California state Democrats announced an ambitious set of newly proposed environmental standards on Tuesday aimed at creating sustainable economic growth through technological innovation.

“My colleagues and I have seen clean energy jobs growing across California and we want to make sure they reach all of California,” state Senate President Pro Tempore Kevin de León said during a press conference in Sacramento announcing the California Climate Leadership initiative.

California, which has long been known as a leader in finding ways to cut its contribution to climate change, just one-upped itself.

On Monday, Democratic lawmakers in the state unveiled a package of four bills that aim to tackle climate change in the state. One of the bills, SB 350, calls for a 50 percent reduction in petroleum use in cars and trucks, a 50 percent increase in energy efficiency in buildings, and a goal of 50 percent of state utilities’ power coming from renewable energy, all by 2030. Current California law requires utilities get 33 percent of their energy from renewable sources, such as wind and solar, by 2050. SB 350’s goals are virtually the same as the ones called for by California Gov. Jerry Brown in his inaugural address in January.

“These all send a very strong message, a strong signal to California businesses, and leave no doubt in the direction we’re heading in,” California Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de Leon said of SB 350 in a press conference announcing the climate change package. “We need to move the state away from fossil fuels and free consumers from the grip of oil prices…the fact is, an economy built on fossil fuels is an economy built on shifting sand.”

One month after Gov. Jerry Brown proposed dramatically expanding California’s greenhouse gas reduction laws, Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de León announced legislation Tuesday to enact the proposal.

In a move to blunt opposition from business interests and moderate Democrats, de León cast the package of environmental measures as a jobs program.

Senate Democrats embraced new climate change goals Tuesday by adopting Gov. Jerry Brown's call to increase the use of renewable energy to 50 percent in 15 years and adding their own initiatives.

Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de Leon and fellow Democrats said they want to increase statewide renewable electricity use to 50 percent, use half as much gasoline on the road, and make buildings twice as energy efficient by 2030.

The legislation also would require the state's two major pension funds to divest from coal companies and establish a committee to advise the governor and Legislature on how to create clean energy jobs.

Several members from the California State Senate introduced a package of legislative proposals Tuesday intended to strengthen California’s leadership in powering a new clean-energy economy. The proposals include historic benchmarks for pollution reduction, energy efficiency, and petroleum use that will spur innovation and investment and maintain California’s lead in creating jobs in the advanced energy sector. This will be the first series of bills introduced by Senate Democrats to combat climate change and preserve the environment.

In a move that could shape California’s climate policies for decades to come, legislators on Tuesday introduced a series of bills that would slash oil use in half by 2050, mandate the use of renewable power for 50 percent of the state’s electricity and force California’s massive public retirement funds to dump coal company stocks.

California lawmakers on Tuesday unveiled a sweeping package of bills that would boost the Golden State's reputation as a national leader in the battle against climate change.

If enacted, the legislation would in the decades ahead trigger fundamental shifts in the kind of cars Californians drive and the way they power their homes and businesses.

America’s biggest state pension funds came under rising pressure on Tuesday to dump coal companies from their combined $500bn portfolio, in a major escalation of the fossil fuel divestment campaign.

The California senate leader, Kevin de Leon, said he was introducing a bill on Tuesday calling on the two state funds – CalPERS, the public employees’ pension fund, and CalSTRS, the teachers’ pension funds, drop all coal holdings.

The bill is part of a larger package of climate measures – endorsed by Governor Jerry Brown – aimed at gearing up California’s efforts to fight climate change.

About 4,000 acres of shiny black solar panels stretch across Riverside County near Joshua Tree National Park, where on Monday U.S. Interior Secretary Sally Jewell dedicated one of the largest photovoltaic solar energy farms in the world.

“This is the beginning of a renewable energy future,” Jewell said before helping turn on a large model light switch.

Alfredo Padilla grew up in Texas as a migrant farmworker who followed the harvest with his parents to pick sugar beets in Minnesota each summer. He has not forgotten the aches of labor or how much the weather — too little rain, or too much — affected the family livelihood.