Blogs

Today, CARB announced a third virtual public workshop on SB 253 and SB 261 (Health & Safety Code (HSC) §§ 38532 and 38533, respectively) to be held Tuesday, November 18 from 9:30 am – 12:30 pm Pacific Time to, among other things:

• Discuss the preliminary list of covered/reporting entities published on September 24, 2025, and efforts to refine the list to inform development of the initial regulation
• Present proposed updates to definitions and exemptions to further inform compliance and help determine which entities are subject to each statute
• Discuss the scope of the initial regulation, which will reportedly be limited to establishing the fee component and associated definitions
• Discuss the first reporting deadline for SB 253 (HSC § 38532)

Register for virtual attendance here. The Society plans to attend.

The Society has been engaging in the rulemaking process since November 2024, prior to the release of the December 2024 Information Solicitation to Inform Implementation of California Climate-Disclosure Legislation:Senate Bills 253 and 261, as amended by SB 219. 

Submissions to date include (among others): 

In addition, as previously reported, Society leadership and nearly 20 members of the Society’s CARB working group recently participated in a virtual meeting with Senator Henry Stern, who authored SB 261 (companion bill to SB 253, authored by Senator Scott Wiener), to discuss various challenges companies are facing in seeking to prepare for compliance with SB 253 and SB 261 in the context of the rapidly approaching compliance deadlines and CARB’s ongoing rulemaking process. 

Finally, note that we and a subset of the nearly 100-member CARB working group are currently working on developing a response to CARB’s Scope 1 and Scope 2 Emissions Draft Reporting Template and accompanying memo, which we plan to submit to CARB and others the week of November 17.