The measures signed into law include legislation to increase climate credits on utility bills, expand regional power markets out West, add $18 billion to the California Wildfire Fund and allocate $1 billion annually to a high-speed rail project.
The cap-and-trade program, now to be known as “cap-and-invest,” was reauthorized through 2045, “making polluters pay for projects that support our most impacted communities," Newsom said in a statement.
“We’ve got to manifest our ideals and our goals. And so this lays it out, but it lays it out without laying tracks over folks. … the issue of affordability, as you heard, is top of mind,” Newsom said during a Friday signing event.
Amid the onset of refinery closures in the state, the governor approved a Republican-backed bill to support more offshore drilling in Kern County, an area known for fossil fuels.
Read more here, from The Hill's Ashleigh Fields.
