Capitol Voice September 2020

The 2020 legislative year fit in with the rest of 2020. It was a mess and a disappointment. Just getting through it felt like running a marathon in spike heels.

The potential for making a big difference for the environment through the legislature this year began to wane as soon as the pandemic forced a weeks-long recess in March. As the legislature began returning to work in May, it was with the understanding that the number of bills would have to be cut to accommodate the newly compressed session.

The numbers show just how compressed. In early March, Sierra Club California was tracking a total of 586 bills. By May 1, only 134 of those bills were still active. Of the active bills, we had support positions on 66 and opposed 11. The rest we were still monitoring.

By the last night of the session, only 26 of the bills we supported and 2 of those we opposed made it to the governor’s desk. Last year, 69 bills on which we had taken positions made it to the governor.

Several of the key bills that made it to the governor’s desk this year were also on our priority bill list. Those include AB 841 (Ting), related to energy efficiency in schools and charging infrastructure for vehicles; AB 3074 (Friedman) and AB 3164 (Friedman), both related to reducing wildfire risk for homes; and AB 3214 (Limon), related to increasing penalties for companies that knowingly cause an oil spill.

However, a couple of our big priorities didn’t make it to the floor of the second house, including AB 345 (Muratsuchi), which ensured regulation of oil drilling near homes, and AB 3030 (Kalra), which set targets for conserving wildlands and coastal waters. AB 345 faced heavy opposition by the oil industry and the unions that have labor contracts with oil and gas companies. AB 3030 faced opposition from an odd combination of fishing and hunting groups and the construction industry.

Two key bills addressing plastic also didn’t make it out of the legislature. AB 1080 and SB 54 were identical bills designed to reduce single-use plastics. By the last day of the session, AB 1080 had cleared the assembly and the senate and just needed to go to the assembly for concurrence before heading to the governor. SB 54 had cleared the senate, but needed to get through the assembly before going back to the senate for concurrence.

Both bills got trapped in a tangled combination of inter-house tension and strong opposition from big-money industries, including and especially the plastics, oil and chemical industries. By the time both houses adjourned, neither bill had managed to move across the finish line.

For more details about the legislative year, watch for the release of our annual legislative report card in early October.

New SF Chronicle Report on Delta Tunnel

By Caty Wagner

 

The San Francisco Chronicle recently published a special report by Kurtis Alexander titled “Delta on the Edge,” and it is not only a good read, it is highlighting the important struggles of the San Joaquin River Delta and the Delta Tunnel project.

“The delta is an unlikely frontier, and an even more improbable battleground,” Alexander writes.

The article details what is one of the Sierra Club California’s biggest water fights, the effort to stop the Delta Tunnel project (aka the Delta Conveyance project.) The project amounts to a more than $16-billion-plus boondoggle that is not guaranteed to solve California’s water problems, but will likely severely harm the Delta and San Francisco Bay environment.

The Bay Delta is the largest estuary on the coast of North America. Snowmelt from the Sierra feeds the rivers of the delta and provides the necessary freshwater for millions of birds, fish and wildlife. The salmon that swim through the Delta and spawn in its river system here eventually become the food source of orca and humpback whales in the Pacific, and feed the state’s salmon industry. They also nourish the North Coast indigenous people.

The Bay Delta communities and ecosystem are under threat by the Delta Tunnel, currently in planning stages, and the loss of fresh water it would divert to agriculture in the Central Valley and to municipal water districts, including the Metropolitan Water District (MWD) in Southern California. The loss of fresh water would decrease flows, raise water temperatures and salinity, destroy wildlife habitat, and contribute to increasingly common toxic algal blooms.

The nearly 15-year construction of the tunnel would exacerbate some of the worst air quality in the state, destroy farmland, reduce tourism, and create constant noise.

The Delta community, full of orchards, small, sleepy towns, and river tourism, “is waking, reluctantly and resoundingly, jolted by the state’s modern-day demand for water,” Alexander writes. Residents, sometimes unlikely allies, are united in opposition to the tunnel.

As the article points out, tunnel opponents--including Sierra Club California--argue that water conservation, and local water recycling, groundwater, and stormwater capture programs, can sustainably meet water demands around the state.

In Southern California, these programs have led to a reduced demand for water in recent years. Nevertheless, the leading water wholesaler in that region, Metropolitan Water District, has spent more than $225 million into the tunnel preparation and is considering more contributions.

 

Join the Battleground Volunteer Program

On November 3 the United States will hold one of the country’s most consequential elections in history.

This unprecedented election will require a massive political mobilization and we’re counting on your help during the next seven weeks.

By tapping into our grassroots structure and 3.8 million supporters, Sierra Club is uniquely positioned to recruit volunteers that will improve voter participation in battleground districts.

You can make a HUGE difference right now. Sierra Club Independent Action is recruiting volunteers to text, write and call voters, and commit to help Get-Out-The-Vote. To get involved visit: sierraclubindependentaction.org/#takeaction.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report released in 2018 stated that we must urgently curb greenhouse gas emissions to avert climate catastrophe.

To make the policy changes we need as swiftly as science demands, we need elected officials pushing at every level—from City Hall to the White House.

The 2020s must be the decade of climate action and that requires winning big on Election Day.

This year the most important action you can take is to vote and make sure your family, friends and neighbors vote too.

Our lives are at stake. A healthy climate, clean air, functioning democracy and justice for our most vulnerable communities are all on the line.

Voters across the country will determine if we address climate change with bold federal leadership before it’s too late.

We must elect a president who understands the scale and urgency of the climate crisis. And we need to elect a Congress that will pass strong legislation that prioritizes frontline communities in climate and environmental action.

Sierra Club Independent Action is holding a week of action from September 15 - 20 and has set big goals. Help us make 250,000 voter ID calls and write to 50,000 voters.

Once again please click here to sign up today: sierraclubindependentaction.org/#takeaction.