The Sacramento Bee: Newsom signs array of environmental bills regulating oil wells, emissions and carbon removal
BY STEPHEN HOBBS
Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a sweeping package of environmental bills Friday, touting them as California’s most aggressive effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
The measures include proposals the governor urged lawmakers to pass in the waning weeks of their legislative session. They establish clean energy targets, buffer zones around new oil and gas wells and require the state to devise regulations for removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
“There’s no other jurisdiction in the world, think about that, that’s doing what the state of California’s doing,” Newsom told a crowd of reporters and lawmakers in Vallejo. “This is about law, this is not about ambition, this is not an executive order, this is not a promotion, this is a promise that we now need to deliver.”
State lawmakers who authored bills signed Friday said their passage was the result of a years-long process.
“If we talked about having this ceremony a year ago, I think none of us in the legislature would have thought it was possible,” said Sen. John Laird, a Santa Cruz Democrat.
He, and other lawmakers, saluted Newsom’s late push. “I’m extremely grateful for the governor and his team,” said Sen. Lena Gonzalez, a Long Beach Democrat. Adding, they “stuck by us to ensure we saw these bills through.”