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California Floats Emissions-Reporting Law

If a proposed California measure becomes law, businesses reporting more than $1 billion in annual revenue would have to report their greenhouse gas emissions to state regulators, according to E&E News’ CLIMATEWIRE (subscription).

What’s going on: The state Assembly’s Monday evening “48–20 vote sends the bill back to the state Senate, which has until Thursday to vote on the measure. The Senate approved a different version of the bill in May, but officials in Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration took issue with its potential costs. Lawmakers in the Democratic-controlled Legislature have spent the last few months revising the proposal.”

  • It’s not yet clear whether Gov. Newsom is likely to sign this iteration of the legislation, which would force companies that meet the $1 billion revenue threshold and do business in California to report GHG emissions to the California Air Resources Board.
  • It would be the first state law of its kind, though similar measures—which the NAM has been actively working against—have been proposed at the federal level.
  • The NAM has made clear that one-size-fits-all emissions reporting mandates—especially for so-called “Scope 3” emissions attributable to a company’s suppliers and customers—would be costly and unworkable.

Why it’s important: “The emissions that large companies would have to report are far-reaching and include GHGs from any operation they control, from the energy they use, emissions from company suppliers and those from when the company’s product is used,” CLIMATEWIRE reports. 

Related measure: In July, the California Department of Finance opposed both the GHG-reporting proposal and a related bill, which would require companies to report climate risks, “saying they would cost the state money it can’t afford right now.”

  • Gov. Newsom has through Oct. 14 to sign all current bills into law.
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