Bonta, Newsom back Biden + No Prop 47 repeal + Rally against factory farms planned
Good morning and welcome to the A.M. Alert.
BONTA, NEWSOM FILE MOTION IN FAVOR OF FEDERAL GREENHOUSE GAS STANDARDS
Via Gillian Brassil...
California has held hands with the President Joe Biden administration in its pursuit of green energy initiatives. Even in court.
California is leading a coalition of 23 states’ attorneys general, two counties and six cities to try to intervene in a series of consolidated lawsuits against the United States Environmental Protection Agency over its greenhouse gas emissions standards.
In December, the EPA finalized a rule that new light-weight vehicles, like cars and smaller trucks, must get at least 40 miles per gallon by model-year 2026, with regulations kicking in in model-year 2023.
In March, Texas and 14 other states challenged the rule in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, claiming that it would economically harm states which rely on oil and gas production.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta, the California Air Resources Board and Gov. Gavin Newsom are all backing the legal intervention to support the EPA’s rule. In its motion, the coalition says that the EPA’s standards are necessary to address the economic, health and environmental impacts of climate change.
“Right now, we’re at a crossroads: Do we sit back and accept the status quo, or do we step up and fight to save our planet?” Bonta said in announcing the move. “The Biden Administration’s recently finalized standards are a critical component of federal efforts to reduce emissions from the transportation sector. Unfortunately, they are under attack.”
On Monday, the EPA proposed a rule to limit emissions of nitrogen oxides by larger trucks and buses by up to 90% by 2031. The EPA’s administrator stood by Vice President Kamala Harris who announced further actions that the administration was taking to switch more vehicles on the road from gas-powered to electric.
The EPA’s actions follow an executive order that President Joe Biden signed alongside major automakers this summer that aims to have half of new cars sold by 2030 be battery-electric, fuel-cell and plug-in hybrid vehicles.
The president’s order mimics a 2020 one from Gov. Gavin Newsom that would have all new vehicles sold in California be zero-emission vehicles by 2035. After signing the order, Biden told McClatchy that California was helpful in crafting it.
COMMITTEE VOTES DOWN PROP 47 REPEAL BILL
California voters should get to take a mulligan on Proposition 47, the 2014 ballot measure that downgraded several criminal offenses from potential felonies to misdemeanors, argued Republican Assemblyman Kevin Kiley, during an Assembly Public Safety Committee hearing.
Kiley is the author of AB 1599, which would send the question of whether Prop. 47 should be repealed to California voters.
“If we are going to do criminal justice reform, it needs to be done in a smart, strategic, evidence-based way. Prop. 47 was the opposite, a blind and sweeping decriminalization which took a hatchet to our penal code and imperiled our citizenry,” Kiley said in introducing his bill Tuesday morning.
Kiley, and those testifying on the bill’s behalf, argued that by reducing the penalty of certain drug- and theft-related offenses, the state has encouraged low-level criminal offenders to continue to escalate their criminal behavior.
The Democrat-controlled committee saw things another way.
“Crime has declined since Prop. 47 passed, and even with a slight bump last year we are still near 40-year historic lows,” said Assemblyman Isaac G. Bryan.
Bryan added that Prop. 47 “ was smart, strategic, evidence-based and approved by the voters.”
“This bill throws the baby out with the bathwater,” said Committee Chair Reggie Jones-Sawyer, who recommended a “no” vote against the bill.
The Assembly Public Safety Committee voted the bill down on a party-line vote.
Kiley took to Twitter in the aftermath of the committee’s vote to tweet, “Voters favor ending Prop. 47 by a margin of 2 to 1. Today the ‘Public Safety’ Committee chose to keep it by a vote of 5 to 2. Our government is beyond broken.”
RALLY PLANNED TO SUPPORT ANTI-FACTORY FARMING BILL
Expect to see some activity at the California Capitol on Wednesday morning, as a coalition of activists from groups including Direct Action Everywhere, Sunrise Bay Area and the California Democratic Environmental Caucus’ Animal Ag Committee will take to the Capitol steps to support a bill, AB 2764, that would implement a moratorium on large factory farms and slaughterhouses in the state.
If the bill becomes law, it would go into effect Jan. 1, 2023 and prohibit the expansion of existing factory farms as well as the construction of new ones, though operations generating less than $100,000 a year would be exempt.
Direct Action Everywhere, which is known for its attention-grabbing protest tactics, has vowed to lead “an extensive grassroots mobilization effort in support, including phone, email and social media campaigning, as well as in-person demonstrations,” according to a group statement.
Wednesday’s rally begins at 11 a.m. and is expected to last until 1 p.m.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“This bill signals to LGBTQ children that they’re less than and wrong. It does zero to protect students, but will actually do a great deal of harm. It’s a heinous step back fueled by bigotry. To Florida’s LGBTQ community: I see you, I stand with you, I’m angry with you. #SayGay”
— Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins, D-San Diego, via Twitter.
Best of the Bee:
Authorities confiscated a loaded handgun found in luggage belonging to California Assemblyman Jim Cooper at a security checkpoint at the Sacramento International Airport, sheriff’s officials said, via Rosalio Ahumada.
A union official asked a judge for a temporary restraining order Tuesday to try to remove SEIU Local 1000 president Richard Louis Brown and a small group of his supporters from the organization’s Sacramento headquarters, where they have been holed up since Saturday, via Wes Venteicher.
Rep. Tom McClintock Tuesday endorsed Sacramento County Sheriff Scott Jones for Congress, calling him the “real conservative” in the race, via David Lightman.