California’s new law requiring companies to disclose climate carbon footprints and their climate-related financial risks starting in 2026, has started a trend in other state legislatures to pass similar laws. Washington state Senator Joe Nguyen, a Democrat, chair of the legislature’s Environment, Energy and Technology Committee, said “I expect there to be a policy that we will take up and likely pass.” Tom Quaadman, executive vice president of the Chamber’s Center for Capital Markets Competitiveness, said blue-state efforts to pass California-style climate disclosure measures could boost the red-state backlash against environmental, social and governance policies. This argument, while self-serving for the business community, does raise the issue of why there is not a national law. New York state Sen. Brad Hoylman-Sigal said “when there’s a vacuum at the federal level, states need to determine the best way forward.”
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