BY SAMMY ROTH STAFF WRITER

There are currently 116 members of the California Legislature, and they were busy last week. Friday was the deadline to introduce new bills for this year’s legislative session — and like many journalists, lawmakers often need a deadline to get stuff done.

Foolishly, I set out this week to write short summaries of all the climate- and environment-related bills that are now up for debate in Sacramento. I say “foolishly” because I grossly underestimated just how much relevant legislation I would find. Members of the state Senate and Assembly filed many dozens of bills — maybe hundreds? — on topics from sea level rise to the electric grid.

So here’s the deal. Scroll down to read about 30 bills I found interesting, with the understanding that this is far from a complete list, and that many proposals worth discussing aren’t included simply because I ran out of time. I’ve also decided not to cover bills on two of my favorite topics, clean energy and electric vehicles — expect a full edition of Boiling Point on those proposals soon.

SB 1173: The divestment movement has gained traction, with activists calculating that universities and other asset managers have committed to divesting nearly $40 trillion from coal, oil and gas companies. This bill would require California’s massive public employee pension funds, CalPERS and CalSTRS, to join the party by divesting from the 200 largest publicly traded fossil fuel firms.

Authors: Lena Gonzalez (D-Long Beach), Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco)

Status: Referred to Rules Committee

Read the full article here.