disclose GHG

Climate change: Democratic Sens. Scott Wiener of San Francisco, Lena Gonzales of Long Beach andHenry Stern from Calabasas introduced, or rather reintroduced, a package of bills.

Wiener put forward SB 253, the Climate Corporate Data Accountability Act — a bill that failed last year to require corporations with more than $1 billion in revenue that operate in California to publicly disclose their greenhouse gas emissions. He said the bill would make corporations “a heck of a lot more interested in buying clean energy.”

• Wiener: “It gives large corporations two options: disclose your emissions publicly or stop doing business in California — and they won’t choose the latter.”

Gonzalez introduced SB 252, a proposal that was also blocked last year and that seeks to force the state’s public pension funds to divest from fossil fuels. Stern introduced SB 261, another measure that also failed last year. It requires companies that earn more than $500 million in revenue to prepare climate-related financial risk reports. 

The climate efforts come in the midst of negotiations to cover a projected $22.5 billion budget deficit. Newsom has proposed cutting $6 billion from the $54 billion, five-year climate package he pushed through last year. 

Press Democrat: New state senate bill would force CalPERS, CalSTRS to divest from major fossil fuel holdings

February 17, 2022

By MARY CALLAHAN

California’s two powerful public employee pension funds would be required to withdraw their investments from fossil fuel companies to help fight climate change under a state Senate bill introduced Thursday.

Authored by Sen. Lena A. Gonzalez, D-Long Beach, and co-sponsored by Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, the legislation would give the California Public Employees' Retirement System and the California State Teachers' Retirement System until July 2027 to divest a combined $9.9 billion from the Carbon Underground 200 — a list of companies considered to have the greatest potential for future emissions from their coal, oil and gas reserves.

The bill also would prohibit any new investments in those companies....