The Joint Legislative Committee on Climate Change Policies has a new chair. Assembly Member Jacqui Irwin will be leading the Committee moving forward in 2025. This is a great opportunity for the Legislature to resume its role in pushing the state forward to meet its climate commitments.
The committee is supposed to oversee a lot of the climate activities of state agencies in California, and appears to have lost its momentum. It met 5 times its first year, 5 times its second year, once in 2020, once in 2021, 3 times in 2022, and 2 times in 2023. In 2023, it heard testimony from several independent oversight analysts, including the IEMAC and the LAO, indicating that the State’s Scoping Plan was flawed and ought to be bolstered. The staff report prepared for that meeting stated: “Put simply, the LAO and IEMAC were directed to let the JLCCCP and Legislature know if there was reason for concern, and since the Scoping Plan Update was released, they have both sounded alarms. This hearing is intended to heed those warnings.” Recommendations included:
- The members of the Committees may wish to consider requesting CARB to provide a legislative addendum to its Scoping Plan to provide additional information that quantifies the level of investment and identifies the specific regulations that will be necessary to achieve the enhanced 2030 target.
- Moreover, the JLCCCP may wish to consider commissioning further independent expert analysis, in accordance with AB 197’s authorization of a technical advisory panel to the Joint Committee, providing answers to some of the missing pieces in the Scoping Plan, especially with respect to pre-2030 action.
The Committee took no action at the end of that hearing, a missed opportunity that can be seized with new leadership.