SACRAMENTO, California — Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed a bill Sunday that would have required manufacturers to recycle vehicle batteries as increasingly more electric cars hit the road.
The governor wrote in his veto message that the mandate would be too much work for the Department of Toxic Substances and Control, an underfunded agency not usually tasked with overseeing recycling. But he said he supported the bill’s aim and encouraged an alternative.
“This legislation places a significant burden on DTSC to implement the policy, instead of building on the success of existing producer responsibility models,” Newsom wrote. “I encourage the author to continue working with stakeholders to explore if a producer responsibility organization would yield more equilibrium among public agencies and industry in sharing the administrative burden required by this policy.”
State Sen. Ben Allen’s S.B. 615 would have made California the third state to set up a battery recycling program, following New Jersey and Indiana.
