The 2023 Legislative Session: A Year of Reintroductions

In many ways, this legislative session is shaping up to be a year of déjà vu. 

Over the last 6 weeks, legislators and their staff have been hard at work meeting with advocates, experts, and community members to develop their 2023 bill packages. They then introduced those bills to the legislature by Feb 17th, the bill introduction deadline. 

Now, Sierra Club California staff are hard at work tracking and analyzing close to 900 bills (yes that’s a lot) that we have identified as potentially impacting the environment or public health in some way. Many of the bills introduced are “spot bills” or placeholders, and may be amended later in the process to include substance. 

As bills were filed, our policy advocates researched them individually, and consulted a wide array of resources, including the expert knowledge of many of our volunteers. Staff use this information to develop our suggested positions, and  take those suggested positions to our volunteer legislative committee, who establish the final position on the bill. 

There are a wide range of bill topics this year, but one thing is already abundantly clear for 2023: past fights and debates will be rehashed
 

We’re seeing the reintroduction of bills that Sierra Club supported in the past (e.g., SB 252 by Senator Gonzalez advancing fossil fuel divestment) as well as bills that Sierra Club California opposed in the past (e.g., AB 538 by Asm. Holden, a rehash of California’s regional grid debate from years ago). These are just two of the over 50 bills that have been reintroduced again. Sierra Club California takes context and circumstances into bill positions, and those can change year-to-year. That said, we scrutinize every piece of legislation to ensure it has the most beneficial impact on the environment. 

While there are already a few bills that the legislative committee has voted to support, including SB 252, most decisions will be made when the Committee and staff meet in March. By mid-March, we will post a list of 2023 priority bills on our website.

Persistence matters in the environmental and climate justice movements. We’ll continue to support the good bills and block the bad ones. We just need your help to do it.

At least once a week, we reach out to different members around the state to take an action that will benefit the environment, asking you to either call or email your legislators on different matters. 

 If you haven’t already, watch and review our Legislative Webinar and slides that you can find here to get better acquainted with the legislative process. Early next month, we’ll be in touch about our In-District Lobbying Program that we hope you participate in! 

Sincerely,