Over the last month, California lawmakers approved a sweeping set of bills tackling housing in urban areas, the climate and artificial intelligence (AI).
Housing near transit hubs (SB 79)
Senate Bill 79 (SB 79), known as the “Abundant & Affordable Homes Near Transit Act,” was carried by Sen. Scott Wiener.
“This is exactly where we should be building more housing, right by our highest quality transit,” Wiener said.
The bill allows taller multifamily housing, up to about 75 feet in some transit-oriented districts around major transit hubs, overriding certain local zoning restrictions.
A transit-oriented district is an area planned and built to maximize access to public transportation, like buses or subways, and encourage people to live near transit rather than relying on cars.
According to Wiener’s website, other places outside of California have already made steps to make development easier in areas with public transit. Colorado allows cities to build an average of 40 living units per acre that’s within a quarter mile of public transportation.
Massachusetts and Utah also have similar policies.
Mahdi Manji, of the Inner City Law Center, is a supporter of the bill and says California’s extreme housing shortage makes it hard for working families to afford a place to live and for people experiencing homelessness to find stable housing.
“SB 79 puts California on track to meet our state’s housing needs and build homes for all our neighbors,” Manji said.
SB 79 does not apply around low-frequency bus stops. The standards are tiered to allow greater height and density in the immediate vicinity of the most heavily trafficked transit stops, and lower levels around less frequented types of transit stops.
Energy and climate overhaul
A multi-bill energy and climate package passed, extending California’s cap-and-trade, or “cap-and-invest,” program through 2045. This package will also fund clean energy and grid reliability, stabilize gas supply, expand wildfire recovery funds and include provisions for increased oil production in places like Kern County.
AB 1207 passed and extended the state’s cap-and-trade program through 2045. The law requires polluters to buy a declining number of permits for emissions. Democrats supported it as a pillar of climate policy, while Republicans criticized the removal of funding for agricultural projects, deepening a partisan split over environmental spending and rural economic needs.
SB 840 outlines how the billions of dollars generated from the cap-and-trade program will be spent annually.
Money from the program will support California’s high-speed rail and efforts to cut emissions from air, water and fire-related sectors. Supporters like state Democrats and Gov. Gavin Newsom call it essential for long-term environmental investment.
AB 825 sets the stage for California to join a broader Western electricity grid, allowing energy to be traded across state lines with less restrictions.
The bill gained strong bipartisan support after Newsom stepped in to revise the language, making it more appealing to neighboring states.
SB 254 replenishes California’s wildfire liability fund with $18 billion over ten years, split evenly between utility shareholders and ratepayers. It also reforms how utilities finance wildfire prevention, barring profits on the first $6 billion spent.
The bill offers state loans for transmission projects and incentivizes cost-effective safety upgrades, drawing bipartisan support as a major overhaul of energy policy.
SB 237 backs Kern County’s streamlined oil drilling permit process, aiming to boost local crude oil production. This move follows refinery closures that threatened gasoline supplies.
SB 352 strengthens air quality monitoring in pollution-burdened communities. Introduced late in the session, it mandates more rigorous data collection and public transparency in areas near industrial sites like warehouses.
Newsom has until Oct. 13 to sign the bills into law.
AI transparency and safety regulation (SB 53)
SB 53 passed the Legislature and awaits Newsom’s decision. It requires frontier or large‐scale AI labs to publish safety frameworks, to file transparency and safety reports and to report significant safety incidents.
Andrew Doris, senior policy analyst at the Secure AI Project, says SB 53 makes AI safety transparency a legal requirement.
“There’s now a broad consensus that the largest AI developers need to be transparent about their safety practices and report serious incidents.,” Doris said. “SB 53 puts that consensus into law, turning expert recommendations into safeguards for Californians.”
