The Newsom Administration has convened a task force to make progress on a decades-long policy that has not delivered much measurable long-term reductions in greenhouse gas emissions and vehicle miles traveled.
By Arianna Smith
Managing Editor
Transit California
Representatives of Association member organizations have been appointed to help in the effort to update the Sustainable Communities and Climate Protection Act, a nearly twenty-year-old law originally intended to help reduce climate change-causing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions through comprehensive regional planning.
The California State Transportation Agency (CalSTA) launched the Sustainable Communities Task Force in August 2025 with the goal to develop policy recommendations to make the Act more effective in achieving its stated purpose to reduce GHG emissions through land use and transportation choices. Eight of the thirty Task Force appointees represent Association member agencies to provide transit perspectives on needed reforms to the Act. The Task Force is meeting throughout 2026 and will provide policy recommendations this coming November.
CalSTA will provide the report for consideration to lawmakers shortly before newly-elected legislators open the 2027-28 legislative session. Additionally, with Governor Newsom termed out this year, the Task Force’s recommendations will fall to the next Governor’s Administration to approve and ultimately implement.
According to the CalSTA announcement, the Task Force will “further transition California from planning to action on regional Sustainable Communities Strategies.”
“This task force is about turning urgency into action,” said CalSTA Secretary Toks Omishakin upon the announcement of the Task Force. “With Governor Gavin Newsom’s bold climate vision guiding us, California is committed to delivering real, measurable progress. By uniting experts and communities from across the state, California is building practical, scalable solutions that will continue to drive sustainable and inclusive growth.”
A long history of discussion and reports, but frustration on measurements of progress
The Legislature, establishing the first-in-the-country law to reduce the state’s GHG emissions down to 1990 levels by 2020; since then, that law has been updated several times by successive Governors with increasingly ambitious GHG emission reduction targets. Currently, California is working to achieve carbon neutrality by 2045, with the Sustainable Communities program moving forward as one piece in that effort.
The Sustainable Communities Act requires each of the 18 metropolitan planning organization regions, which cover nearly all of California’s population, to prepare a Sustainable Communities Strategy (SCS) as part of its regional transportation plan (RTP). RTPs provide a 20-year long-range vision of each region, and they must be updated every four or five years depending on whether the region meets federally defined air quality standards. SCSes are required by the Act to contain land use, housing, and transportation strategies that, if implemented, would allow the region to meet targets set by the California Air Resources Board (CARB).
The Act does not require any implementation of SCS plans.
In 2010, CARB set MPO region targets for 2020 and 2035, as well as regional targets for GHG emissions reductions from passenger vehicle use since the transportation sector accounts for over 50% of GHG emissions in California. After a 2017 legislative revision to the Act, CARB updated the targets in 2018 and released a report in 2023 showing an ongoing lack of progress in reducing emissions.
In other words: Lawmakers prioritized a reduction in GHGs, CARB set goals for GHG reductions California’s MPO regions, MPOs developed plans to reduce GHGs, and very few plans became reality.
A 2023 report reveals little change in California land use and transportation behavior
A 2022 Progress Report released in 2023 revealed that the Act has fallen short in its mission: too often, SCS plans aren’t actually implemented across regions, and regions continue to fail to meet state GHG emissions targets and federal air quality standards.
“Californians are driving more than ever – leading to more pollution, higher costs, more roadway fatalities, and worse daily experiences getting around – despite State planning statutes that encourage better transportation and planning decisions. The core problem is that even well-made plans too often remain just that – plans,” the report said of SCS activity. “The gap between intention and action impairs our daily quality of life and harms communities that have already borne the brunt of past car-dependent planning.”
The report concluded with a sober assessment: “Unfortunately, since the first report [in 2018], most trends demonstrate limited or no progress in meeting the targets through 2019.”
A 2024 CARB data dashboard tracking SCS progress confirms that conclusion: both GHG and vehicle miles traveled (VMT) declined steadily from 2008-2012, rose sharply until 2020 when they declined during the pandemic shutdown, and returned to rising rapidly once again in 2021 and beyond. While neither measurement has yet reached its 2019 peak, both continue to trend upward. According to the dashboard website, “This comparison shows that California is not on track to reduce GHG emissions from passenger vehicle travel under SB 375. Actual per capita GHG emissions and VMT continue to increase throughout the state.”
The Task Force convenes to provide guidance to the next Governor and Legislative Session
CalSTA convened the Task Force with the hope of spurring regions to make more progress in reducing GHG emissions through SCS plan activity.
“The Sustainable Communities Task Force is a powerful opportunity to bridge policy and practice,” said then-California Air Resources Board Chair Liane Randolph when the Task Force was announced. “By bringing together diverse voices and aligning our climate, housing and transportation strategies, we can deliver real benefits to communities across California.”
“For me, this is about more than policy — it’s about making sure the communities most impacted by pollution and disinvestment have a seat at the table and a hand in shaping the solutions,” said Hana Creeger, Associate Director of Climate Equity of the Greenlining Institute and an appointed member of the Task Force.
Currently, the 30-member Task Force is meeting every other month, with a goal of sharing a draft report in Fall 2026 and releasing a final report in November 2026.
Association Executive Director Michael Pimentel is a member of the Task Force. “I’m working to represent Association member interests that we’ve long established in our State Legislative program,” Pimentel said of his participation in the meetings. “I’m continuing to highlight persistent funding challenges that hamper our agencies’ ability to deliver more services to regions and attract more riders. I’m also reiterating the negative interactions between the state’s Zero-Emission Vehicle (ZEV) goals and CARB goals for VMT reductions, where the state is urging transit agencies to speed up expensive ZEV acquisition and expand ZEV usage, even as public agencies are also being urged to make overall reduction in VMT.”
The seven Task Force members whose organizations are also Association members are:
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James Corless, Executive Director of Sacramento Area Council of Government
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Aaron Hake, Executive Director of Riverside County Transportation Commission
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Sarah Jepson, Chief Planning Officer of Southern California Association of Governments
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Matt Maloney, Metro Planning & Policy Deputy Executive Director of Metropolitan Transportation Commission
Other Task Force members include representatives for the building industry, housing policy, socioeconomic equity, local government, climate change, air quality, and public health.
Representatives from Caltrans, the California Transportation Commission, California Air Resources Board, Department of Housing and Community Development, the Governor’s Office of Land Use & Climate Innovation and the California Strategic Growth Council are also involved in supporting the Task Force, alongside expert researchers and academics from UC Davis Institute of Transportation Studies.
Once CalSTA releases the Task Force report, the next Governor and new 2027-2028 Legislature will have the opportunity to decide how and when to take action on the recommendations.
Legislation already underway; stay tuned for results
At least one lawmaker isn’t waiting for the coming recommendations of the report to move forward with changes to SCS requirements. Senator Chris Cabaldon has introduced SB 1087 to reduce the SCS inclusion requirement from every RTP to every other RTP (every eight or ten years instead of every four or five years). The measure also redirects SB 1 local planning grants to MPOs that fund the planning and drafting of SCS plans; requiring instead that $25 million be allocated to MPOs based on their share of the statewide population.
The Association has not yet taken a position on the measure.
For more updates on the Task Force, legislation, and more, watch for the Association’s weekly Executive Director’s Report, periodic alerts, and the monthly edition of Transit California.