The authors of California’s landmark corporate climate disclosure legislation are fuming over regulators’ decision not to enforce the law in its first year in effect — and are threatening legislative oversight next year if quick progress isn’t made on implementation.
Democratic State Sens. Scott Wiener and Henry Stern wrote to California Air Resources Board Chair Liane Randolph on Wednesday expressing “serious concern” over an agency decision last week to waive penalties for companies that fail to completely report their greenhouse gas emissions in 2026, as required by a law enacted last year.
The law, S.B. 253, compels large companies operating in California to report their emissions starting in 2026 and expands to require reporting emissions generated by their value chains, or Scope 3, starting in 2027.
While the law already waives penalties for misreporting Scope 3 emissions through 2030, CARB’s Dec. 5 memo goes further by also stating its intent not to penalize companies for incompletely reporting Scopes 1 and 2 emissions in 2026. That includes companies’ direct emissions and those tied to the electricity they purchase.
