NEWSOM signs a major climate repairs, lengthening the cap and trade in the increase of oil drilling

From Jean Quang and Kayla MihalovichCalmness

This story was originally published by CalmattersS Register about their ballots.

Government Gavin Newsom Today they signed a metement package of Climate and energy policies To extend the greenhouse gas emission program, increase oil drilling and allow the state to create a Western Regional Electricity MarketS

The main repairs that the Newsom and the best legislators have negotiated in the last days of the legislative session Against the background of heavy lobbying Last week, it reflects the urgency in the Democratic Party to maintain its climate goals, while focusing on increasing gas and energy costs that threaten to bring voters to the right.

The legislators opened the session this year by announcing an emphasis on making California more accessible after the bruising national elections for Democrats. The energy package was central for this purpose, with progressives offering to reduce costs with industry regulations.

But after announcing special sessions aimed at the oil and gas industry for two years, Newsom began to warm them, as oil refineries have announced closure that can send gas prices. As a result, one of the bills signed on Friday Home Production of Oil in Kern County By approving a long -term environmental impact report on new wells.

“We have to go effectively,” Newsom said at an event in San Francisco. “This is not an ideological endeavor. We are in the practical business for applications. We have to show our ideals and goals. So that exposes it. But this exposes it without putting songs over people.”

The biggest part of the complex package he signed were the bills to expand State Restriction and Trade ProgramWhich since 2013 has set the price of carbon emissions. The program limits the amount of greenhouse gases that can release polluting industries, and, to a limited extent, allows companies that reduce emissions to sell permits to other companies that pollute. The program is raising money for many state climate programs.

The extension leaves the program to a large extent, which disappoints the defenders of the environmental justice, who claim to have allowed oil and gas to continue to pollute near low -income communities. By nodding to these concerns, Newsom also signed another bill in the package that creates a state fund for monitoring pollution in disadvantaged communities.

He also signed two bills affecting the electrical grid. One would allow the state to create a Western regional energy market that would allow the state to trade more electricity with neighbors.

Proponents, including the main environmental groups, say the idea will reduce prices by allowing California producers to sell excess clean energy during a time when the state does not need it-when it is sunny but not hot, for example, while importing energy during heat waves and other high-demand times.

The other bill is intended to reduce the cost of transmission infrastructure for customers by creating a public funding system for construction New power linesS This would also prevent the cost of mitigating wild fire to be transferred to customers and filling the State Fire for a $ 18 billion fire fund. The money paid by the shareholders and paid over the next decade are used to pay victims of the fire.

The Newsom signed package leaves an upcoming anxiety without addressing: upcoming refinery closure. Negotiations late in the legislative session to keep two refineries in the Bay area, so far they have failed to make any deals.

Some Democrats simply did not want to give more to the oil industry, while others did not agree how much support the state should provide, said Assembly President Laurie Wilson, Democrat from Suisun, said last week. Wilson urged the state to support the Valerro refinery in Benisia, which should now be closed until the end of the year without a deal, costing the city the most large private employer.

Kayla Mihalovic is California local news.

This article was Originally Published on CalMatters and was reissued under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Noderivatives License.