There’s no over-planning in a pandemic + Oversight begins + A call to ban fracking
Happy Thursday! The weekend is just in sight. Get out and get some (physically distant) fresh air!
A day after he laid out how California can once again open its doors, Gov. Gavin Newsom offered a warning: “We’re not out of the woods.”
Tuesday marked the highest single-day death count since the coronavirus emergency in California began, he said, and on Wednesday the number of hospitalizations was increasing, though there had been a slight decrease in intensive care unit cases.
Still, California is nowhere near the point of filling up it’s current built-up hospital bed capacity. So is the state over-planning for this crisis?
“I don’t know that the word over-planning in a pandemic applies. I think that we are appropriately planning,” Newsom said.
Newsom said that one of the six criteria for re-opening California is ensuring that the state’s health care system is equipped to handle a potential surge in patients, such as might happen when people stop wearing masks and being physically distant with one another.
“We have to provide the capacity in the system, and make sure we procure that capacity before we enter into that next phase,” Newsom said. “So every one of those beds, from my perspective, are important in terms of our capacity to deliver on the hope and promise that we can start to ease up on the home orders.”
A CLOSER LOOK
Today the Senate Special Budget Subcommittee on COVID-19 Response will meet at 2 p.m. for its first scheduled oversight hearing on how California is spending more than $1 billion to battle the coronavirus.
The bipartisan group will review how the state plans to use the federal stimulus packages and will assist “communities in ensuring that this funding is promptly distributed,” according to a press release for the hearing.
The Department of Finance and the Legislative Analyst’s Office are also expected to participate in the meeting.
ICYMI — The Senate Republicans have set up a page that tracks coronavirus dollars in California.
Related — The Senate announced yesterday the formation of a special coronavirus committee. The 11 senators on the Special Committee on Pandemic Emergency Response will review “what has gone right and what could be improved,” according to a Wednesday press release from Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins’ office.
The oversight body will also work on how California can prepare for if COVID-19 returns later this year or “ if the state faces a subsequent pandemic.”
“The goal is to make sure that California is in the best position possible to respond to a pandemic emergency,” Atkins said in a statement. “We’ve done an amazing job as a state in our response to COVID-19, from our swift action to fund a budget bill providing lifesaving equipment and resources, to our public health departments ensuring the safety and health of all Californians, but we can always do better. Being prepared is the key.”
The committee — Sen. Lena Gonzalez of Long Beach will chair the committee, alongside vice-chair Sen. Pat Bates, R-Laguna Niguel. The committee also includes Senators Andreas Borgeas, Anna Caballero, Bill Dodd, Hannah-Beth Jackson, Brian Jones, Mike McGuire, Richard Pan, Tom Umberg and Scott Wiener.
SHOULD NEWSOM BAN FRACKING?
Five dozen climate, health and environmental organizations have sent a letter to Gov. Newsom, urging him “to reject the efforts by the oil industry to exploit this emergency as an excuse to roll back regulatory oversight.”
The groups urged Newsom to roll back the Geologic Energy Management Division’s recent decision to resume issuing permits for fracking, and to reject a call from the California Independent Petroleum Association “proposing that you reverse your effort to improve the oversight capabilities of CalGEM to provide enhanced field enforcement of regulations and protections at oil field operations and to evaluate the state bonding requirements for oil operators,” the letter said.
The groups warned that the Geologic Energy Management Division is “dangerously understaffed.”
Some of the signatory groups include the Center for Biological Diversity, Consumer Watchdog, Food & Water Watch and Greenpeace USA.
The petroleum association’s chief executive officer, Rock Zierman, put out a statement in response to the letter, stating, “CIPA has asked the state to take reasonable action to protect the economy, stabilize our energy security, and ensure California meets its climate goals by continuing to produce the cleanest oil on the planet. The state can take prudent action today to stay on track with our climate goals and keep oil workers on our companies’ payrolls rather than on taxpayer-funded public assistance programs that are already overwhelmed.”
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“To those who got their COVID $ today... if you don’t need it, donate it. Food banks, homeless shelters, domestic violence programs, senior centers, individuals you know. Don’t look at it as “free money” to buy more s*** from Amazon.”
- Former Rep. Katie Hill, via Twitter.
Best of the Bee:
California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Wednesday announced a new program aimed at providing aid to a group that he said makes up 10 percent of the state’s workforce: Undocumented immigrants, via Andrew Sheeler.
California’s battered self-employed workforce is being promised a new state one-stop website to make it easier to seek and receive unemployment benefits, via David Lightman.
More than 1,300 California state workers are changing jobs to help process millions of unemployment insurance claims, Gov. Gavin Newsom said Wednesday, via Wes Venteicher.
The union representing California correctional officers waded into international politics Monday with a letter urging U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein to change her position on emergency aid for Iran, via Wes Venteicher.