California legislature passes climate change bills

(WEN-Planet-Ark, 25 Aug 2016) California lawmakers voted to extend the state's climate change fighting efforts out to 2030 on Wednesday, giving a new lease on life to the most ambitious greenhouse gas reduction program in the country.

The state Senate voted 25-13 in support of a bill that sets a target of cutting the state's output of heat-trapping emissions 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2030.

The state is currently on track to meet its 2020 goal of reducing emissions back to 1990 levels.

The vote came hours after the state Assembly passed a linked bill to increase legislative oversight of the climate change programs run by the California Air Resources Board by a vote of 44-28.

Both bills will now go to Governor Jerry Brown, who has said he will sign them.

Senator Fran Pavley, the author of the 2006 law that set the state's first emission reduction target, said that effort has generated billions of dollars in investment in the state's clean energy sector while creating jobs and reducing emissions.

External link

WEN-Planet-Ark, 25 Aug 2016: California legislature passes climate change bills