On April 29, 2015, California’s Governor Jerry Brown issued an executive order to set a new interim target for reducing the state’s emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs) to 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2030. In March 2015, we wrote about the current state of play in GHG regulation in California, noting that the California Global Warming Solutions Act’s (AB 32) silence on GHG reduction requirements after 2020 left a vacuum that could be filled by a 2005 Executive Order issued by Governor Schwarzenegger. The 2005 Executive Order called for GHG emissions to be reduced to 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050. Governor Brown’s new Executive Order doubles down on that ambitious goal by setting a similarly ambitious interim target of 40 percent reduction by 2030.

Depending in part on how currently pending litigation and proposed Senate Bill 32 (SB 32) are resolved (which we also reported on in our March alert), this latest order threatens to be yet another standard for project proponents to grapple with in determining the significance of their GHG emissions when undergoing environmental review. SB 32 would codify into state law the requirement that the California Air Resource Board (CARB) approve a statewide GHG emissions limit of 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050. As for litigation, briefs have not yet been filed in Cleveland National Forest Foundation et al. v. San Diego Association of Governments, in which the California Supreme Court will determine the import of GHG reduction targets established by gubernatorial decree, such as those in Governor Schwarzenegger’s—and now Governor Brown’s—Executive Orders, unless the state legislature beats it to the punch with SB 32.