I hate to be the one to tell you this, but things aren’t great in Washington DC right now. If this is news to you, poke around some UCS blogs or google, “Trump [insert literally anything you care about].”
See what I mean? Bleak.
But let me take you on a journey 2,721 miles west to the magical land of Sacramento. Here, we still want to cut global warming emissions by replacing polluting cars with clean vehicles and ramping up renewable energy to phase out fossil fuel powerplants. We are striving to make our communities more resilient and demanding that polluters pick up the tab.
As bold as it may sound, California is doing all this and more, because this is what the science says we must do. And thankfully, in California’s Capitol, our elected leaders still listen to science.
This is the first blog of a series we are calling “The State of Science” which will cover the latest at the intersection of science, the environment and California state policy.
If you don’t live inside my brain, you are lucky, but you also have a lot to catch up on. This first blog will dive into a non-exhaustive, but perhaps exhausting, list of our legislative priorities at the Union of Concerned Scientists for California.
Cleaner cars, cleaner air
Our Cleaner Cars, Cleaner Air Report showed that while pre-2004 cars make up fewer than 20% of the cars on the road, they are responsible for the majority of tailpipe pollution because they produce higher amounts of lung-damaging particulate pollution and contribute significantly more smog-forming nitrogen oxide emissions. These vehicles are also disproportionately located in low-income communities.
Our research shows that replacing an old gas car with a zero-emission vehicle has the biggest clean air benefit. We are sponsoring Assembly bill (AB) 674 by Assemblymember Damon Connolly to target California’s limited incentive dollars for just that purpose.
Recyclable EV batteries
Between now and 2030, battery electric vehicle retirements will increase rapidly and if we do not have a strong policy in place we could end up with batteries in landfills or being abandoned all together.
UCS has provided a science-based explanation on how EV batteries can and should be recycled, which underpins Senate Bill (SB) 615 by Senator Ben Allen. This bill would ensure that all EV batteries are reused, repurposed or recycled by:
- explicitly making automakers – not taxpayers – responsible for their products at the end of the products’ lives,
- requiring robust reporting and tracking of EV batteries, and
- setting up a process to ensure batteries are being sent to cleaner, more efficient recyclers.
By passing SB 615, California can plan for the safe recycling of EV batteries so critical minerals can be recovered and reused, reducing the amount of mining necessary for fully electrifying our cars and trucks over the coming years.
Electricity for all (of the Western United States)
California has always led in creating and achieving necessarily ambitious renewable energy goals. But our success doesn’t mean we have to stand alone.
Senator Josh Becker is authoring SB 540 to allow California to join a regional electricity market. This would allow California to more easily import and export renewable energy to other western states. We could take advantage of Wyoming wind and Nevada solar so California could more quickly shut down fossil-fuel powerplants.
UCS has been lukewarm on previous efforts to “regionalize” our grid. This proposal is different for three reasons:
- Most importantly, UCS was a member of a regional planning process called “PATHWAYS” which set the ground rules for a regional electricity market and this bill.
- SB 540 does not dissolve CAISO (California’s grid operator), but instead simply allows the state to join a regional market.
- SB 540 allows California to withdraw from the western market, so if things go sideways, we can go back to leading on our own.
Keep capping and trading
One of California’s landmark climate policies is its Cap and Trade program. This policy sets a declining limit on greenhouse gas emissions and the state distributes emission permits — either directly or through quarterly auctions — to companies, which can then sell them to others if they succeed in reducing their own pollution. These auctions generate revenue to fund critical climate programs like clean vehicle incentives, safe and affordable drinking water, and wildfire prevention.
The state legislature has authorized the program to continue through 2030, but markets hate uncertainty, so economists have predicted a collapse of permit values (and consequently revenue) if the program is not reauthorized before 2027.
UCS is working to reauthorize the program while considering options to use program revenue to lower rates, ensure environmental justice communities benefit from the program and protect the program from rollbacks.
Faster transmission
Seriously? I am going to blog about those wires and steel tower things you see while you’re driving to work? Yes, I am, because they are crucial to meeting our clean energy goals and we are building all that stuff way too slowly!
UCS has written about bottlenecks to clean energy development and how the slow development of transmission is a significant barrier to bringing new clean energy online. Nerds in the California legislature have caught on and there are several bills that aim to speed up this process.
My favorite is SB 330 by Senator Padilla which looks to give the state – rather than utilities – the ability to develop, finance, and/or own transmission. This could reduce barriers to development and costs to ratepayers. That’s a win-win for you wire-lovers out there.
New tools to clean the air
Okay, fine. California is not entirely immune to the tomfoolery going on at the federal level. But if you have read this far, you have shown you can handle a bit of tomfoolery.
The Clean Air Act gives California the authority to regulate cars and trucks more stringently than the federal government because of our unique air quality challenges. The law requires California to apply for a “waiver” from the federal government when it needs to exercise this authority to ensure Californians can breathe.
Previously, Republicans and Democrats alike would grant these life-saving waivers, but Trump signaled a departure from this norm in his previous administration. Thus, days before Trump took office, California withdrew its request for the Advanced Clean Fleets Rule – which would have transitioned large fleets of diesel trucks to zero emission technologies – fearing Trump would reject it.
Those fears were proved to be justified now that Trump and the Republicans are pursuing an illegal strategy to revoke an existing waiver for California’s Advanced Clean Cars II rule. California is at risk of losing many of the emission-reducing tools it spent the last decade working with industry and communities to develop.
But legislators and Governor Newsom are already pushing back. Assemblymember Robert Garcia introduced AB 914 to give California’s Air Resources Board (CARB) the power to regulate “indirect sources” of emissions – like warehouses – ensuring that these buildings are accessed by predominately clean vehicles and utilize the clean technologies.
Newsom, for his part, is advancing a proposal to give CARB the power to access fees on polluters to pay for the development and enforcement of its regulations. Currently, you and me (taxpayers) are on the hook for CARB’s critical work. This proposal would allow CARB to clean up the air and slow global warming no matter how the state’s budget looks.
And wouldn’t it just be nice to make polluters pick up the check for once?
Making polluters pay
Speaking of making polluters pay, the Senator Scott Weiner is leading the charge on SB 222 to allow individuals and insurers to sue fossil fuel companies for the climate crises their products cause and that their disinformation and lobbying continue to perpetuate.
Similarly, SB 684 by Senator Caroline Menjivar would require fossil fuel polluters to pay for the damage they caused with their greenhouse gas emissions. These bills would help California recover from the severe impacts of global warming and hold the polluters that caused them accountable.
That’s a great outcome for every Californian (unless you’re a fossil fuel executive, in which case you probably already know that you are not the target audience for this blog).
Stay tuned
Starved for content? Follow UCS on Bluesky, Instagram, and Facebook and join our email lists where you can find opportunities to make your voice heard as California marches forward.