California on the Frontlines

NRDC is sponsoring (*) and supporting several bills including:  

• AB 1777 (Robert Garcia) California Clean Skies Act*: Equips California policymakers with the regulatory tools needed to clean up air pollution throughout the state. The bill affirms CARB’s authority to regulate “indirect sources” that attract activity from polluting vehicles and equipment. It is a key state strategy to reduce air pollution and promote electric vehicles and is especially important under a hostile federal administration.
• AB 2313 (Marc Berman) Home Energy Choice Act*: Directs the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) to develop a program where gas utilities would offer households facing a gas service line replacement an incentive to switch to electric. This program would help reduce costs for all utility customers and give Californians the option to switch to clean electricity for their home energy needs.
• AB 2447 (Rebecca Bauer-Kahan) Nitrogen Pollution Reduction Act*: Helps reduce nitrogen pollution from agriculture by requiring clear limits on how much nitrogen fertilizer can be applied to croplands and how much nitrogen pollution can be discharged from fields. Excess nitrogen in our environment is polluting our water, harming our climate, and putting our health at risk.
• AB 2461 (Gregg Hart) Oil and gas: bonding requirements*: Clarifies the types of financial assurance required before oil companies can sell wells to new operators. AB 2461 can help prevent orphan wells by prohibiting transfers until the seller puts up financial security to pay the full cost of cleanup and safe closure. The bill ensures that the oil industry rather than taxpayers pays these costs.
• SB 1213 (Eloise Gómez Reyes) Medium- and heavy-duty electric trucks price transparency*: Addresses the lack of price transparency in California’s medium- and heavy-duty electric vehicle market, which currently leaves small businesses and owner-operators vulnerable to price gouging. Transparency is essential for the successful deployment of zero-emission vehicles, as it provides independent carriers with the market clarity needed to transition their fleets without facing unfair financial barriers. Transparency also helps the state determine whether and how much public money is needed to promote zero-emission truck uptake in California.
• SB 601 (Ben Allen) California’s response to U.S. Supreme Court wetlands rollbacks: Provides California with the Clean Water Act tools it had before the U.S. Supreme Court stripped away protections while making the permitting process at the California Water Boards more efficient.
• AB 2253 (Tasha Boerner) Recycled content claims: Protects consumers from deceptive recycled content claims by prohibiting companies from using misleading “credit” to advertise recycled content when none is physically present in the product. Currently, companies buy cheap, questionable, out-of-state or out-of-country credits instead of using California recycled materials, undercutting businesses that invest in the state’s recycling infrastructure and ultimately weakening its recycling system.
• SB 943 (Josh Becker) Industrial electrification rates: Provides CPUC with the authority to develop electricity rates to help commercial and industrial companies switch to electricity for industrial heat. With these reforms and other changes already being planned by CPUC, electrification of industrial heat can become a cost-effective pathway to helping firms reduce pollution and greenhouse gas emissions while keeping jobs in California and lowering electricity rates for all consumers.
• SB 222 (Scott Wiener) Residential heat pump systems: Water heaters and HVAC installations: Takes a comprehensive approach to standardizing the permitting process for heat pump installations statewide, reducing time constraints and lowering costs for contractors and consumers alike. It will put into place an automated permitting system for simple installations, establish guardrails, and prohibit homeowners’ associations from imposing architectural review standards that will prevent clean appliance adoption.
• SB 954 (Catherine Blakespear) Environmental review: Restoring environmental protections for industrial projects (SB 131 Cleanup): Addresses the most harmful aspects of last year’s CEQA-weakening bill, including the advanced manufacturing exemption, while also maintaining commonsense reforms that streamline the permitting of projects that are good for people and the environment.
• SB 886 (Steve Padilla) California Technology Innovation and Ratepayer Protection Act : Helps protect Californians from the increased electricity costs associated with new data centers by requiring CPUC to establish a new electrical corporation tariff. The bill additionally requires new large energy users to acquire zero-carbon storage to ensure reliability.
• SB 887 (Padilla) Data centers: Clean energy power plant projects: Establishes criteria and standards for new data centers. Projects that meet the standards would be eligible for expedited permitting.
• SB 978 (Sasha Renée Pérez) Data Center Community Accountability Act: Aims to protect Californians from increasing electricity costs as large data centers rapidly expand across the state. The bill addresses projected impacts on affordability and public health and is a necessary step forward to prepare for the wave of data centers seeking to locate in the state.
• AB 2383 (Rick Chavez Zbur) Large energy use facilities: Helps protect Californians from the costs and financial risks associated with rising electricity demand from large energy customers like data centers. The bill would require CPUC to establish a separate rate structure for large energy use facilities.
• SB 982 (Wiener) Climate disasters: Civil actions: Provides the attorney general with new tools to represent Californians in the face of increasing climate disaster costs. The bill further prohibits a fossil fuel company from passing on the costs of the civil action, including any remedies ordered, to California taxpayers.
• SB 1087 (Christopher Cabaldon) Transportation and land use climate planning: The Sustainable Communities and Climate Protection Act of 2008 (SB 375, Darrell Steinberg) was the nation’s first law to align transportation and land use planning with state climate goals. Recognizing some challenges and shortcomings in the law’s implementation, SB 1087 seeks to reform and strengthen implementation outcomes—delivering on the law’s original promises of cleaner air, reduced greenhouse gas emissions, economic growth, and lower household transportation costs.  

Additionally, NRDC opposes the following bills:  

• SB 811 (Anna Caballero) creates a dangerous precedent that would allow metal shredding facilities to continue to release hazardous waste into communities and the environment with minimal regulation or accountability.
• SB 1392 (Dave Cortese) broadens an exemption in California’s successful smog check program, which would increase air pollution and risk public health.
• AB 1704 (Mark González) would undermine and delay a nation-leading California law that requires the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions from building materials.  

• AB 2226 (Blanca Rubio) repeals the requirement that pre-checkout bags in grocery stores be reusable or made from paper or compostable materials.
• AB 2716 (Anamarie Ávila-Farías) would increase the risk that oil and gas well cleanup costs would fall to taxpayers rather than the oil industry. 

Electricity affordability  

In 2025, the legislature and Governor Gavin Newsom took steps to address California’s rising electricity costs. They extended and updated California’s Cap-and-Invest Program and shifted the utility “climate credit” from gas to electric bills. They also enacted AB 825 (Cottie Petrie-Norris) to allow California utilities to participate in a regional clean electricity market; a measure that will improve reliability and reduce costs by using new and alternative financing tools to reduce electricity bills for electricity customers and preventing additional utility bankruptcy after disasters that would drive additional electricity customer costs. 

Now California has two key opportunities to further address rising electricity prices. First, the state should finalize its Cap-and-Invest rules as soon as possible while CPUC works to ensure that the climate credit goes to those who need it the most.   

Second, California recently released a study on California’s wildfire prevention and recovery funding. The report looks at how costs for wildfire prevention and damages are split between insurance companies, utilities, their customers, and taxpayers. This report raises important conversations about utility customers who are currently paying the largest share of wildfire prevention. It also recommends new structures and tools to more equitably fund California’s critical wildfire prevention and recovery programs. The findings of this report pose another opportunity for California to find ways to reduce the largest cost driver of rising electricity bills.  

Healthy ocean ecosystems with Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) 

California is among the few states committed to the ambitious goal of significantly expanding protections in its ocean waters as part of a 30x30 initiative to conserve 30 percent of lands and waters by 2030. One of the state’s strategies to boost protections in state waters involves adopting new MPAs or expanding existing MPAs. NRDC is sponsoring two new MPAs to protect sensitive habitats, conserve special areas that are nurseries for marine life, advance Tribal co-stewardship of California’s coastal waters, and help make the network more connected and resilient to climate change. Final decisions on MPAs are expected at the Fish and Game Commission this summer.   

Incentivizing of zero emissions fertilizer production in California  

Responsibly produced hydrogen is an important element for decarbonization, especially in sectors that are difficult to electrify. In California, our focus is on encouraging zero-emission fertilizer production and emphasizing green hydrogen’s role in manufacturing. California produces 13 percent of the nation’s food, yet most of the fertilizer that underpins this agricultural productivity is imported and made with natural gas–based hydrogen. The war in Iran is increasing the costs of fertilizer, straining California farmers at a key point in the growing season. NRDC is urging a budget allocation for the California Energy Commission to convene a working group to develop a definition for low-carbon fertilizer and recommendations for an incentive program supporting in-state, low-carbon fertilizer production. 

Funding for clean drinking water 

NRDC joins coalition partners in urging full state budget funding for the SAFER (clean drinking water) program. SAFER (Safe and Affordable Funding for Equity and Resilience) has been a remarkably successful program. Since SAFER began facilitating drinking water solutions, the number of Californians receiving unsafe drinking water from their public water systems has declined from about 1.6 million to approximately 600,000 in six years. This approximately 63 percent reduction is a testament to significant progress and a hallmark of a proven program that warrants continued public investment.  

Facilitation of clean energy by supporting agency staffing  

Adequate staffing and expertise at state agencies are critical to building out the clean energy infrastructure we need to clean the air and combat the climate crisis. NRDC and partners are asking state leaders to retain key agency positions to perform crucial permitting, law enforcement, and land management duties. As part of the budget agreement last year, the Joint Legislative Budget Committee reviewed whether these positions should be eliminated and recommended reinstating positions at the California Department of Fish and Wildlife and State Water Resources Control Board.  

Advancement of clean transportation 

The transition to zero-emission vehicles (ZEV) and other forms of clean transportation is facing stronger headwinds due to federal actions that have created significant uncertainty around national clean transportation policies and incentives. Together with community partners, NRDC is working with state leaders to defend California’s clean vehicles policies, bring about cleaner air and a more stable climate through strong transportation policies, and advocate for a permanent funding solution for ZEV and clean transportation programs—particularly those serving low-income and overburdened communities. We are also working to increase state investments in electric vehicle charging, mobility choices such as public transit, and improved safety for pedestrians and cyclists.

NRDC continues to engage on a range of issues in California—reducing single-use plastics and toxic chemicals, advancing zero-emission transportation, transitioning to clean energy, safeguarding clean water, protecting vulnerable ecosystems and species—all with an eye toward policies that can be replicated in other states and, eventually, at the federal level. There are significant opportunities ahead for California to ensure that the state continues to lead the way. We look forward to continued progress this year.