Newsom is pushing the Legislature to adopt new interim goals for clean electricity
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Governor Newsom’s priorities — for the last three weeks of the session — include ramping up targets for greenhouse gas reductions and clean electricity, and creating safety zones around new oil wells.
The Governor has asked the Legislature to accelerate greenhouse gas cuts, set new interim targets for reaching 100% clean electricity and codify safety zones around new oil and gas wells. He is also seeking regulations from the state Air Resources Board that would govern controversial projects that would remove carbon dioxide from the air and sequester it underground.
The Governor has sent a memo on his priorities — including measures that he would like the Legislature to enact this session — to the leaders of the Senate and Assembly. These five priorities outlined in the Newsom administration’s memo are:
1. Establishing in law a goal, originally set by former Gov. Jerry Brown, to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions as soon as possible and no later than 2045.
2. Accelerating the pace of greenhouse gas cuts by requiring a 55% reduction to 1990 levels by 2030; the existing goal is 40% in the same timeframe.
3. Setting interim targets for alternative sources of energy — at least 90% by 2035 and 95% by 2040 — while maintaining the goal that 100% of the state’s retail electricity comes from solar, wind and other clean sources by 2045.
4. Creating a buffer of at least 3,200 feet between new oil and gas production wells and homes, schools and parks, and adding additional environmental controls for existing wells within the buffer zone.
5. Establishing a program at the Air Resources Board to advance research into carbon sequestration technologies for removing greenhouse gases from the air and storing them. He also sought a permitting system for geologic sequestration projects, in which carbon is buried in underground rock formations.
His memo comes during the last month of the session, with little time left for the Legislature to accomplish such an ambitious climate agenda for this session. The last day for the Senate and Assembly to pass bills this year is Aug. 31.
In addition, the Governor and legislators also are negotiating details of a nearly $39 billion climate budget.
