Many bills were sent to the governor's desk at the close of the 2007 legislative session which follow up on last year's AB 32, the landmark global warming bill passed last year. While the following bills have been sent to the governor's desk, it is not known as of press time whether they will be signed into law.

AB 35 (Ruskin), the Sustainable Building Act of 2007, would require all new state-owned buildings, and any renovation conducted on old buildings, to meet applicable certification standards set out in the United States Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. Related bills were passed regarding environmentally friendly codes for commercial construction (AB 888, Lieu) and the Department for Housing and Community Development (AB 1058, Laird).

AB 118 (Nunez) would create the Alternative and Renewable Fuel and Vehicle Fund and the Air Quality Improvement Program. The act would appropriate $10 million annually to fund alternative fuel and vehicle technology research, development, demonstration, and deployment in order to advance the state's leadership in clean technologies, achieve the state's petroleum reduction objectives and clean air and greenhouse gas emission reduction standards, develop public-private partnerships, and ensure a secure and reliable fuel supply.

In addition to the pending legislation, the attorney general's office has reached a pioneering agreement with ConocoPhillips, which has agreed to pay $10 million to offset greenhouse gas emissions from a planned expansion of its refinery in Contra Costa County. It is the first time a U.S. oil company has agreed to pay a state to offset projected emissions. The refiner agreed to pay $10 million for projects that would curb greenhouse gases in an attempt to compensate for releasing an additional 500,000 tons of carbon dioxide a year when the expansion at its Rodeo refinery is completed in 2009. Under the agreement, projects to offset emissions could be changed if both parties believe the strategies, such as planting trees, are not effective in reducing the culprit gases. The agreement was reached because of the eventual restrictions that AB 32 would have imposed on the refiner anyway. The attorney general's office is attempting to negotiate a similar agreement with Chevron over a proposed facility in the city of Richmond.

On September 6 CARB Chair Mary Nichols unveiled six new measures to trim California's greenhouse gas emissions, as part of the required implementation of AB 32. All told, the six measures proposed by Nichols would cut the state's annual greenhouse gas emissions by the equivalent of 2.8 million tons of carbon dioxide. Combined with plans adopted by the air board in June, the state will have committed to annual reductions of about 16 million tons annually. (That total amounts to only a fraction of the 170 million-ton-a-year cut required by 2020, however.)

The proposals include a rule that would require mechanics to check and properly inflate tires when servicing a car, something many garages already do; a requirement to make electric power available to docked cargo ships so they can turn off their engines (ship exhaust is a source of carbon dioxide and contributes to poor air quality in communities near ports); and a rule to make tractor-trailers more fuel efficient by requiring proper tire inflation and aerodynamic fairings to reduce drag. This latter rule accounts for nearly half of the emissions reductions to be accomplished by the new proposals.

If adopted by the full CARB, the proposals would go into effect on January 1, 2010. Additional proposals, including one requiring heat-reflecting "cool paints" on vehicles, are in the works.

The leading role that California has played in setting its own greenhouse gas standards has been upheld in a Vermont court. A dozen states have adopted plans to require a reduction in carbon dioxide emissions from motor vehicles and three other states are considering similar action, but auto companies have complained that the limits would require increases in average mile-per-gallon standards that may not be achievable. However, in a ruling on September 12, a federal judge in Vermont said states have the authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles and rejected arguments that only the federal government could do so. Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty, the current chair of the National Governor's Association, said in response that as a result, limits set by California "could be the basis for what happens across the rest of the country. One of [the National Governors' Association's] objectives in the coming year is to either regionally or nationally expand those approaches...aimed at curtailing greenhouse gases," he said in an interview with the Associated Press.