OPINION: Is This it For California’s Big Climate Change Laws?

The Assembly and the Senate’s surprisingly quick action this week to pass both SB 32 and its companion piece, AB 197, was met with jubilation by the many people who are proud of California’s leadership combating the greenhouse-gas emissions that contribute to global warming. It’s good that Gov. Jerry Brown’s signature on these measures is imminent. Yet this picture isn’t as tidy as it appears. SB 32 would build on AB 32, the landmark 2006 law requiring the state to reduce its greenhouse-gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020; both measures were authored by Sen. Fran Pavley, D-Agoura Hills.