no later than 2045; SB 1137, which establishes “health protection zones” of 3,200 feet between homes, hospitals, schools and new oil and gas wells; SB 1020, which mandates that renewable and zero carbon sources make up 90% of the state’s electricity by 2035, and SB 905 and AB 1757, which create regulations and goals for removing carbon dioxide from the air and storing it using technology and natural resources.
In touting the bills, Newsom said they would create jobs, save money and dramatically reduce emissions in the future. He said the extreme weather in California and across the globe underscored the urgent need for action.
“If you don’t believe in science, you have to believe your own eyes,” he said.
When asked by a reporter about the state’s recent heatwave, Newsom used it as an opportunity to push back against criticism that California’s aggressive emissions reduction push is making its electric grid more vulnerable.
“Our transition’s not the problem, climate is the problem,” he said.
Earlier this month, Newsom signed a law that could keep the state’s only nuclear plant open until 2030 because of concerns that closing it five years earlier, as originally planned, would hamper California’s ability to meet future energy demands.
Oil and gas industry representatives reprised their opposition to the bills Friday.
“What will be ‘historic’ about the package of bills signed by the Governor today will be the tremendous costs and impacts they will impose on California residents, our economy and our way of life,” Catherine Reheis-Boyd, president of the Western States Petroleum Association, said in a statement.
“The Governor’s actions are meant to eliminate oil production and associated jobs in California, make us dependent on other countries for our fuels, dictate how and when we can travel and mandate the energy we use.”
Newsom and state lawmakers didn’t share those same concerns Friday. But even they were quick to temper their own enthusiasm.
“We didn’t finish, we still have more to do,” said Sen. Anna Caballero, a Merced Democrat. “You’ll see us back again next year.”
This story was originally published September 16, 2022 at 1:03 PM with the headline "Newsom signs array of environmental bills regulating oil wells, emissions and carbon removal."
