California Legislature Refuses to Extend Deadline for Compliance with Climate Disclosure Laws

Recently, Governor Newsom proposed that California delay the implementation of its recently-enacted climate disclosure laws for two years.  The California legislature has effectively rejected this proposal by passing S.B. 219, a bill that would, among other things, enable the state agency in charge of enacting the disclosure regulation to have an additional six months to adopt the regulations, but not extend the deadline for companies to comply.  This bill has been sent to Governor Newsom for approval, but he has not acted upon it (as yet).  In effect, the California legislature is re-affirming its commitment to be a national leader in climate disclosure regulation, despite Governor Newsom's efforts to slow the process down. 

It should be noted that the California climate disclosure laws at issue are also being challenged in the courts (by a lawsuit brought by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce), and it is not yet clear whether these laws will survive the process of legal review.  So all of the maneuvering concerning when the laws--and the disclosure requirements that will be imposed upon companies--will come into effect could be academic if a court decides to void the law entirely.