The 2022 Environmental Legislative Session: Ramping Up Climate Ambitions

• Publication year: 2023
• Author: Written by Gary A. Lucks

THE 2022 ENVIRONMENTAL LEGISLATIVE SESSION: RAMPING UP CLIMATE AMBITIONS

Written by Gary A. Lucks¹

INTRODUCTION

Although Governor Newsom signed fewer environmental bills than typical in an off-cycle election year, the 2022 legislative session produced an unusually high number of far-reaching climate policies. At the beginning of the session, a Senate Climate Working Group was formed to advance efforts to tackle the climate crisis by developing a comprehensive legislative climate package designed to achieve substantial greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reductions by 2030.

In a highly unusual move, Governor Newsom injected himself into the legislative process in the waning days of the summer session, informing the Legislature he intended to actively engage to advance ambitious climate policy. He delivered a five-pillar plan laying out a road map to achieve a clean energy future by: 1) facilitating the state's 2030 GHG emission reduction goal; 2) codifying a 2045 carbon neutrality goal; 3) establishing interim clean electricity milestones; 4) creating a streamlined carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) permitting program; and 5) protecting the public from the health and safety impacts of fossil fuel wells. With the exception of AB 2133 (Quirk), which would have advanced the 2030 climate goal, these pillars were signed into law.

This bounty of climate bills largely eclipsed other environmental policy initiatives in 2022, but some significant changes were made. Other legislative highlights include enactment of the watershed Plastic Pollution Prevention and Packaging Producer Responsibility Act aimed at dramatic reductions in single use plastics and a new law requiring the Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) to reevaluate its controversial method of determining whether a waste is a "toxic" hazardous waste. The Governor also signed legislation designed to speed up regulation of hazardous chemicals in consumer products under the moribund Green Chemistry program. The Legislature also served up two major programs aimed at expanding housing stock with the Middle-Class Housing Act of 2022 and the Affordable Housing and High Road Jobs Act of 2022. Finally, the Legislature delivered new laws aimed at increasing the pace and scale of prescribed burning to prevent wildfires while promoting wildlife connectivity to prevent wildlife-vehicle collisions.

Except for budget-related urgency laws that passed by a supermajority (which took effect on the date of their signing), the enacted laws became effective on January 1, 2023.

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CLIMATE CHANGE, ADAPTATION & RESILIENCY

California's fourth Climate Change Assessment issues a dire warning forecasting dystopian outcomes by 2100. The report projects temperature increases ranging from 5.6 to 8.8 °F, a dramatic two-thirds loss of Sierra Nevada snowpack and southern California's beaches, and a 77% increase in the average acreage burned by wildfires should we fail to significantly reduce GHG emissions in the coming decades. Reaching "net zero" GHG emissions is the linchpin for achieving the state's climate goals and will be necessary to keep global average temperature below 1.5 °C preindustrial levels. Net zero involves reaching zero GHG emissions or offsetting all GHG emissions beyond just carbon and includes other GHGs such as nitrous oxide and other hydrofluorocarbons.

Governor Brown signed executive order (EO) B-55-18 establishing a state goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2045. This EO did not embrace the more ambitious goal of net zero GHG emissions. AB 1279 (Maratsuchi) further expands upon that EO by enacting the California Climate Crisis Act, which expands state policy to achieve net zero GHG emissions as soon as possible and no later than 2045. This new law additionally declares that the state must maintain net negative GHG emissions after 2045 and reduce anthropogenic GHG emissions by at least 85% below the 1990 levels. SB 1203 (Becker) is another net zero bill that advances a more ambitious target for state operations mandating that California agencies achieve net zero emissions for state activities by 2035—ten years sooner than previously required.

SB 1020 (Laird) facilitates the state target of achieving 100% renewable and carbon-free electricity for retail sales by 2045. The new law adjusts this policy by establishing interim renewable and zero carbon energy targets as follows: 90% of electricity sold to retail customers by 2035 and 95% by the end of 2040. Additionally, except for the energy-intensive State Water Project, this new law aligns with the policy established in SB 1203 (above) and requires that California advance its 100% clean energy goal by ten years, to 2035.

To achieve carbon neutrality by 2045, the California Air Resources Board (ARB) published its 2022 Scoping Plan blueprint calling for the reduction of oil use by 94% from 2022 levels by 2045 and cutting carbon emissions 48% below 1990 levels by 2030. The Scoping Plan also emphasizes strategies to remove carbon, including carbon sequestration (e.g., by planting trees) and carbon capture and storage for California's oil refineries and cement, clay, glass, and stone manufacturers. AB 1757 (C. Garcia) further promotes natural carbon sequestration on the state's "natural and working lands" by requiring the Natural Resources Agency to establish priorities to implement the "30x30" goal established by EO N-82-20—conserving 30% of state lands and coastal waters by 2030—to restore California's biodiversity while reducing carbon emissions. Natural and working lands are ideally suited to sequestering carbon in California's forests, grasslands, freshwater and riparian systems, wetlands, coastal and estuarine areas, wildlands, and farms.

SB 905 (Caballero) offers a significant tool to achieve net zero carbon emissions, directing the ARB to establish a streamlined permitting program to safely deploy CCUS to remove carbon using natural and engineered technologies. Under this program, state agencies must roll out a single, unified permit application; however, the permitting program must not impair or alter the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) process in evaluating carbon dioxide capture, removal, or sequestration projects (CO2 projects).

Permit applicants must demonstrate their CCUS project will not create "significant air quality, water quality and soil pollution impacts to residents." CO2 project operators are required to measure and minimize potential toxic air contaminants (TACs) and criteria air pollutants from the CO2 project and submit an air monitoring and mitigation plan to the ARB. They must also demonstrate that the "risk of CO2 leakage poses no material threat to public health, safety, and the environment and to achievement of net zero GHG emissions in California." If other monitoring indicates an increased seismic risk from CO2 leakage, the ARB is empowered to require operational changes or a pause in operations.

Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) are short-lived climate pollutants (with an average 15-year lifetime compared to CO2 with a 100-year lifespan) with high global warming potential (GWP). Most HFCs have exceedingly high GWP at 1,000 times that of CO2. SB 1206 (Skinner) strengthens SB 1383 (Stats. 2016) which required the ARB to lower HFC emissions 40% below 2030 from 2013 levels. The ARB promulgated the Refrigerant Management Program (RMP) regulations to implement this mandate, which require facilities with refrigeration systems containing more than 50 pounds of high-GWP refrigerant to, among other things, register with the ARB, perform periodic leak inspections and repairs, and file annual performance reports.

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Notwithstanding, the RMP does not address the inevitable HFC leaks from existing refrigeration equipment. SB 1206 was enacted to close this gap by regulating bulk HFCs used to replenish the emitted gases and is designed to incentivize management of HFCs for equipment owned by the State of California. Specifically, this law prohibits state-owned systems from replenishing leaked refrigerants with GWP greater than 750. SB 1206 also bans the sale or...