Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. was joined former Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, Senate President pro Tempore Kevin de León, Assemblymember Eduardo Garcia and dozens of local, environmental and business leaders on Treasure Island to sign AB 398, a bipartisan bill that strengthens and extends the state’s world-leading cap-and-trade program by 10 years.

AB 398 by Assemblymember Eduardo Garcia (D-Coachella) passed in both the California State Senate and Assembly last week with support from Democratic and Republican lawmakers and more than 150 environmental; climate; public health; clean energy and technology; agriculture; food processing; business; labor; local government; community; and utility leaders; researchers and economists; and newspaper editorial boards from across California.

Extending California’s cap-and-trade program ensures that billions of dollars in auction proceeds continue flowing to communities across California. To date, these investments have preserved and restored tens of thousands of acres of open space, helped plant thousands of new trees, funded 30,000 energy efficiency improvements in homes, expanded affordable housing, boosted public transit, helped more than 100,000 Californians purchase zero-emission vehicles and supported many other programs.

AB 617 by Assemblymembers Cristina Garcia (D-Bell Gardens), Eduardo Garcia (D-Coachella) and Miguel Santiago (D-Los Angeles) – part of the legislative package announced with AB 398 – will be signed separately later this week and will establish a groundbreaking program to measure and combat air pollution at the neighborhood level – in the communities most impacted.

AB 398 will be signed at the same location on Treasure Island where Governor Schwarzenegger signed AB 32 (the California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006), which authorized the state’s cap-and-trade program more than a decade ago.

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