The pair of bills, SB 32 and AB 197, requires the state to reduce carbon emissions 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2030. California's earlier climate change law, AB 32, mandated a statewide reduction in carbon pollution to 1990 levels by 2020.
It won’t be an easy task for the world’s sixth-largest economy, which is expected to grow from 38 million people now to 44 million by 2030 while drastically shrinking its carbon footprint.
Shawn Yadon, CEO of the California Trucking Association, told the Los Angeles Times that the state’s existing climate regulations are a big business expense, and the new law will require even more spending. “It’s very clear that it’s going to require new tech and new fuels,” he said.
The new legislation will “impose very severe caps on the emission of greenhouse gases in California, without requiring the regulatory agencies to give any consideration to the impacts on our economy, disruptions in everyone’s daily lives or the fact that California’s population will grow almost 50 percent between 1990 and 2030,” the California Chamber of Commerce said in a statement.
