What matters to me today is: California on Climate: Ready, FIRE, Aim . . . Again.
California has never lacked ambition on climate policy. What it increasingly lacks is regulatory certainty. The regulated community deserves and must demand better.
Today’s workshop by CARB staff, the latest chapter in the rollout of SB 253, underscores a troubling pattern: missed statutory deadlines, withdrawn regulations, deferred compliance dates, and an agency still asking the regulated community fundamental questions about what the rules should require. Collaboration is essential. But collaboration should refine a regulatory program—not substitute for one.
The result is growing uncertainty, not simply over how businesses are expected to comply, but whether California itself has settled on the direction of its climate disclosure program.
That uncertainty is amplified by the courts. SB 261 remains subject to an injunction, while a request to enjoin implementation of SB 253 remains pending before the Ninth Circuit. Against that backdrop, California should be demonstrating clarity, consistency, and confidence. Instead, businesses are asked to prepare for obligations that continue to evolve while the legal and regulatory landscape remains unsettled.
Entities subject to California’s voluntarily imposed climate objectives deserve better than regulatory improvisation. The regulated community is not asking for less accountability; it is asking for clear standards, predictable timelines, and a stable framework on which long-term compliance decisions can be made.
Climate leadership is measured not only by bold statutory declarations, but by disciplined implementation. If California intends these landmark disclosure laws to endure, it must replace uncertainty with certainty—and aspiration with execution.
That’s what matters to me today in 250 words or less. What matters to you? I’d really like to know.