2025 Legislative Roundup
The 2025 legislative session wrapped up on Saturday, September 13, with the legislature voting on a package of last minute bills, negotiated by the governor and legislative leaders. This package, which passed, included extension of Cap and Trade for 20 years, expansion of oil drilling in Kern County, grid integration with neighboring states, renewal of the utilities wildfire insurance fund, and measures designed to slow or reverse the growth of electricity rates.
Separate from the high-profile bills that came down to a vote on Saturday, LA Climate Reality supported 13 bills that made it all the way through the legislative process to a floor vote this week. Of these 13 bills, 9 passed, and four were pulled without a vote. Among the bills that passed were measures to protect natural lands, improve electrification planning, and address water use in data centers.
Learn more about our endorsed bills and whether they passed or not below.
More information about our endorsed bills:
AB-28 (Schiavo) Solid waste landfills: subsurface temperatures. This bill establishes a series of reporting requirements for municipal solid waste landfill operators should the landfill exceed certain limits in order to prevent subsurface landfill fires like the one that has been burning at Chiquita Canyon Landfill for more than three years. [Did not pass. Moved to inactive file]
AB-39 (Zbur) General plans: Local Electrification Planning Act. This bill requires cities and counties to establish plans for decarbonization, including EV charging infrastructure, electrification of new and existing buildings, rooftop solar, and related electrical grid infrastructure needs. [Passed]
AB-44 (Schultz) Energy: electrical demand forecasts. This bill requires the California Energy Commission (CEC), in consultation with utilities, to define and publicize methodologies for demand response and distributed energy resources to reduce the growth of peak electrical demand (and by extension reduce the growth of electricity rates). [Passed]
AB-93 (Papan) Water resources: data centers. This bill requires data centers, when applying for a business license, to report their expected water use to their water supplier; when renewing a license, to report their water use to the appropriate city or county; and to self-certify that they will meet certain efficiency guidelines and best practices. [Passed]
AB-368 (Ward) Energy: building standards: passive house standards. This bill requires the California Energy Commission (CEC) to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of passive house building energy efficiency standards by climate zone and submit a report to the Legislature on its findings by July 1, 2028. [Passed]
AB-864 (Ward) Hazardous waste: solar photovoltaic modules. This bill clarifies how to properly manage used solar photovoltaic (PV) modules and reduces barriers for solar panel recyclers to transport and manage these panels at the end of their useful life in order to facilitate recycling of solar panels at the end of their 20-30 year useful life. [Did not pass. Moved to inactive file]
AB-900 (Papan) Environmental protection: 30x30 goals: land conservation: stewardship. This bill requires the Natural Resources Agency (NRA) to develop strategies to reduce barriers and increase support for stewardship of conserved lands, which is critical — especially considering the uncertainty of federal land management — if these lands are genuinely to be conserved in perpetuity as they are meant to be under California’s goal of conserving 30% of land by 2030 (30x30). [Passed]
AB-1448 (Hart) Coastal resources: oil and gas development. This bill expands upon existing requirements for the transfer or modification of leases for oil and gas-related infrastructure upon tidelands and submerged lands within state waters associated with Pacific Outer Continental Shelf leases to include lease assignments, and requires a new coastal development permit (CDP) be obtained for the repair, reactivation, or maintenance of an oil pipeline or oil and gas facility that has been idled, inactive, or out of service for five or more years, as provided, among other provisions. [Did not pass. Moved to inactive file]
SB-30 (Cortese) Diesel-powered on-track equipment: decommissioning: resale and transfer restrictions. This bill prohibits a public entity that owns diesel-powered on-track equipment from selling, donating, or otherwise transferring ownership of that equipment for continued use after the public entity decommissions the equipment, except in certain circumstances. [Passed]
SB-31 (McNerney) Water quality: recycled water. This bill clarifies that the use of recycled water is authorized in various applications and under specified circumstance, making it easier to safely use recycled water in outdoor irrigation at homes, businesses, parks, and gold courses. [Passed]
SB-427 (Blakespear and Stern) Habitat Conservation Fund. This bill extends the sunset of the Habitat Conservation Fund (HCF) from 2030 to 2035. [Passed]
SB-613 (Stern) Methane emissions: petroleum and natural gas producing low methane emissions. This bill requires state agencies to prioritize strategies to reduce methane emissions from imported petroleum and natural gas and requires the Air Resources Board (ARB) to encourage procurement of certified natural gas producing low methane emissions. [Passed]
SB-615 (Allen) Vehicle traction batteries. This bill requires battery suppliers to ensure the responsible end-of-life management of an EV battery (which are primarily lithium-ion batteries), including fully funding the cost of collection of an EV battery for which they are responsible. [Did not pass. Moved to inactive file]