Of the 917 payments that reached California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s desk over the previous month, 794 have been signed into regulation.
His choices associated to vitality and environmental impacts replicate contrasts. As an example, he continued the state’s cap-and-trade program whereas green-lighting new oil drilling and rejecting digital energy plant development.
As for provide chains, the passage of a requirement for corporations to reveal heavy metals in prenatal nutritional vitamins contrasts with rejected proposals to ban ceaselessly chemical substances in cookware and plastic glitter in private care merchandise.
Listed here are the important thing new legal guidelines, in addition to laws that perished by Newsom’s pen.
Signed into regulation
Heavy metals disclosure: In 2027, prenatal vitamin purveyors must element how a lot lead, cadmium, mercury or arsenic seem of their dietary supplements underneath Senate Invoice 646, which handed with out opposition. An analogous metals disclosure regulation for child meals went into impact in January.
“Cap and make investments”: Newsom refreshed California’s current cap-and-trade program via 2045. Funds enabled by Meeting Invoice 1207 and Senate Invoice 840 are supposed to assist efforts that embrace high-speed rail and wildfire prevention.
Drill, child drill? Many environmentalists decried Senate Invoice 237, which eases the approval of as much as 2,000 oil wells in Kern County within the south of the state, purportedly to stabilize gasoline provides.
Carbon seize win: Senate Invoice 614 creates a regulatory construction for growing underground storage and pipelines for captured carbon dioxide, ending a moratorium. It’s seen as a lift for the rising carbon seize and storage trade.
Regional energy: Because the federal authorities decimates earlier help for renewable vitality tasks, California is increasing its position inside a regional energy market. Meeting Invoice 825 permits the state to commerce extra clear vitality with different Western states.
Small photo voltaic boon: Below Meeting Invoice 1104, small and midsize photo voltaic builders will now not be thought of “public works” organizations, sparing them crimson tape round labor guidelines.
Electrification plans: Meeting Invoice 39 requires cities above 75,000 folks to element how they’ll electrify buildings and EV charging techniques, particularly in underserved communities.
Breakthrough for in-state glass: In a challenged marketplace for recycled glass, Meeting Invoice 899 updates California’s Beverage Container Recycling regulation to let CalRecycle pay larger incentives to in-state producers that use recycled glass.
Vetoed
Perpetually chemical substances keep: Senate Invoice 682 sought to limit dangerous perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in pots and pans in addition to dental floss and meals packaging. Newsom stated the invoice would hurt low-income consumers. Issues about poisonous cookware turned a flashpoint final yr after a scare over fireproofing chemical substances in black plastic spatulas.
No-go on glitter ban: Meeting Invoice 823 would have expanded the 2015 Plastic Microbeads Nuisance Regulation to dam the sale of non-public care and cleansing merchandise containing glitter, which pollute waterways. Newsom nixed it, stating that “it might by the way end in a prohibition on biodegradable or pure alternate options.”
RIP to VPPs: Three separate payments would have superior digital energy crops (VPPs)— which mix distributed sources of vitality, akin to electrical automobile batteries and photo voltaic panels — to shore up the state’s electrical grid. Newsom stated no to all of them, citing issues with current state guidelines and applications.
Thirsty knowledge facilities spared: Meeting Invoice 93 would have required California to examine water consumption by fast-growing knowledge facilities. However Newsom stated he was “reluctant to impose inflexible reporting necessities about operational particulars on this sector with out understanding the total impression on enterprise and the customers of their know-how.”
