California’s 2026 Legislative Priorities: End-of-Session Wrap-Up

The building sector drives nearly 25 percent of greenhouse gas emissions, but cleaner ways to build and operate our homes and businesses are within reach. Moving homes and buildings away from fossil gas requires investment in clean electric technologies and resources to help households make the transition. NRDC advocates for energy efficiency, electrification, and replacing fossil fuels with clean technologies while expanding affordability and access for low-income households. This session, the legislature passed and Governor Newsom signed the following: 

• AB 2313 (Marc Berman) Home Energy Choice Act, NRDC-sponsored

  Directs the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) to develop a program through which gas utilities would offer incentives to households facing a gas service-line replacement to switch to electric appliances. The program would help reduce costs for all utility customers while giving Californians the option to meet their home energy needs with clean electricity. 

• SB 222 (Scott Wiener) Residential heat pump systems 

  Takes a comprehensive approach to standardizing heat pump permitting statewide, reducing delays and costs for contractors and consumers. It establishes an automated permitting system for simple installations, creates guardrails, and prohibits homeowners’ associations from imposing architectural review standards that prevent the adoption of clean appliances. 

• SB 1359 (Henry Stern) Natural Gas Ratepayer Protection Act 

  This bill is a critical step toward aligning California’s gas system planning and infrastructure investments with the state’s climate mandates, affordability goals, and declining gas demand. SB 1359 requires gas utilities to report annually on the condition of the gas system, helping the state identify where investments can be redirected toward low-carbon electricity. 

• SB 905 (Josh Becker) Grid utilization metrics 

  Strengthens incentives for utilities to operate the electrical grid affordably, ensures the state gets more from infrastructure that customers have already paid for, and requires consideration of cost-effective alternatives before ratepayers are charged for expensive new electrical infrastructure. The bill passed with overwhelming legislative support and will advance energy affordability and efficiency. 

• AB 40 (Mia Bonta) Community First Coal Review Act (environmental review for coal projects) 

  AB 40 will ensure that large-volume bulk coal storage, handling, or export facilities are not built, expanded, or substantially altered unless significant impacts are fully analyzed and disclosed and effective mitigation measures are adopted to protect communities. AB 40 emerged after the Trump administration announced that it would dedicate $75 million to transporting coal through the Port of Oakland despite overwhelming community opposition. 

• AB 1448 (Greg Hart) Protecting against offshore oil drilling 

  AB 1448 protects the state’s coastal and marine environments from new offshore oil and gas drilling in federal waters by prohibiting new state leases and the use of existing infrastructure to support such development. 

Communities and policymakers are increasingly voicing concerns about proposed data centers because of their effects on public health and well-being, water and electricity supplies, and the climate. At the start of the 2026 legislative session, lawmakers introduced numerous bills to regulate data centers and require greater transparency. 

NRDC worked with a broad coalition of partners, including E2 (Environmental Entrepreneurs) members, to advance policies that protect ratepayers and grid reliability as data center demand grows. NRDC will continue advocating for greater transparency in energy and water use; increased reliance on clean, renewable power; and reduced water consumption as data centers become a growing issue in the state. This session, the legislature passed and the governor signed: 

• SB 886 (Steve Padilla) California Technology Innovation and Ratepayer Protection Act 

  Helps protect Californians from higher electricity costs associated with new data centers by requiring the CPUC to establish a new electrical corporation tariff. The bill also requires large new energy users to acquire zero-carbon storage to support grid reliability. 

• SB 887 (Steve 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. 

• AB 2383 (Rick Chavez Zbur) Large energy-use facilities: data centers 

  Requires large energy-use facilities, specifically data centers, to bear the direct costs of the electricity and infrastructure needed to serve them. This bill also helps protect Californians from the costs and financial risks associated with rising electricity demand from large energy customers like data centers. AB 2383 requires the CPUC to establish a separate rate structure for large energy use facilities. 

• AB 1642 (John Harabedian) Wildfire Environmental Safety & Testing Act, and AB 1795 (Mike Gipson), Smoke Damage Recovery Act 

  AB 1642 creates the nation’s first standards for testing and remediating toxic contaminants in homes after a wildfire, and AB 1795 requires insurance companies to follow those standards within the impact zone. These bills help fire survivors address smoke contamination by establishing science-based testing standards that support a safe return to standing structures. Together, they establish California’s first meaningful wildfire smoke-damage standards. 

Transportation is responsible for nearly half of the state’s greenhouse gas emissions and 90 percent of diesel particulate matter pollution. Electrifying transportation is essential to cleaning up California’s air, fighting climate change, and creating the cleaner transportation system our communities deserve. NRDC advocates for reducing transportation emissions, strengthening vehicle standards, expanding access to electric vehicles (EVs) and EV charging, and reducing diesel use in trucks and buses. This session, the legislature passed and the governor signed the following: 

• SB 1213 (Eloise Gómez Reyes) Medium- and heavy-duty electric truck price transparency, NRDC-sponsored 

  Addresses the lack of price transparency in California’s medium- and heavy-duty electric vehicle market, which leaves small businesses and owner-operators vulnerable to price gouging. Transparency is essential to deploying zero-emission vehicles (ZEVs) successfully because it gives independent carriers the market clarity they need to transition their fleets without facing unfair financial barriers. It also helps the state determine whether—and how much—public funding is needed to accelerate zero-emission truck adoption in California. 

• SB 969 (Eloise Gómez Reyes) ZEV charging Infrastructure 

  Modernizes California’s weights and measures framework for EV charging while preserving the strong accuracy standards and enforcement authority needed to protect consumers. California cannot meet its clean transportation goals without a charging network that is both reliable for drivers and practical to deploy and maintain. SB 969 strikes that balance by maintaining rigorous consumer protections while updating an outdated regulatory process to reflect new EV charging technologies. 

• SB 1087 (Christopher Cabaldon) Transportation and land-use climate planning 

  The Sustainable Communities and Climate Protection Act of 2008 (SB 375) 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 reforms and strengthens implementation outcomes—delivering on the law’s original promises of cleaner air, reduced greenhouse gas emissions, economic growth, and lower household transportation costs. 

NRDC and our partners successfully beat back two late-breaking efforts by Governor Newsom. The first sought to expedite environmental review for portions of a misguided, sprawling development in Solano County called California Forever. The second was a proposed bill to exempt a luxury hotel and complex in Santa Monica from the California Coastal Commission’s jurisdiction.

State tire efficiency standards: Where the rubber meets the road 

At a time when federal actions are threatening vehicle efficiency and Californians are focused on affordability, California became the first state in the nation to adopt efficiency standards for replacement car tires. The standards, requiring new tires to have the same rolling resistance on average as the tires sold with new vehicles by 2033, will reduce wasted energy across both gasoline and EVs, lowering fuel and charging costs while cutting climate and air pollution. 

The benefits are significant: The California Energy Commission estimates that the standards will ultimately save residents about $1 billion annually in energy costs and cut greenhouse gas emissions by roughly two million metric tons each year—equivalent to taking about 400,000 gasoline-powered cars off the road. 

NRDC and our partners have a long history of working on this issue in California. We helped pass a law in 2003 requiring the Energy Commission to establish tire standards, but implementation stalled for many years. The final standards establish a practical performance floor while preserving safety, durability, and consumer choice, creating a first-in-the-nation model that other states can build on. 

Protecting California’s coast from federal attacks 

For decades, California law has allowed the state to weigh in on federal activities along its coast, from oil drilling and pipelines to desalination and wastewater discharge. The Trump administration is seeking to weaken California’s coastal authority as it pushes for more oil drilling along the state’s beaches. At stake is the Coastal Zone Management Act, which allows states to review and object to projects in federal waters that conflict with state policy. The federal administration has framed the effort as a performance review of California’s coastal management program. No coastal state has ever been stripped of these rights. 

NRDC helped organize support ahead of NOAA’s public hearing on the Trump administration’s review of the California Coastal Commission’s authority. California has long been recognized as having one of the strongest coastal management programs in the country, and the federal government has repeatedly approved it over the past 40 years. NRDC will continue working with partners to protect California’s coast and the state’s legal authority from what appears to be a politically motivated effort. 

Strengthening our marine protected area network: Now is our chance 

Nearly 80 percent of Californians support healthy marine protected areas (MPAs) as the state considers their future. California’s 124 MPAs form an ecologically connected network that requires periodic adaptive management as ocean threats evolve. Four years into the state’s first review, the California Fish and Game Commission can address kelp loss, industrial ocean uses, warming waters, and marine heat waves. California has set a goal of protecting 30 percent of its coastal waters by 2030 and supporting Tribal comanagement of ancestral lands and waters. 

The Mishopshno and Point Sal proposals, cosponsored by NRDC and Tribal partners, are historic: No California MPA in state waters is currently Tribally comanaged, and this is the first time Tribes have proposed additions to the network. The proposals would create Tribally managed MPAs and advance state commitments to land return and Tribal co-stewardship. 

NRDC will continue working with coalition partners, state leaders, and California’s next governor to protect public health and the environment. 

• AB 2253 (Tasha Boerner) Recycled content claims 

  AB 2253 would have protected consumers from deceptive recycled-content claims by prohibiting companies from using misleading “credits” to advertise recycled content when none is physically present in a product. Companies can currently buy cheap, questionable credits from outside of California or the United States instead of using California-recycled materials, undercutting businesses that invest in the state’s recycling infrastructure and ultimately weakening its recycling system. 

• SB 954 (Catherine Blakespear) Restoring environmental protections for industrial projects, SB 131 CEQA fix 

  SB 954 would have fulfilled legislative commitments to close the industrial loophole enacted under last year’s SB 131, restoring protections for air and water quality and for communities. We commend the legislature for passing a strong bill that would have supported the state’s advanced manufacturing sector while providing robust public health and environmental protections. 

We now shift our focus from the state capitol to the ballot box, where November ballot measures could shape California’s future. Among the measures on the fall ballot are two that we oppose: Proposition 39 and Proposition 45. For more information on all statewide ballot measures, see the CalMatters 2026 voter guide. 

As California enters a new era of leadership and a new session, NRDC will work with the state’s new leadership to advance bold, effective policies that protect public health, defend our environment, and confront the climate crisis with the urgency it demands.