Kevin de León

De León in 2014

SB 350, authored by De León and signed into law in 2015, mandates that utilities in California purchase 33% of their electricity from renewable sources by 2020 and 50% from renewable sources by 2030.[20] According to the California Energy Commission, California is already on track to meet these goals, with 27% of energy in 2016 purchased from renewable sources.[21]

In 2012, he co-chaired the successful Proposition 39 campaign which closed a corporate-tax loophole and provided $2.5 billion in revenue for energy-efficiency upgrades in schools.[22]

De León also sponsored SB 100, which would have required the state of California to generate 50% renewable electricity by 2026 and 100% renewable electricity by 2045. The bill failed to pass in 2017 due largely to opposition from some organized labor and energy companies.[23][24] In 2018, the bill passed both houses of the California State Legislature and was signed into law by Governor Jerry Brown on September 10.[25]

In 2012, De León's SB 535 was signed into law, requiring the California Air Resources Board to spend at least 25 percent of cap-and-trade revenue to benefit low-income communities across California that are disproportionately impacted by pollution.[26] In 2014, De León's Charge Ahead California Act created a rebate initiative to make electric cars more accessible to working families and to put at least 1 million electric cars on California roads by 2023.[27][28]

In 2017, De León introduced the California Environmental, Public Health, and Workers Defense Act of 2017, which mandates that California enforce air, water, endangered species, and worker protection standards no less stringent than those that existed at a federal level on January 1, 2017.[29]

In late 2017, a bill that would have blocked the controversial Cadiz Water Project, a proposal to mine and transfer groundwater from protected desert habitat in Eastern San Bernardino County to parts of Orange County, was killed by the State Senate appropriations committee.[30] Opponents of the project blamed De León, then President pro Tempore of the Senate, and pointed out that the company behind the project had donated $5,000 to De León's political campaign. Fabian Nuñez, a close ally and donor to De León, also represented company as its lobbyist.[31]

De León supported the construction of the state's high-speed rail project, but argued that construction should have started in major cities like San Francisco and Los Angeles, rather than the state's Central Valley.[32] In his argument, De León described the Central Valley as "the middle of nowhere" and "tumbleweeds," drawing criticism.[33][34] He later apologized.[34]

De León is an advocate of gun control. In 2014, he sponsored SB 808[35] which passed both houses of the legislature but was vetoed by Governor Jerry Brown.

In 2016, De León led the charge in the passage of a package of eleven bills intended to prevent gun violence. These included De León's SB 1235, which created a new framework for purchasing and selling ammunition designed to address the ambiguities of his earlier SB 53, and his SB 1407, requiring a serial number from the Department of Justice before building or assembling a gun.[36][37]

De León has also criticized National Rifle Association (NRA) Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre.[38]

De León has been criticized himself for erroneously explaining a "ghost gun" as having a ".30 caliber clip" and the ability to "disperse 30 bullets within half a second" in a press conference on Monday, Jan. 13, 2014 at the California State Capital in Sacramento.[39]

De León co-authored, with State Senator Hannah-Beth Jackson, SB 967, which required colleges in California to adopt an "affirmative consent standard" and prohibits various affirmative defenses, including prohibiting specified factors that may negate an accused's mens rea (for example testing the question of intention in a crime), in college disciplinary proceedings involving allegations of sexual misconduct.[40]

De León is a supporter of creating a single-payer health care system. He promised to support Senator Bernie Sanders's "Medicare for All" legislation if elected to the United States Senate.[41] He supported SB 562, a proposed bill to create a single payer health care system in California, which stalled in 2017.[42]

Between 2014 and 2017, the California State Legislature failed to pass several bills which would create whistle-blower protections for state legislative employees who reported "unethical, immoral, or inappropriate behavior." De León did not support these bills and was accused of protecting political allies by activists and his then-opponent for U.S. Senate, Dianne Feinstein.[43][44] In November 2017, more than 300 women in and around the state Capitol signed a published letter, exposing misconduct in California politics as part of the Me Too movement.[45]

Though De León soon reversed his position and dropped his opposition to proposed whistleblower legislation, he received criticism over his motives in not supporting previous bills.[46] At the time, De León shared a residence with California State Senator Tony Mendoza, who was accused of sexually harassing three women who previously worked in his office. Attorneys representing Mendoza's accusers also argued that they had reported harassment to State Senate officials several times in September 2017 before detailing their allegations in a meeting on September 22 — when they were promptly fired by being handed a letter on Rules Committee letterhead.[47]

In February 2018, De León called for a vote of the legislature to expel Mendoza. Mendoza resigned before a vote could be called, claiming the vote was politically motivated.[48]