On Friday September 13, CSAC held a meeting in
Sacramento with key stakeholders, including supervisors and
senior staff from around the state, regarding public safety
power shutdowns (PSPS). The meeting included representatives from
Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E), Southern California Edison
(SCE), San Diego Gas & Electric (SDGE), the California Public
Utilities Commission (CPUC), Governor’s Office of Emergency
Services (CAL OES), Napa, Mendocino, Riverside, San Diego and
Sonoma Counties.
CSAC has tracked dozens of bills related to wildfire and
emergency management throughout the legislative session. There
are nine bills remaining that could be passed off the floor of
the Legislature and potentially to the Governor’s desk during the
final weeks of session.
The Legislature has recently introduced two general obligation
bonds that could be on the 2020 statewide ballot. The bonds are
generally aimed at supporting improvements in wildfire
resiliency, water quality, groundwater, environmental restoration
and flood protection. These measures are not expected to be
adopted during the final weeks of this legislative session, but
are expected to be discussed in greater detail in the second year
of the legislative session. CSAC is working with the authors of
these measures and will continue to work with them over the fall.
CSAC’s Senior Legislative Representative, Cara Martinson met with
several legislators as part of a major lobbying day effort on
SB 54 (Allen) /
AB 1080 (Gonzalez). These two measures are companion bills
that would require the adoption of regulations requiring covered
entities to reduce the waste associated with single use packaging
and products 75 percent by 2030.
The Bureau of Cannabis Control was appropriated $10 million in
grant funds to award to cities and counties that have local
equity programs focusing on inclusion and support of persons in
the cannabis industry who were negatively or disproportionately
impacted by cannabis prohibition.
CSAC submitted a public comment letter to Cal Recycle in response
to recently proposed changes to its SB 1383 Organic Waste
Diversion regulations. CSAC has been actively engaged in this
regulatory process since the passage of SB 1383 (Lara) in 2016.
The recently released text did include several changes that will
benefit counties, however CSAC has ongoing concerns regarding the
implementation of the proposed regulations and the heavy cost
burden that will ultimately be borne by local rate payers.
After an intense week of advocacy,
AB 1054 (Holden) passed through the Legislature and now heads
to Governor Newsom for signature. The bill is a comprehensive
package of policies that protects the rights of fire victims,
creates additional safety and oversight measures for utilities
and ensures utilities are held accountable for the safety of
their systems.
Cal Recycle released an updated version of its SB 1383
Short-Lived Climate Pollutants Regulations for a 15-day public
comment period. The public comment period is open now and closes
on July 5at 5 p.m. These regulations will
require individual local jurisdictions, including counties, to
require residents to separate and sort their own organic waste
and pass a series of local ordinances by January 2022 to
implement and enforce a state wide organic waste diversion
program.
CSAC has been actively monitoring and taking positions on dozens
of pieces of wildfire and public safety related legislation. Many
of these bills failed to pass out of their house of origin at the
deadline, however many bills are still moving that could have a
significant impact on outcome in future disasters.
