SPECIAL EDITION
Highlights of What to Anticipate in the 2016 Legislative Year
CEQA Climate and Air Energy Oil and Gas Parks Transportation Toxics Water Wildlife
The legislature has just returned to the State Capitol for the second year of its two-year legislative session and there’s a buzz of speculation about what will happen this year. Where will there be opportunities to make progress for the environment?
We asked Sierra Club California policy advocates Kyle Jones, Diana Vazquez and Eddie Moreno to share what they think may happen in the legislature and regulatory agencies in 2016 within some of the topic areas they cover, from environmental review to wildlife. Here’s what they report.
It appears that 2016 will be another year in which developers and other polluter interests will attempt to weaken the cornerstone environmental law in the state, the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). A possible pathway will be through efforts to garner Republican support for new taxes to fund transportation.
CEQA forces builders to reveal environmental impacts of big projects and mitigate their environmental impacts. The law gives the public a voice in the development process in their communities, and the developments covered include transportation projects.
A few powerful individuals and interest groups have long attacked this law, ignoring the value of reducing pollution. Sierra Club California will continue to lead the charge to preserve a strong CEQA this year.
Last year, Sierra Club California staff and volunteers worked hard to ensure that the state legislature passed laws that set new targets for cutting climate pollution in California. This year we’ll be spending a lot of attention on implementing the new targets through the regulatory agencies.
At the California Air Resources Board, especially, reducing oil dependence by 50 percent by 2030 will be a focus. Two regulations, one to advance zero-emission buses and another to advance zero-emission passenger cars and light-duty trucks, will be a central part of that focus.
Additionally, work at the agency and the legislature to address short-lived climate pollutants will require attention in 2016. Short-lived climate pollutants include methane, black carbon (such as diesel soot and fire soot) and gases used in refrigeration. These pollutants have a shorter lifespan once introduced into the atmosphere than do other climate pollutants.
Scientists believe that cutting short-lived pollutants may help stem some of the worst effects of climate change sooner. Some of these, including diesel soot, also happen to be among the most health-damaging air pollutants.
Senator Ricardo Lara (D-Bell Gardens) recently announced a groundbreaking proposal, the Short-Lived Climate Pollutant Reduction Act of 2016, which will require by 2018 that the California Air Resources Board implement a strategy to reduce short-lived climate pollutants. The board has already proposed a strategy as a result of previous legislation. The new bill is an important step in addressing these pollutants.
With the passage of Senate Bill 350 (de León) in 2015, California now has an overall goal of doubling the energy efficiency of all existing buildings in the state. This makes energy efficiency a central focus for much of Sierra Club California’s work at the California Energy Commission (CEC) in 2016.
The CEC is working to meet the goals of SB 350 primarily through three avenues:
- Improving efficiency of common appliances found in the home. These include light bulbs, computers and electronic games. The agency will develop new or improve existing appliance efficiency standards, referred to as Title 20 standards, during 2016.
- Improving energy efficiency in the home. The commission will begin its periodic review and update of building standards for new homes, referred to as Title 24 standards, this year. This review will extend into next year. These standards influence how efficient a new home is at maintaining a pleasant climate indoors. The new standards will also look at more ways to incorporate clean renewable energy generation into the home.
- Developing a plan to improve energy efficiency in existing buildings. Through a combination of a directive of Assembly Bill 758, signed into law in 2009, and last year’s SB 350, the agency has a clear mandate to find ways to make sure efficiency measures are rapidly incorporated into existing buildings. The agency’s planning to carry out that mandate rapidly will be a focus this year.
The enormous leak from the Aliso Canyon methane gas storage facility in Porter Ranch has illuminated the aging and deterioration of gas storage facilities around the state. Several bills will be introduced to address this particular leak and monitoring and regulation of gas storage generally. Sierra Club California will be engaged in this issue at the legislature.
Other bills that the legislature failed to pass last year designed to stop open pit storage of oil drilling waste and to close a loophole that would allow oil drilling in state waters off of Santa Barbara may also move again this year.
The state parks system is putting into place a new accounting system and redesigning its management. This is being done partly in response to the Parks Forward Commission’s strategic plan for the parks system and partly to boost public and legislative confidence in the system’s management.
At the legislature, the debate about the parks system largely occurs during the budget process. This year, in the governor’s proposed budget, about $60 million is earmarked to help the system address deferred maintenance that some estimate as being as high as a billion dollars. We’ll be pushing for more funding for that maintenance.
Additionally, a parks bond to raise money for local and state parks has stalled in the legislature. Whether it moves in time to qualify for the 2016 ballot remains uncertain.
The state’s transportation infrastructure is going to continue to be debated at the legislature in 2016. Efforts to find new funding to fix roads, fund public transit, and clean up the freight system have already begun through a special session on transportation infrastructure kicked off last year. Sierra Club California is advocating that any new funding be spent in a way that helps create a more environmentally responsible transportation system.
This year the Club will support and push a right-to-know bill that would require listing the chemicals used in cleaning products on the product label. The chemical industry has worked for many years to keep the simple listing of chemicals off of cleaning products, leaving consumers less able to protect themselves from harmful exposure.
This year will be a critical one for many California water issues. The drought will likely persist, despite El Niño rains, and proponents for large, destructive dams and conveyance tunnels will be seeking permit approvals at various state agencies.
The governor's distracting, environmentally devastating and unneeded water tunnels will seek permitting this year. This project consists of boring two giant tunnels under the Delta to send more water to powerful corporate interests south of the Delta.
The tunnels will suck water out of the Delta and destroy the ecosystem, and provide the final nail in the coffin for many endangered species. In the first week of this year, Sierra Club California jointly filed with Friends of the River a protest against this project before the State Water Resources Control Board and will be participating in opposing it throughout the year.
At a different state agency, the California Water Commission’s regulations will be finalized for how the state will spend $2.7 billion from the 2014 Water Bond on storage projects. We have been working to create a level playing field so that nondestructive groundwater restoration projects are eligible for the funds, and a few extraordinarily expensive dams that won’t deliver new water are not funded.
Orca: The issue of keeping orcas in captivity and forcing them to perform has become a controversial topic since the 2013 release of “Blackfish,” a documentary exposing the conditions of life for orcas at Sea World parks.
Last October, the California Coastal Commission (CCC) voted to approve Sea World’s $100 million plan to double the size of the orca habitat under the condition that Sea World will not breed any whales currently in captivity. We will likely see some legislation this year move forward in order to codify the requirements set forth by the CCC.
Gray Wolf: The California Department of Fish and Wildlife has produced a draft plan for how to manage wild wolves that have begun to return to Northern California. Club staff and volunteers will be pressing the department to strengthen the plan so that it truly protects this endangered species.
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