Gov. Gavin Newsom gained widespread attention Saturday for signing a first-in-the-nation law to require corporations doing business in California to add up how many tons of greenhouse gases they emit each year, and make the information public.
The new law will affect roughly 5,300 businesses with more than $1 billion a year in sales — including companies like McDonald’s, Walmart, Chevron and Home Depot. The law is expected to put pressure on businesses to reduce pollution when researchers, advocacy groups, media outlets and others issue “biggest polluter” lists showing which companies emit the most chemicals that are warming the planet.
But with less fanfare, Newsom also signed more than a dozen other significant environmental bills over the weekend that lawmakers in the Democratic-controlled Legislature had sent to his desk. In doing so, he won accolades from environmental groups, and disappointment from some industries, including oil and agriculture.
The main new environmental laws coming to California:
1) Electric school buses: (AB 579, Assemblyman Phil Ting, D-San Francisco). Starting in 2035, all of California’s public school districts will be required to choose zero-emission school buses when purchasing new ones. The majority of school buses in California currently run on diesel fuel, which emits significant amounts of black soot, greenhouse gases and other pollution, particularly from older models.
Electric buses cost roughly twice as much as new diesel school buses. But supporters of the measure say the price tag is coming down, and they note that studies show districts save money over the life of the vehicles on maintenance and fuel costs.
Newsom already had approved rules last year requiring all new passenger vehicles sold in California starting in 2035 to be zero-emission.
2) Pesticides and bees: (AB 363, Assemblywoman Rebecca Bauer-Kahan, D-San Ramon). A common class of chemicals called neonic pesticides will be illegal to sell at garden shops and other stores starting in 2025. Studies have found the pesticides are particularly harmful to bees and other pollinators, whose numbers have been in decline worldwide. California becomes the 10th state to allow the sale of the chemicals only to trained professionals.
The bill, which was opposed by the California Agricultural Commissioners and Sealers Association and supported by the Natural Resources Defense Council and other conservation groups, had Democrats in favor and Republicans voting against.
3) Battery safety: (SB 38, Sen. John Laird, D-Santa Cruz). Last fall, a fire broke out at the Elkhorn Battery Storage Facility in Moss Landing. The blaze triggered a 12-hour shelter-in-place warning for Monterey County residents over fear that the large number of lithium-ion batteries there could explode or release dangerous fumes. This new law requires industrial battery facilities, which are essentially power plants that store electricity from solar farms and other renewable energy sources to be used at night, to draw up emergency response and community notification plans and submit them to the counties in which they are located.
“Increasing the state’s battery storage is essential to reaching our clean energy goals,” Laird said. “But we also have to ensure that these facilities have safety systems in place to protect the health and well-being of workers and surrounding communities.”
4) Water rights (SB 389, Sen. Ben Allen, D-Redondo Beach). Under California’s complex water rights rules, landowners who have rights that were granted before 1914 to take water from rivers and streams have been exempt from many state rules.
This measure clarifies state law to allow the State Water Resources Control Board to investigate and verify water claims and take enforcement action against diverters who are drawing out more water than they have legal rights to take. Following California’s recent severe droughts, the bill was supported by environmental groups and opposed by farmers and ranchers. The issue is highly controversial in rural areas which depend on farming for their economies. It also affects how much water is available for fish, wildlife and other users during dry periods. Other bills that sought broader reforms to curtail how much such “senior water rights holders” can take, particularly during severe droughts, died in the Legislature.
5) Oil wells: (AB 1167, Assemblywoman Wendy Carrillo, D-Los Angeles). People or companies who acquire oil wells in California will now be required to put up a bond with the State Oil and Gas Supervisor in an amount sufficient to cover the costs of plugging the well and cleaning up the site, usually at least $25,000. There are an estimated 5,300 “orphan” oil wells in California, which can cause pollution when owners go bankrupt or disappear. The bill was supported by environmental groups, and opposed by the Western States Petroleum Association, which said it “sets an impediment to purchases” and could make some well owners unable to sell.
Newsom also signed several other noteworthy environmental bills into law, including a measure to require public school science classes to include lessons about the causes and solutions to climate change (AB 285); a measure requiring all coastal counties and Bay Area counties to prepare a sea level rise plan by 2034 (SB 272); and a measure that requires Caltrans to study the feasibility of using state-owned land along highways for solar arrays and electric transmission lines (SB49).
“As one of the biggest economies in the world, what we do here matters beyond our borders,” said Laura Deehan, Environment California’s state director.