This week, California launched “its most aggressive effort yet to combat climate change,” the New York Times reports.
The publication added: “Lawmakers have passed numerous bills designed to reduce emissions and divest from fossil fuels.”
Lawmakers “approved a record $54 billion in spending to fight climate change and passed sweeping new restrictions on oil and gas drilling, as well as a mandate that California stop adding CO2 to the atmosphere by 2045,” the paper explained, adding:
The bills, passed late Wednesday night at the end of a hectic two-year legislative session in Sacramento, marked a victory for Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat who has sought to cast himself as a climate leader as he boosted his national profile and began attracting speculation about a possible run for the White House.”
Under the new legislation, the state “will now have to cut emissions by at least 85% by 2045, offsetting any remaining emissions by planting more trees or using still-expensive technologies such as direct air capture,” the paper said, noting that “legislators had previously set a legally binding goal for California to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions 40% below 1990 levels by 2030.”
Inside Climate News reports that the state has also passed legislation banning new oil and gas wells from being built less than 3,200 feet from homes, schools, nursing homes and other so-called “sensitive receptors.”
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