Governor Jerry Brown signed Senate Bill (S.B.) 32, which will extend the State’s greenhouse gas targets from 2020 to 2030. The legislation builds on Assembly Bill (A.B.) 32, the California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006, which required California to reduce greenhouse gas levels to 1990-era levels by 2020. Under S.B. 32, the State will be required to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions to 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2030.

S.B. 32 codifies the interim 2030 greenhouse gas target included in the Executive Order (B-30-15) issued by Governor Brown on April 29, 2015. The interim target is intended to ensure California meets its target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions to 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050.  The Assembly passed the bill with only one vote to spare during a largely party-line vote.

Notably, to help garner the required votes, S.B. 32 was amended to provide that it would only become operative if A.B. 197 was also enacted. A.B. 197, which was passed by the Legislature by a much less narrow vote than S.B. 32, increases legislative oversight of the California Air Resources Board (CARB) by putting two legislators on CARB as nonvoting members and requiring CARB to report annually to a newly created joint legislative committee on climate change policies. It also directs CARB to prioritize emissions rules and regulations that limit economic impact on the State’s disadvantaged communities and regions reliant on agriculture.  S.B. 32 and A.B. 197 were approved by Governor Brown on September 8, 2016, and will become effective on January 1, 2017.