At a UN climate meeting in New York, California Gov. Gavin Newsom highlighted California’s environmental leadership after the Legislature ended. Despite leadership, climate change has ruined landscapes, lives, and traditions in California, he added.
According to a report, Newsom said he would approve a measure mandating firms above $1 billion to report a broad spectrum of greenhouse gas emissions. He also promised to support legislation forcing corporations generating over $500 million to reveal how climate change would harm their finances and how they would respond.
The Legislature failed to enact important climate initiatives this year, including regulations to improve pollution monitoring near refineries and legislation to remove public employee retirement program assets from fossil fuels.
Newsom received a measure from lawmakers forcing state regulators to cut construction planet-warming emissions. The state claimed the industry produces 25% of California’s greenhouse gas emissions.
California’s 2030 goal of decreasing the release of greenhouse gases by 40% below 1990 levels includes cutting emissions from houses, shops, and other structures.
The measure requires the California Energy Commission to present data to the Legislature in 2026 on building emission reduction strategies.
Opponents believe the mandates will burden housing providers.
The report shows an assembly committee knocked down a measure mandating schools to reduce campus heat by substituting asphalt with fewer heat-absorbing surfaces.
Newsom received another measure this year mandating the California Energy Commission to develop a climate change adaptation strategy for schools.
Newsom has until October 14 to sign, veto, or let measures pass without his signature.
Here’s what Newsom managed to do:
Gov. Newsom disregarded parents’ worries about the state’s regulations that ban schools from telling parents should their children express a desire to alter their gender.
A small school district in Riverside County established a parental notification policy following a recent 4-1 school board decision, sparking controversy in California.
He signed a law allowing him to sanction school districts that ignore state mandates to alter lesson plans related to politically charged issues like gender, sexual orientation, and race.
He signed a “sin tax” on firearms and ammunition at 11 percent.
Newsom enacted three gun restrictions, one of which increases where it’s illegal to carry a concealed weapon for self-defense.
