California business groups and labor unions are crying foul over a legislative budget proposal to exempt corporate emissions disclosure laws from economic and environmental reviews.
What happened: The California Chamber of Commerce, the Associated General Contractors of California, the Western States Petroleum Association and other groups lodged their opposition during a state Senate subcommittee hearing Tuesday against budget language that would exempt SB 253 and SB 261 from environmental and economic reviews.
The pair of laws, signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) in 2023, will require large corporations to disclose their greenhouse gas emissions and climate-related financial risks, respectively. Lawmakers are proposing to exempt the state from having to analyze their impacts under the California Environmental Quality Act and the Standardized Regulatory Impact Assessment.
The groups particularly honed in on SRIA, which requires agencies to do an analysis when a regulation is expected to have an economic impact exceeding $50 million. Jon Kendrick, a CalChamber policy advocate, pointed to a 2017 Legislative Analyst’s Office report that found SRIA requirements “have increased the consistency of agencies’ analyses.”
