A Republican PG&E plan + A pardon for gay civil rights icon? + UC adds in-state students
Good morning, California. It’s Hannah Wiley here, bringing you some news from the Capitol on this Wednesday morning.
First — Nash & Proper will replace Mother’s old downtown Sacramento location this spring, The Sacramento Bee learned on Tuesday. I’ll be the first to admit, as a former Music City resident, Nashville-style hot chicken is delicious. But my vegetarian favorites from Mother didn’t make it onto the Empress menu, so I’m still bitter about my fave Capitol restaurant’s closure.
WHAT’S THE PRIORITY?
Two California Republicans unveiled on Wednesday their own plan to get PG&E back on track, and it’s an idea unlikely to interest their Democratic colleagues.
Assemblyman James Gallagher, R-Yuba City, and state Sen. Jim Nielsen, R-Red Bluff, both represent wildfire-prone areas in Northern California that were devastated by the Camp Fire in 2018.
Their two proposals, Assembly Bills 1941 and 1942, would allow the bankrupt utility to temporarily skirt California’s renewable power mandates until it hardens its grid and gets a handle on vegetation management. Around $330 million from the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund would also go toward forest and fire prevention efforts.
Back it up — California has set ambitious requirements for utilities to reach renewable energy targets by 2045. Gallagher and Nielsen have argued that PG&E is spending too much time, energy and money trying to comply with the state’s regulations. It therefore can’t prioritize updating infrastructure or clearing vegetation. The pause would give them the financial reprieve they need to make the changes, and the legislation would prohibit salary bumps and bonuses for executives in the meantime.
The two Republicans announced their legislative plans during the fall’s fire season, when hundreds of thousands of California customers were left in the dark during PG&E’s planned power blackouts.
“PG&E needs to get back to the basics of providing safe and reliable power,” Gallagher said in a press statement. “There is no doubt that PG&E’s mismanagement is the primary culprit in these devastating fires and (shutoff) events. But policies coming out of the state Capitol that distract from these primary objectives only make matters worse.”
Nielsen and Gallagher will surely have a Democratic supermajority to convince.
Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins, D-San Diego, tossed the Republicans’ idea aside in October, arguing instead for “real solutions.”
“The Republican proposal to reverse the state’s progress on clean energy won’t solve the problem and (will) actually makes things worse,” Atkins said. “Replacing clean energy sources with more energy generated from fossil fuels exacerbates the climate change that is causing the extreme weather and wildfires we are facing, and it would mean higher bills for ratepayers by reducing power available from less expensive wind and solar sources. The Legislature has allocated billions of dollars for fire prevention and response and further has directed utilities in the state to spend billions more to harden their systems to reduce the incidence of fires started by power lines and transformers.”
PARDON REQUEST
A group of lawmakers is asking Gov. Gavin Newsom to posthumously pardon Bayard Rustin, a gay civil rights leader who died in 1987. Rustin, who was instrumental in organizing the 1963 March on Washington, was convicted of vagrancy for having consensual sex with two other men in a car in Pasedena in 1953 under a since-repealed law. He spent 50 days in jail and was forced to register as a sex offender.
Sen. Scott Wiener, who leads the California Legislative LGBTQ Caucus, said Rustin was targeted for being gay and should never have been forced to register as a sex offender. He and Assemblywoman Shirley Weber, chair of the California Legislative Black Caucus, sent a letter to Newsom on Tuesday asking the governor for a pardon.
“Bayard Rustin did not harm anyone. He simply had sex,” Wiener told reporters at a Tuesday news conference. “This state should be ashamed of itself for how it treated Bayard Rustin.”
Rustin was also targeted because he was black and active in the Civil Rights movement, Weber said.
In their letter to Newsom, Wiener and Weber note that Los Angeles County District Attorney Jackie Lacey, whose office prosecuted Rustin, supports their pardon request.
Some money news — H/t to my colleague Sophia Bollag for always having a close eye on campaign finance reports. Assemblyman Brian Maienschein, a former Republican who switched parties at the start of 2019, is getting some financial help from fellow Democrats’ reelection campaigns.
Campaigns for Assemblymembers Lorena Gonzalez, D-San Diego, Cristina Garcia, D-Bell Gardens, Tom Daly, D-Anaheim, and Todd Gloria, D-San Diego, all donated $4,700 to Maienschein’s campaign account on Tuesday.
ENROLLED
University of California President Janet Napolitano had 2,614 reasons to celebrate on Tuesday.
The system announced that’s how many new California students enrolled in fall 2019, a 1.4 percent increase that’s brought the total number of in-state scholars to 185,559. It’s the fourth year in a row that UC has bumped resident enrollment numbers.
Other numbers:
- More than 17,000 California undergraduates have enrolled at UC schools since the 2015-2016 school year.
- Total enrollment crossed 291,000 for this academic year, up 1.7 percent from 2018.
- UC Riverside, Irvine and San Diego added the most students.
- The system has added more than 100,000 students since 2000.
“A growing student body means expanded opportunities for a new generation of young people,” Napolitano said. “The University of California is looking forward to providing these talented, hardworking students a world-class education, while expanding access for future Californians.”
ICYMI — Assemblyman Gloria, the San Diego Democrat running for mayor, released his first television ad for the post on Tuesday, with an emphasis on how his parents’ success story isn’t possible for all Californians today.
“My parents were a maid and a gardener,” Gloria said in the 30-second ad. “They worked everyday to give my brother and me a shot at a brighter future. Today, skyrocketing housing prices and homelessness mean we’re leaving too many San Diegans behind.”
Gloria pledged to fight for “people and neighborhoods” as mayor. You can watch the full ad here.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“The Senate’s fair process will draw a sharp contrast with the unfair and precedent-breaking inquiry that was carried on by the House of Representatives.”
- Sen. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky, during opening remarks on Tuesday to kick start President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial. “Finally, some fairness,” he said.
Best of The Bee:
Armed with a budget surplus, Gov. Gavin Newsom is proposing to add new departments, offices, divisions and programs to the state’s government to bolster ambitious plans to improve everything from early childhood development to dysfunctional state technology, by Wes Venteicher
Gavin Newsom wants to put real money behind his Native American apology, by Sophia Bollag
’I thought long and hard about this’: Why Darrell Steinberg is supporting Joe Biden in 2020, by Bryan Anderson