A high-profile legal challenge to California’s nation-leading climate disclosure laws enacted last year is likely to drag through the summer, according to court filings late Tuesday.
What happened: Both the business coalition suing over the state’s two climate disclosure laws and California Attorney General Rob Bonta (D) jointly proposed a new briefing schedule that would set a Sept. 11 hearing date in federal court in Los Angeles instead of a previously arranged June 24 hearing.
Context: The new schedule all but ensures several more months of uncertainty over the fate of the landmark laws, which compel large corporations operating in California to disclose their carbon footprint and climate-related financial risks starting in 2026.
The laws go further than new federal rules in that the requirements fall on both public and private companies and require disclosure of supply chain emissions, or Scope 3. The business groups, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the California Chamber of Commerce, have argued that the laws are costly, burdensome and unconstitutional.
