The Loma Prietan
December 2000/January 2001
Keeping score on the 2000 legislative session
by Susan Chargin
The streets of Sacramento are quiet. The 2000 legislative session concluded, the Governor has finished the business of signing and vetoing bills, and that means it’s time for the end-of-session wrap-up. Before getting into legislation, though, our legislative team deserves some recognition. Sierra Club California got off to a rough start this session with big staff changes, but volunteer leaders and staff were able to pull together a strong team to represent the Club in the Capitol. The Sierra Club California Executive Committee acted quickly to hire excellent contract lobbyists, and the members of the California Legislative Committee put in a lot of extra time to help out on various issues.
Our contract lobbyists were Bill Magavern, Vern Goehring, and John White. Bill Magavern bravely took on environmental justice issues, as well as toxics and pesticides. Bill and Kelly Moran of the California Legislative Committee exchanged lengthy e-mails and spent hours on the phone, making sure Bill was up to speed on all the important -oxins and -ides. Vern Goehring was our protector of endangered species and habitat, and was still able to keep up with NCCP issues. Our very own Shannon Eddy also jumped into the fray as acting state director. Shannon put in many long days, educating herself on the issues and the legislators, coordinating the contract lobbyists, and even doing some lobbying herself. Of course, all of this was in addition to her fundraising and office management responsibilities.
Last but not least, John White, long time Sierra Club California contract lobbyist, took on just about every uncovered issue, from air quality to land use. He and his staff were instrumental in maintaining a presence for the Club in the Capitol this session. These folks all deserve thanks.
The Club filled the State Legislative Director position late in the session, hiring Bill Allayaud. Bill came on board just in time to help with several pieces of legislation, while he was getting acquainted with Legislators and their staff.
The theme early in the session seemed to be "defense." Thanks to the vigilance of our team and our enviro allies, many bad bills were quickly detected and either fixed or killed. In the end, we had a long list of bills on which we requested the Governor’s signature, and only a few for him to veto. However, while we successfully supported many bills that the Governor signed, this was not a year for groundbreaking environmental legislation.
Following you’ll find the status of the Club’s high priority bills, as well as some budget highlights. For further details on any individual bills, or bills not listed here, phone Susan Chargin at (916) 557-1100, extension 102, or send an e-mail to susan.chargin@sierraclub.org
Air Quality/Climate Change
• AB 2511 (Steinberg)-Support-Signed
Creates programs in both the San Joaquin and Sacramento valleys to award grants to compensate for costs associated with the development and implementation of new, clean, smog-reducing vehicles and technologies.
• AB 1775 (Lowenthal)-Support-Signed
Calls for the cover or closure of piles of petroleum coke dust, a residue produced in the oil refining process. This requirement will reduce pollution and particulate matter emissions form the storage, handling and transportation of petroleum coke.
• SB 1771 (Sher)-Support-Signed
Creates a voluntary registry of greenhouse gas emissions that encourages businesses to lower their emissions by facilitating recognition of such early efforts by federal and/or state regulatory agencies.
• SB 1865 (Perata)-Support-Signed
Increases penalties for violations of air quality laws and regulations.
• In the budget:
$100 million was secured for reduction of diesel emissions. This amount includes $50 million for the Carl Moyer program and $50 million to clean up dirty diesel school buses.
CEQA
In the beginning of the session we seemed to be awash in CEQA exemption bills, and in the last two weeks of the session there was an unsuccessful play to create a CEQA exemption for affordable housing. Tom Adams, an associate of John White, handled the situation expertly, many of the bills were neutralized, and no bad CEQA bills reached the Governor’s desk.
Coast/Wetlands
• AB 2286 (Davis)-Support-Signed
• AB 2310 (Ducheny)-Oppose-Died
Many of you probably remember the flurry of emails and action alerts in opposition to this amendment to the Coastal Act. It would have, among other things, interfered with the Coastal Commission’s ability to act on Natural Community Conservation Plans and Habitat Conservation Plans in the coastal zone. Fortunately, this piece of legislation was neutralized.
Conservation Education
• AB 2391 (Longville)-Support-Vetoed
We were happy to add conservation education to our issue list this session. Melinda Joyce, of the Club’s Youth In Wilderness project, worked closely with Assembly member John Longville of Rialto to draft AB 2391. This bill would have appropriated $5 million from the General Fund to the California Department of Education to improve and expand facilities at California’s outdoor schools. California Outdoor Schools are five-day, four-night residential programs, which are aligned with state standards and use the environment as a vehicle for learning. Most buildings in these facilities are 25-40 years old and have never been updated or enhanced to increase the number of students served. We’re very disappointed by the Governor’s action on this bill.
Energy
• AB 995 (Sher) and SB 1194 (Wright)-Support-Signed
These bills extend the public goods charge on electricity generation for the purpose of funding energy efficiency and conservation activities, public interest research and development, and in-state operation and development of renewable energy resources.
• SB 280 (Bowen)-Support-Vetoed
This bill would have required new state buildings and publicly funded schools to utilize optimal standards of energy efficiency and green building methods.
• In the budget:
$1.7 million was allocated to the Solar Energy Systems and Distributed Generation Systems Grant Programs.
Environmental Justice
• SB 89 (Escutia)-Support-Signed
Calls for a working group on environmental justice, composed of various representatives, to assist CalEPA in developing an interagency environmental justice strategy.
• SB 1408 (Alarcon)-Support-Died, Assembly Appropriations Committee
This bill would have established a program to give grants to low-income or minority communities in order to help them obtain technical assistance related to their participation in environmental regulatory processes in their neighborhoods.
Forestry
• AB 717 (Keeley)-Support-Died, Senate Floor
This bill underwent many changes in its two-year life, but ultimately became a proposal to stop the approval of new timber harvest plans that include clearcutting for a two year period. The Club’s lobbying team, including critical help from the regional field staff, put a lot of energy into getting this bill to the Governor. Unfortunately, AB 717 died in the last hours of session, when, after being held in the Senate Appropriations committee by Senator Johnston, it was released to the Senate Floor too late to be voted upon.
• SB 1964 (Chesbro)-Support-Vetoed
This bill would have extended the public comment period for timber harvest plans from 15 to 30 days from the completion of the initial inspection of the plan.
Toxics
• AB 970 (Ducheny)-Oppose-Amended
In its prior form, AB 970 would have given some hazardous wastes generated through a process called "elementary neutralization" an exemption from the important requirement that they have secondary containment structures to protect against leaks. The bill was completely amended, and the Club took no position on the new content of the bill.
• AB 2260 (Shelley)-Support-Signed
The Healthy Schools Act of 2000 will start to reduce pesticide harm to schoolchildren by providing annual notification to parents, teachers and students about what pesticides will be allowed for use on school grounds, posting entry points of treated areas and making available training and information to schools interested in integrated pest management techniques. Though the bill is weaker than we had hoped, having been watered down by Governor Davis, the right-to-know is an important start to protecting kids from pesticides in schools.
• AB 2318 (Lowenthal)-Support-Signed
This bill bans the use of Lindane, a neurotoxin, as a treatment for lice and scabies. AB 2318 keeps a nasty toxin off our children’s heads and out of our water.
• SB 324 (Escutia)-Oppose-Died
SB 324 would have made cleanup of contaminated properties more difficult by legislating the wrong numbers for screening toxics, weakening accountability for polluters, and obstructing effective regulatory oversight.
• SB 667 (Sher)-Support-Signed
This is a good brownfields bill that creates an $85 million revolving loan fund for investigation and cleanup of contaminated urban sites.
• In the budget:
Though we were disappointed to see Kelly Moran’s pollution prevention funding dropped, we were happy to see $85 million included for remediation of contaminated urban sites.
Transportation/
Liveable Communities
• AB 2140 (Keeley)-Support-Signed
Requires regional transportation agencies to compile information regarding safety, congestion, and public transit. In addition, these agencies would be compelled to have an "alternative planning scenario" in their 20-year growth plan in order to provide a clear alternative to present growth patterns that could minimize future demand on transportation infrastructure while protecting open space, farmland, and quality of life.
• Livable Communities Package
This comprehensive packages consists of several pieces of legislation to funnel tens of millions more dollars into bicycle, pedestrian and community-oriented projects, allow lower speed limits on residential streets, improve traffic safety and promote more livable communities. The Rails to Trails Conservancy, the California Bicycle Coalition, the Surface Transportation Policy Project and others who helped pass last year’s Safe Routes to School bill worked closely together to advance these proposals. The bills are:
AB 1885 (Correa)-Support-Died
AB 2522 (Shelley)-Support-Signed
AB 2767 (Jackson)-Support-Signed
SB 1629 (Sher)-Support-Vetoed
SB 1772 (Brulte)-Support-Signed
SB 1809 (Johnston)-Support-Vetoed
• In the budget:
The budget is heavy with transportation funding. CalTrans will receive a total of $7.8 billion. $1.4 billion will go to local governments for the planning and construction of transportation projects. $2 billion will support the Governor’s Traffic Congestion Relief Plan, and $8 million will fund local initiatives to improve pedestrian and intersection safety through a competitive grant process.
Water Quality
• AB 680 (Lempert)-Support-Vetoed
This bill would have extended the Lemper-Keene-Seastrand Oil Spill Prevention and Response Act to spills and discharges from oil refineries, oil pipelines, and railways into inland waterways.
• AB 1909 (Jackson)-Support-Vetoed
This bill would have created the Street Runoff Reduction Pilot Program, with the goal of reducing the movement of toxic water runoff from streets to coastal waters.
• In the budget:
The San Joaquin River will get a boost, with $15.7 million earmarked for its restoration. Also included is $50 million for various water quality monitoring projects and assessments, $5 million of which will go toward improving storm water management and enforcement. Last but not least, a total of $136.1 million was approved for CalFed.