The California Assembly passed Senate Bill 32 (Pavley) off the floor today, moving the Golden State to within one step of enacting the most ambitious limit on climate change-causing pollution in North America by the year 2030. With a bipartisan vote of 48-30, the Assembly sent the measure—which requires a 40 percent reduction below the state’s current target of returning to 1990 greenhouse gas emissions levels by 2020—back to the Senate where it needs to clear one more procedural hurdle.
Its companion bill, Assembly Bill 197 (E. Garcia), passed out of the Senate yesterday but it too must return for a vote on concurrence in the Assembly, which is expected tomorrow. Because the measures are double joined, unless both pass, neither will enter into effect. And with SB 32 out of the Assembly, the oil industry and their allies have their sights set squarely on AB 197.
So: one down, one to go.
And if there was any doubt where Governor Jerry Brown stands on the bills, that was quickly erased. As the governor said in a statement issued after the vote today:
“Yesterday, big oil bought a full-page ad in the capital city's newspaper of record to halt action on climate. Today, the Assembly Speaker, most Democrats and one brave Republican passed SB 32, rejecting the brazen deception of the oil lobby and their Trump-inspired allies who deny science and fight every reasonable effort to curb global warming. I look forward to signing this bill—and AB 197—when they land on my desk."
The governor wants action. The people want action. One more vote and the Legislature will take its place in the annals of California’s storied climate history books.