SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Major corporations from oil and gas companies to retail giants would have to disclose their direct greenhouse gas emissions as well as those that come from activities like employee business travel under legislation passed Monday by California lawmakers, the most sweeping mandate of its kind in the nation.
The bill received 41 votes in the Assembly, just enough to pass and send it back to the Senate for a final vote before it would reach Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom. Lawmakers backing the bill say a large number of companies in the state already disclose some of their own emissions. But the bill is a controversial proposal that many other businesses and groups in the state oppose and say will be too burdensome.
The policy would require more than 5,300 companies to report their emissions, according to Ceres, a nonprofit policy group supporting the bill. Opponents of the bill say it is not feasible to accurately account for all of the mandated emissions from sources beyond what companies are directly responsible for.