CA Climate Leadership Bills: Powering the New Economy

California is a national and international leader in climate change legislation. The promising words in Governor Brown’s State of the State Address in February, 2015 have been transformed into a dozen powerful bills comprising the California Climate Leadership Bill Package found here. The subtitle is Powering the New Economy.

The array of bills is visionary in scope, and together they lay out a path toward more renewable energy, retrofits, more energy efficiency, transportation options, climate adaptation, agricultural adaptations, and more. Read about each bill above.

Three of the most important bills have already easily passed in the Senate: SB32, SB350, and SB185. They have passed committees in the Assembly and now await a vote on the Assembly floor in early September where just 5 Assembly members are the swing votes. Our Assemblyman Bill Dodd is one of those swing votes! Your voice matters!

Senate Bill 32 (Pavley) and Senate Bill 350 (de León) combat climate change, reduce pollution, create clean energy jobs, and ensure that all California communities are prepared for the future. Specifically, these important bills call for bold but achievable new climate goals.

SB32 is a renewal and extension of AB32, our earlier climate bill that has brought economic prosperity to CA. It sets the overarching climate pollution reduction target for 2050 that will provide California businesses with regulatory certainty, improve public health, and strengthen the economy. SB32 will reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050.

SB350 will spur innovation and investment in a sustainable California by setting the following goals for 2030:
• 50% reduction in petroleum use in cars and trucks;
• 50% utility power coming from renewable energy;
• 50% increase in energy efficiency in existing buildings.

SB185 calls on CalPERS and CalSTRS to divest from coal which has been on a downhill trajectory for some years and is losing money fast the last months. Their holdings are a very small percentage of their huge portfolios, but divestment is a step away from fossil fuels and therefore significant. Stanford University among others has already taken the step with no financial repercussions.

Senate pro Tem Kevin de León put it best: “California sets climate goals and accomplishes them with a positive impact on the economy and our health. Let’s continue showing the world how it’s done.”

The Davis City Council has already endorsed these bills!

If you support the California Climate Leadership bills, and in particular SB32 and SB350, make your voice heard now! Contact your Assemblyman Bill Dodd at his Woodland Office at 725 Main St. #206, Woodland 95695, or his Sacramento Office, asking him to support the bills. Give him your top reason or two. Ask him to explain his stance. Phone (916-319-2004), write a letter, connect on facebook or use email available on his website. Or visit in person during his office hours to express your deep concern for the climate bills!

A warning note from California League of Conservation Voters.  This data was just released by the CA Secretary of State:
• Oil industry lobbyists spent $6.2 million − in just the first six months of this year – to push their agenda on state-level issues in California.

• Oil companies are spending more than $1 million per month to stop Californians like us from cleaning up the air we breathe, protecting our drinking water supplies, shifting to renewable energy, and preventing future oil spills.

• They’re not slowing down. In fact, this week the oil industry’s main lobbying group WSPA (Western States Petroleum Association) launched an all-out attack on climate change bills in the statehouse right now. Under the mask of their front group “California Driver’s Alliance,” WSPA’s deceptive and manipulative ads are now running on television, internet, and radio in several key legislative districts throughout the state.

Urge Assemblyman Bill Dodd to support these bills.