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Our Priority Environmental Policies for California (2026)

California’s legislators must take bold action on climate policy, clean energy, and environmental justice to protect communities across the state. Advancing strong environmental legislation in California requires partnership, leadership, and a shared vision to achieve lasting climate solutions—especially as we confront federal opposition and the influence of Big Oil tied to the Trump Administration.

EnviroVoters' Top Bills in the California Legislature

Affordable Insurance and Recovery Act (SB 982 - Wiener)

Failed to pass the Senate Insurance Committee in the 2026 legislative session.

Hold Lawmakers Accountable
The California Clean Skies Act (AB 1777 - Garcia)

Failed to pass the 

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On the Governor's Desk

Click this link to urge Governor Newsom to sign these critical environment and community protection bills into law.

The California Ratepayer Protection Act (AB 1167 - Berman)

Prevents utility companies from spending ratepayers’ money on political lobbying and promotional advertising.

Banning PFAS in Non-Essential Uses (SB 682 - Allen)

Minimizes the use of forever chemicals , or “PFAS,” by industry and manufacturers to reduce the water filtration and treatment burden on local governments and water agencies.

Protecting the Endangered Species Act (AB 1319 - Schultz)

Protects endangered species from transport, sale, or possession to protect against weakened federal wildlife protections during the Trump Administration.

Protecting Ratepayers from Utility Abuses (SB 24 - McNerney)

Prevents investor-owned utilities from using ratepayer’s money to lobby against the creation of publicly-owned utilities, helping lower utility bills and supporting affordable public power.

Reducing Microplastics in Personal Care Products (AB 823 - Boerner)

Prohibits the sale and distribution of no-rinse personal care and cleaning products that contain plastic glitter or microbeads.

Take Action: Tell Your Representative to Support Progressive Climate Policies

Clean air. Safe water. Cheap energy bills. Our legislators can deliver all of it—but only if they hear from you.

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California Climate Bills By Issue Area

Conservation
Affordability
Energy
Pollution
Water
Accountability
Opposition
2-Year

Environmental Protection and Conservation

EnviroVoters is committed to protecting California’s natural landscapes by advancing policies that safeguard biodiversity, access to nature, and climate resilience. As part of the 30×30 initiative to conserve 30% of lands and coastal waters by 2030, EnviroVoters is also fighting back against Trump’s plans to sacrifice our state’s natural resources.

This bill would require that 10% of the existing Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (GGRF)’s $200,000,000 annual appropriation for CalFire’s wildfire resiliency programs be used to expand and support beneficial fire practices. Beneficial fire is an umbrella term used to describe prescribed, science-backed burns and cultural, tribal and community-led burns. It is a critical tool that California needs to invest in to improve forest health, wildfire mitigation strategy, and human safety. At least 25% of this allocation would be dedicated to tribes, who have stewarded California’s lands using fire for millennia, and prioritize Indigenous–led organizations. This bill would provide California with the investment it needs to prevent catastrophic, unexpected blazes, and sustain Indigenous land stewardship practices to protect communities and restore ecosystems. 

This bill would update the management principles of CA State Demonstration Forests to prioritize ecological restoration, carbon sequestration, tribal stewardship, education, recreation, and research, instead of wood harvesting. California’s State Demonstration Forests span around 85,000 acres and currently prioritize logging and mining – an outdated policy that is incongruent with our 30×30 conservation goals and tribal co-governance. Additionally, this bill would direct the state to seek opportunities for co-management of these forests with Indigenous tribes and the use of traditional ecological knowledge, with financial footing from the Timber Regulation and Forest Restoration Fund. This bill would put California back on track towards ecological restoration and improving long-term community benefits. 

SB 954 revisits provisions in SB 131 (2025), a trailer bill opposed and scored by EnviroVoters, that created broad exemptions from standard environmental review for certain industrial developments, including loosely defined “advanced manufacturing” projects. Those exemptions allowed qualifying projects to bypass key safeguards, including mitigation measures protecting public health, safety, and endangered species’ habitat. SB 954 would restore and strengthen those protections by reinstating safeguards for endangered species, adding necessary labor standards, and narrowing the scope of projects eligible for exemption to better protect frontline communities. 

This bill would codify the Outdoors for All initiatives administered by the California Natural Resources Agency to ensure sustained and equitable access to outdoor public recreation spaces for all Californians. By building upon Executive Order No. N-82-20, which established California’s 30×30 goal, and the Equitable Outdoor Access Act or AB 30 (Kalra, 2022), this bill would align its outdoor equity goals with its conservation objectives to reduce barriers to access for public lands and improve stakeholder partnerships.

 This bill would establish the Huron Hawk Conservancy, supporting the development of ecological and recreational projects in the northern region of the City of Huron. Conservancies offer an opportunity to support projects that benefit the natural environment and the local communities in the limited region north of the City of Huron. The proposed Conservancy is located at a 3,000-acre plot of land that is home to a multitude of flora and fauna, alongside a local community readily interested in projects to improve the site. Establishing the Huron Hawk Conservancy would support the development of ecological and recreational projects within the area, promote equitable access to a healthy environment for the underserved, and create sustainable job opportunities to the communities of the Central Valley and the City of Huron.

 The Building Climate Resiliency Act would promote the development of safer, more resilient, and affordable communities by ensuring potential environmental hazards are meaningfully addressed in the planning of new projects. By amending the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), this bill will ensure that developers account for the impacts that wildfires, sea level rise, polluting entities, and other adverse environmental conditions may have on the project and residents. This bill offers a timely, common-sense approach to project planning that reduces the risk of placing residents, workers, students, and other community members in high-risk and often uninsurable areas.

Stable, Fair, and Affordable Insurance for California Families

As climate-driven extreme weather events like fires and floods increase across California, homeowners are facing a growing insurance crisis: sudden policy nonrenewals, rising costs, delayed claims, and uncertainty about whether they can recover after disaster strikes. 

SB 1301 and SB 878 strengthen basic consumer protections to help stabilize California’s insurance system and ensure homeowners are treated fairly before and after disasters. Together, these bills improve transparency, accountability, and timely access to coverage and claims — helping families stay protected and recover faster. 

This bill would strengthen enforcement of wildfire insurance claims by requiring insurers to follow clear, enforceable timelines for processing residential fire damage claims. SB 878 would require insurers to pay all undisputed amounts on time, even when other portions of a claim remain unresolved, and strengthen transparency and accountability to curb prolonged, unresolved claims. Persistent delays and inconsistencies in wildfire insurance payouts have left many Californians struggling to rebuild after disasters. SB 878 will strengthen California’s insurance system, so families can start recovering sooner. 

This bill would require homeowners’ insurance companies to provide significantly earlier notice and clearer explanations when they plan to nonrenew, cancel, or reduce coverage on residential properties, particularly in high-risk wildfire areas. It extends advance notice requirements, mandates plain-language disclosures of the specific reasons for coverage changes and gives policyholders time and opportunity to address identified risks or mitigate property conditions to maintain coverage. The bill also restricts certain practices insurers can use as grounds for nonrenewal and requires the state to publish more detailed data on nonrenewals by region. Rising wildfire risk across the state has led to widespread policy cancellations and reduced coverage availability, leaving many homeowners with less time, less information, and fewer options to secure or maintain insurance in high-risk areas. 

The Affordable Insurance and Recovery Act (SB 982) tackles California’s escalating home insurance crisis by strengthening the Attorney General’s legal tools to protect communities following extreme weather disasters. SB 982 provides critical market stabilization tools for the state’s insurer of last resort, the California FAIR Plan, and provides critical relief directly to the consumers being crushed by rising premiums. 

By shifting disaster-related costs from everyday policyholders to at-fault parties, the bill secures essential resources for recovery, helping low-income homeowners and communities become more wildfire-resilient through safer roofs, landscaping improvements, and other mitigation projects.

More about this bill can be found here: https://envirovoters.org/insurance-affordability/

Affordable, Reliable, and Accountable Energy for California

Californians are paying increasingly unaffordable electricity bills while the state faces growing energy demands, climate pressures, and aging grid infrastructure. Families need an energy system that is clean, reliable, and affordable, and accountable to the public. 

These bills modernize California’s energy system by strengthening utility accountability, controlling rising electricity costs, and making smarter use of existing clean energy resources. Together they help ensure the clean energy transition works for ratepayers. 

The Utility Accountability Act would increase transparency for ratepayers of investor-owned utilities (IOUs) to ensure that taxpayer dollars are used appropriately, preventing IOUs from “double-dipping” into taxpayer funds. This bill would improve transparency by establishing mandatory reporting and accountability requirements for IOUs using funding from grants, loans, and bonds. Additionally, the bill would require public utilities to host a standardized online database for the thousands of advice letters that are submitted to the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) annually, with links to the letters in customer notices of rate changes.  

The Home Energy Choice Act would encourage electrification and ease economic barriers to entry for clean energy use by giving homeowners the option to receive incentives to replace their aging gas lines with electricity. This bill calls on the CPUC to develop a program where gas utilities offer households facing a planned service line replacement for a voluntary incentive to switch to electric. The utility would pay for the incentive. 

This bill would require the CPUC to direct the state’s utilities to bring in third-party, independent auditors to review their work upgrading the electricity grid to accommodate new power plants. This legislation would create a necessary independent oversight and accountability mechanism to address delays in transmission and interconnection-related upgrades to supply energy to the grid. 

This bill would establish an electrical corporation tariff to protect customers of IOUs from subsidizing data centers. Across the country, the growth of data centers is feeding increased energy costs, comprising around 4.4% of the country’s total electricity consumption in 2024. Additionally, this bill would require data centers to prefund contracts of at least 15 years in duration to install new zero-carbon energy resources. EnviroVoters supports what this bill is trying to do and would like to see it strengthened to prohibit data centers from running backup diesel generators (or other polluting equipment), limit onsite power generation to zero-emission technologies, provide zero-carbon energy for 100% of the data centers’ hourly needs, and provide similar protections for gas bills.

This bill would limit the use of balancing and memorandum accounts to bring more spending decisions into General Rate Cases before the utilities have already spent the funds. These 100+ accounts act as “credit cards” for utilities to spend without limits, then go to the CPUC retroactively for approval of recovering these costs in rates. The General Rate case should be the primary venue for costs to be determined appropriate. This would reduce unlimited corporate overspending that ratepayers end up covering through rate increases.

This bill would limit the use of balancing and memorandum accounts to bring more spending decisions into General Rate Cases before the utilities have already spent the funds. These 100+ accounts act as “credit cards” for utilities to spend without limits, then go to the CPUC retroactively for approval of recovering these costs in rates. The General Rate case should be the primary venue for costs to be determined appropriate. This would reduce unlimited corporate overspending that ratepayers end up covering through rate increases.

This bill would modify the regulatory impact assessment needed for major regulations to require agencies to account for any offsetting benefits or savings when determining whether a proposed regulation will have an economic impact greater than $50 million. Currently, agencies are required to do lengthy economic analyses when the $50 million threshold is passed, even if the proposal would technically yield net benefits to Californians. (E.g. A regulation with $45 million in benefits and $6 million in costs would still require this assessment). By ensuring benefits are properly incorporated into the initial economic impact estimate, agencies will be able to get beneficial regulations implemented in a timely manner.

This bill would require the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) to independently forecast gas demand rather than relying solely on utility projections, and to ensure that major gas infrastructure investments align with the state’s climate goals and do not create stranded asset risk for ratepayers. The bill would require utilities to demonstrate that electrification alternatives are infeasible or more costly before pursuing new gas investments, establish shareholder-funded Gas Infrastructure Decommissioning Trusts that cannot be financed by ratepayers, and strengthen consumer protections by preventing avoidable methane leak costs from being passed on to customers while clarifying that utilities are not obligated to maintain or expand gas service when doing so would impose unreasonable costs or conflict with California’s climate goals. 

This bill would have required the CEC to assess the state’s need for grid-integrated vehicles, or vehicles with bidirectional charging capacity to support our grid during demand fluctuations. The bill would have authorized the CEC to set standards based on the 2028 assessment for manufacturers to build a minimum level of grid-integrated vehicle capacity, ensuring that grid operators have the option to utilize this resource. 

California’s electric vehicles can do more than move people — they can help power a cleaner, more reliable energy system. 

The Fighting for Affordable Informed Rates (FAIR) Act would rein in rising utility costs by requiring companies to justify rate increases that outpace inflation. IOUs would be required to submit an affordability budget to ensure that rate increase decisions better reflect the realities that Californians face, bringing about greater transparency and accountability in the utility rate-setting process. The bill comes as new data from the Public Advocates Office shows residential electricity rates have climbed as much as 101 percent since 2014 — more than 2.5 times the rate of inflation — leaving more than 2.3 million households behind on their energy bills. 

California’s electric vehicles can do more than move people — they can help power a cleaner, more reliable energy system. 

Reducing Pollution and Toxic Waste

California is currently facing federal rollbacks and threats to our strong clean air and environmental protection standards. The state legislation we are supporting ensures that we protect public health and our clean air standards.

This bill would provide direct financial assistance to community members within the vicinity of the Inglewood Oil Field who have a child with a respiratory health condition. This bill would expand the uses for the Equitable Community Repair and Reinvestment Account (Account) and ensure that the first $5 million of the Account will be in the form of direct cash assistance to be made available to families within 2.5 miles of low-production oil wells. This targeted support for families would address the immense environmental and public health harm that these communities have endured from nearby oil drilling. 

This bill would require manufacturers of infant formula sold in California to test final products at least monthly for aluminum, arsenic, cadmium, lead, and mercury (“toxic elements”). Beginning January 1, 2028, the bill would also require brand owners to disclose specified testing results on their websites and, in certain cases, through QR codes on product labels. The bill would prohibit the sale or manufacture of noncompliant infant formula in California. The bill responds to concerns regarding toxic heavy metals in infant formula. In March 2025, Consumer Reports published testing results for powdered infant formula products and reported that many samples contained detectable levels of contaminants, including arsenic and lead. 

This bill would amend existing law to make clear that transactions changing control over well and production facilities, including those involving stock swaps, are subject to full bonding requirements pursuant to AB 1167. In 2023, the legislature passed AB 1167 (Carrillo) to help reduce this risk by requiring buyers of idle and marginally producing oil wells to provide financial assurance for the full cleanup cost. Despite the stated intention of the law, regulators have interpreted it to be inapplicable to ownership transfers through stock purchases. AB 2461 would expand this requirement to all oil and gas wells that change ownership, thereby helping to ensure polluters, not taxpayers, pay the full cost of cleanup. 

This bill would equip California with critical information for communities to proactively plan for refinery decommissioning and land revitalization by ensuring workers experience a just career transition. As global market dynamics drive the closure of California’s refineries, this bill would require refiners to report information related to decommissioning and site remediation of refineries to the State Water Board and California Energy Commission (CEC). In doing so, these underregulated refineries would be brought up to date with the basic transparency requirements within their industry, providing real cost estimates and cleanup plans. Such clarity is critical for ensuring that taxpayers are not left with the cost of cleaning up after polluters and that workers are not left behind during the clean energy transition.

The California Clean Skies Act would have clarified that the state has the authority to limit air pollution from “indirect sources” — facilities like ports, warehouses, and freight hubs that attract heavy truck traffic and other polluting equipment, often creating pollution hotspots in nearby communities. The bill would have reaffirmed the authority of the California Air Resources Board (CARB) to regulate these sources and reduce their public health impacts. Many of the most polluted communities in the country are in California, with diesel trucks and equipment serving freight hubs among the leading contributors. This bill would have provided a clear pathway to cut harmful emissions and better protect frontline communities. 

Protecting Access to Clean, Affordable Water

Every Californian deserves access to safe, clean, and affordable water. These bills help to address California’s water crisis: ensuring families can afford the water services they depend on every day and preventing dangerous pollution before it contaminates drinking water sources. 

This bill would (a) ban all per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) pesticides by 2035, (b) ban PFAS pesticides disallowed in the EU by 2030, (c) place a moratorium upon enactment on the approval of new PFAS pesticides by the Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR), (d) require PFAS manufacturers to add labels to PFAS pesticide products detailing PFAS-related human health and environmental effects, and (e) while they are still in use, designate PFAS pesticides as restricted use materials subject to disclosure in all digital media, including the Spray Days Notification system. 

The Indigenous Water Rights Bill would establish a clear policy directive for state water agencies to acknowledge and redress the inequities inflicted upon tribes in California. This bill requires the state to recognize, acknowledge, and correct the inequities caused by state-sanctioned acts of termination, removal, and assimilation afflicted on CA Native American tribes. By requiring this policy to be incorporated into relevant state agencies’ operations/policies/regulations, this legislation would ensure that Tribal Nations are not only consulted but meaningfully included in shaping the future of California’s waters.  

This bill would strengthen safeguards related to water availability for large development projects by ensuring continued use of Water Supply Assessments (WSAs), which evaluate whether sufficient long-term water supplies exist to support proposed developments. WSAs are informational reports prepared by local water suppliers for qualifying projects and are incorporated into the environmental review process under CEQA. Amidst efforts to streamline and exempt certain projects from environmental review under CEQA, SB 1085 ensures that water supply planning remains part of the decision-making process, improving transparency and coordination between land use planning and long-term water availability.

This bill would establish a first-in-the-nation Low-Income Water Rate Assistance Program and Fund to bring down utility costs and ensure that all Californians can access both drinking water and wastewater services regardless of income. Only around half of California households are served by public water systems that offer low-income rate assistance; meanwhile, water bills have risen by 24% in the past five years alone. By taking action to alleviate the economic and structural barriers that prevent vulnerable communities from having access to affordable drinking water, California will provide long-term, sustainably funded solutions for its residents.

The Nitrogen Pollution Reduction Act would have strengthened existing regulatory programs with strong monitoring and reporting to curb nitrogen pollution from fertilizers, which pose huge public health issues, as well as environmental concerns. As the largest agricultural state in the country, excessive nitrogen fertilizer use poses huge public health and biodiversity concerns; nitrates from this fertilizer are linked to blue baby syndrome and increased risk of cancer, as well as contributing to harmful algae blooms that decimate ecosystems. This bill would have set a clear goal to phase out nitrogen pollution from croplands, added deadlines to the existing nitrogen management program, and directed the State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB) to coordinate with regional water boards to update their programs with science-backed guidelines. Additionally, this bill would have created a goal to incentivize research and investment in the development of safer and more efficient fertilizer technology to encourage farmers to use healthy soil practices, achieve sustainable groundwater targets, and protect drinking water for communities. 

Advancing Corporate Accountability and Democracy

A healthy, fair democracy and climate justice go hand in hand. Climate progress in California relies on more than elected officials and grassroots advocates—it also requires reliable commitments and accountability from corporate leadership.

This bill would close an outdated corporate tax loophole from the “Water’s Edge” election, which currently allows multinational corporations to exempt themselves from paying taxes on earnings made outside of the state. California loses around $4 billion in California taxes annually due to this loophole – money that should be directed towards vital programs Californians urgently need. Approximately $75 to $150 million is estimated to be avoided by the fossil fuel industry. By prohibiting the use of a Water’s Edge election, this bill would hold corporations and corporate polluters accountable for paying their fair share, returning revenue back to California. This bill requires a 2/3 vote on the Floor. 

This bill would protect consumers from deceptive recycled content claims by prohibiting companies from using misleading recycled content “credit” schemes and other accounting gimmicks to advertise recycled content when none is physically present in the product. Overinflated recycled content claims not only mislead consumers, but also penalize businesses that are genuinely investing in recycled materials and supporting California recyclers. AB 2253 ensures that recycled content claims reflect the actual materials used in products, restores integrity to the marketplace, and protects consumers’ right to make informed, environmentally responsible purchasing decisions. 

This bill would eliminate the sunset date for the Displaced Oil and Gas Workers Fund (DOGWF), allowing the program to provide support for workers transitioning out of refinery jobs beyond 2027. The DOGWF program was created by SB 191 (Connolly, 2022) to provide grants addressing displaced workers’ needs. As California transitions to cleaner energy sources and refineries close throughout the state, refinery workers face economic uncertainty. Eliminating the sunset date of this Fund will ensure that these workers continue to be supported and that California uplifts a just, clean energy transition.  

These two bills compromise the California Voting Rights Act of 2026 and would ensure that limited-English voters can engage fully and meaningfully in California’s elections. SB 1360 would guarantee that the federal Voting Rights Act (VRA) language assistance is enshrined at the state level. In addition to expanding the number of languages covered by the VRA, this bill expands the types of elections materials that must be translated to ensure greater voter accessibility and engagement.

Opposition Bills

EnviroVoters opposes bills that undermine critical climate policies and priorities, directly threatening our mission to protect public health, advance environmental justice, and hold polluters accountable.

Failed to move through Senate Appropriations
This bill would have created a burdensome review process for exemptions to the Advanced Clean Fleets program, which already allows for flexibility where needed. Adding more carve-outs is unnecessary and would weaken the program’s clean air and public health benefits.

Two-Year Bills

These bills carry over to the second year of the session to give lawmakers more time to refine and build support—providing an important window for EnviroVoters to influence policy and advance climate justice.

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