California pols back up SEC on emissions

Jan 31, 2023 View in browser   By Debra Kahn and Jordan Wolman THE BIG IDEA California lawmakers are looking to leap past the SEC on climate disclosure. | Rich Pedroncelli/AP Photo BANKING ON CALIFORNIA — If and when the Securities and Exchange Commission releases its final climate disclosure rules, they'll run into a legal thicket. The world's fourth-largest economy may be in position to play backup. A bill introduced Monday in the California Legislature would subject major U.S. companies doing business in California — so basically all of them — to emissions-reporting rules. Jordan spoke with sponsor Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco), whose name is in the mix as an eventual successor to Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D). "I don't agree that there are legal issues with the SEC rulemaking, but we know that the Republican attorneys general who are determined to end all corporate ESG will file a lawsuit," he said. "I think it's important for California to step forward." The bill, SB 253, would actually go further than the SEC's rule proposed last year. While the federal regulator would only rope in publicly traded companies, Wiener's legislation would cover all companies operating in California and generating more than $1 billion in annual revenue — roughly 5,400 of them. It would also require them all to disclose emissions stemming from their supply chains, which are often the biggest source of pollution. The SEC's rule would only require that Scope 3 disclosure for companies that have set net-zero targets or consider the emissions material risks. Yes, the bill failed — narrowly — last year, but it often takes several tries for lawmakers to push major bills through Sacramento. Observers point to turnover in the Legislature since then, both in terms of Democratic gains and seats flipping from moderate Dem to liberal. Either way, get ready for a fight that will draw in national groups like the American Chemistry Council, the American Bankers Association, the Bank Policy Institute and the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, all of which opposed the bill last year. "This will have a national impact, and that's why we have national business pushback against it," Wiener said. "And we're ready for that fight." RESEARCH Public opinion on gas stoves is pretty stable. | Morning Consult LUKEWARM STOVE — Americans are just about evenly split on whether gas stoves should be banned or not, according to a new Morning Consult poll shared exclusively with Long Game. A survey of 2,125 U.S. adults earlier this month found 42 percent (56 percent of them Democrats) said they would support a local ban on natural gas in new construction. Thirty-nine percent (56 percent of them Republicans) said they would oppose a ban. The recent furor hasn't seemed to penetrate. Morning Consult asked the same questions last year and got basically the same responses. And after the pollsters brought up the RMI study that found a link between gas stoves and childhood asthma and kicked off the whole debate, they found a similar split: Forty-six percent of adults who own gas stoves said they would be interested in replacing them, and 44 percent said they wouldn't. People who said they were open to replacing rose to 57 percent among parents and 59 percent among Democrats. SINGLE OR TWO-PLY — Toilet paper manufacturing can be a dirty business, according to a Natural Resources Defense Council scorecard released Monday. The group graded major toilet paper, paper towel and tissue brands on factors including their recycled content and bleaching processes. Trader Joe's scored A+ in all categories, except for its super-soft variety, which scored an F. Costco's Kirkland brand received a straight flush of all F's. NRDC also gave bottom marks to some of the largest manufacturers, including Procter & Gamble, Kimberly-Clark, and Georgia-Pacific. The group lauded P&G's new bamboo-based option but called it a "small step" and said shareholders should speak up at the company's annual meeting in October. SUPPLY CHAINS IRA'S LABOR'S LOST — Labor provisions in the Inflation Reduction Act kicked in over the weekend for projects that want to take advantage of tax incentives. They're meant to boost wages and job training opportunities. But as Kelsey Tamborrino reports, developers and investors need further guidance to maximize the IRA's roughly $270 billion in clean energy tax credits. They're still trying to figure out exactly when the apprenticeship requirements apply, how exemptions from the requirements are interpreted, and how to determine wages for specific renewable energy jobs. “If one party is willing to assume the risk of non-compliance, then projects are moving forward," said Hilary Lefko, a renewable energy tax partner at Norton Rose Fulbright. "But if no one is willing to accept the risk of the consequences of not being compliant, then that’s halting investment, that’s halting construction, and projects won't get built until people are more comfortable with the rules.” More broadly, the layering of domestic-content provisions on top of the clean-energy push is complicating things. See: The Biden administration's rejection Monday of a long-proposed gold and copper mine in Alaska's Bristol Bay watershed. It's the second rejection of a domestic critical minerals project in less than a week, as Hannah Northey reports for POLITICO's E&E News. Movers and Shakers NEW CARBON CHIEF — The nonprofit Great Plains Institute on Monday named Jessie Stolark executive director of its Carbon Capture Coalition, a group of companies, labor unions and environmental groups. Stolark was the coalition's public policy and member relations manager and was previously with the center-left think tank Third Way. She replaces Brad Crabtree, who left last year to become the Energy Department's assistant secretary for fossil energy and carbon management.   JOIN POLITICO ON 2/9 TO HEAR FROM AMERICA’S GOVERNORS: In a divided Congress, more legislative and policy enforcement will shift to the states, meaning governors will take a leading role in setting the agenda for the nation. Join POLITICO on Thursday, Feb. 9 at World Wide Technology's D.C. Innovation Center for The Fifty: America's Governors, where we will examine where innovations are taking shape and new regulatory red lines, the future of reproductive health, and how climate change is being addressed across a series of one-on-one interviews. REGISTER HERE.     YOU TELL US GAME ON — Welcome to the Long Game, where we tell you about the latest on efforts to shape our future. We deliver data-driven storytelling, compelling interviews with industry and political leaders, and news Tuesday through Friday to keep you in the loop on sustainability. Team Sustainability iseditor Greg Mott, deputy editor Debra Kahn and reporters Jordan Wolman and Allison Prang. Reach us all at gmott@politico.com, dkahn@politico.com, jwolman@politico.com and aprang@politico.com. Want more? Don’t we all. Sign up for the Long Game. Four days a week and still free! WHAT WE'RE CLICKING — Soaring fuel prices were very, very good to ExxonMobil last year, record-setting good, Reuters reports. — The disproportionate share of greenhouse gas emissions produced by the "global elite" supports the case for a "wealth tax" on polluters, according to a U.N. report. — Gen Z job seekers are more likely than other applicants to reject offers from companies that don't match their environmental values, Insider reports.   LISTEN TO POLITICO'S ENERGY PODCAST: Check out our daily five-minute brief on the latest energy and environmental politics and policy news. Don't miss out on the must-know stories, candid insights, and analysis from POLITICO's energy team. Listen today.       Follow us on Twitter Debra Kahn @debra_kahn Greg Mott @gwmott Jordan Wolman @jordanwolman Allison Prang @AllisonPrang   Follow us

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