Senate Bill 722, authored by Senate Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento), which CJAC opposes, was moved to the inactive file. The bill is most likely dead for the session, but it could be removed from the inactive file at any time.
The bill is unnecessary and would invite unjustified litigation in the effort to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
Senate Bill 722 would subject legitimate GHG offset providers -- who provide real, permanent, verifiable, and additional emission reductions -- to meritless litigation by parties who have not suffered any actual injury.
Senate Bill 722's information retention requirements would, in many cases, require the retention (or compilation) of information of little or no relevance to the emission reduction offset at issue while doing little or nothing to ensure the accuracy of emission reductions advertising. Instead, it would create fertile ground for creative pleading of imagined injuries. In addition to providing overly broad standing for "any person" to sue, the bill encourages lawsuits by authorizing attorney fees for "any action brought" by plaintiffs -- even those who do not prevail.