California Governor Gavin Newsom signed a pair of sweeping environmental accountability statutes in Sacramento on Friday, cementing the nation's strictest corporate greenhouse gas disclosure regime under Senate Bill 219 while eliminating single-use and thicker plastic grocery checkout bags statewide under Senate Bill 1053. Together, the measures reinforce California's role as the de facto regulatory pacesetter for corporate sustainability and circular-economy policy across the United States.
Authored by State Senator Scott Wiener, SB 219 refines the implementation mechanics of last year's landmark Climate Corporate Data Accountability Act (SB 253) and Climate-Related Financial Risk Act (SB 261). Crucially, Newsom and lawmakers rejected a previously proposed two-year delay, keeping the statutory 2026 compliance deadline intact for more than 5,300 public and private corporations with over $1 billion in annual revenue that do business in California.
SB 219 Locks In 2026 Corporate Emissions Reporting Timeline
Under the finalized framework, covered corporations must begin reporting their direct Scope 1 and indirect power-related Scope 2 greenhouse gas emissions in 2026, followed by comprehensive supply-chain Scope 3 emissions in 2027. Separately, companies exceeding $500 million in annual revenue must publish biennial climate-related financial risk reports starting January 1, 2026.
While preserving all corporate reporting deadlines, SB 219 grants the California Air Resources Board (CARB) an additional six months—until July 1, 2025—to adopt technical reporting standards and allows corporate parent entities to file consolidated disclosures on behalf of subsidiaries.
“California is once again leading the nation by holding large corporations accountable for their carbon footprint and finally closing the loophole on single-use plastic grocery bags.”
SB 1053 Closes the 'Reusable' Thick Plastic Grocery Bag Loophole
Alongside the climate disclosure rules, Newsom signed SB 1053, authored by Senator Catherine Blakespear and Assemblymember Rebecca Bauer-Kahan, to overhaul California's 2014 plastic bag ban. Although the original law prohibited thin single-use plastic carryout bags, it permitted supermarkets to sell thicker high-density polyethylene bags labeled as reusable and recyclable.
State waste audits subsequently revealed that consumers rarely reused those thicker plastic bags and municipal recycling facilities could not process them, causing per-person plastic bag waste by weight in California to surge to record levels. Effective January 1, 2026, SB 1053 bans all plastic film bags at grocery checkouts statewide, requiring stores to offer only recycled paper bags to shoppers who do not bring their own reusable totes.
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