In this year when the climate crisis has stepped on the gas, throwing more and worse extreme weather events at everyone around the world, (including Chile, India, Egypt, China, Iran, Hawaii, Texas, Brazil, oh yeah, and California), the California State Senate, led by President Pro Tem Kevin De Leon, has introduced an amazing slate of historic climate change bills designed to turn our climate emissions around.
SB 350 (De Leon and Leno): Golden State Standards
- Spur innovation and investment in a sustainable California by setting the following goals for 2030:
- 50% reduction in petroleum use;
- 50% utility power coming from renewable energy;
- 50% increase in energy efficiency in existing buildings.
SB 32 (Pavley): Building for the Future
- Set the overarching climate pollution reduction target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions to 80% below 1990 levels by 2050. This goal will provide California businesses with regulatory certainty, improve public health, and strengthen the economy.
SB 185 (De Leon): Investing with Values and Responsibility
- Focus on the future and lead by example by having CalPERS/STRS, the country’s largest public pension funds move its investments beyond coal. CalPERS/STRS lost $840 million on coal investments last year. Even worse, scientists have now proven that pollution from coal burned in Asia blows back over the ocean and pollutes the air in California. It’s time to halt investments in this dirty energy source.
SB 788 (McGuire & Jackson): CA Coastal Protection Act of 2015
- Ensure that the Coastal Sanctuary Act and Marine Protection act are able to provide their intended protections by repealing outdated sections of the Public Resources Code, so that the State can no longer lease its tidal and submerged lands in the California Coastal Sanctuary for oil and gas extraction. Will protect us from oil spills like in Santa Barbara.
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This is a critically important effort. We need more aggressive cuts in emissions to get us anywhere near the pathways that limit the worst impacts of climate change. Those impacts will hit home in California’s neighborhoods, affecting our already-stressed water supply, air quality, public health, coasts, fisheries, agricultural communities, power reliability, and many other issues. (The bi-partisan Little Hoover Commission summarized what’s at stake for California in its report here.)
The State Senate approved these measures over the last few months and now they must get through the even tougher Assembly.
Our local Assemblymembers, including Chris Holden, Freddie Rodriguez, Roger Hernandez, Ian Calderon, Cristina Garcia, Mike Gipson, and Reggie Jones-Sawyer are reportedly actively opposing some of these historic and oh-so-necessary climate change bills. The oil industry is actively swaying Assemblymembers with large contributions and trips to Hawaii, acts which recently helped kill off an important groundwater protection-from-oil wastewater bill, AB-356 (Williams). This bill, particularly in the drought, was a no-brainer intended to protect underground sources of drinking water from oil and gas wastewater disposal and enhanced oil recovery treatments, and called for monitoring near certain injection wells.
It is especially important as we head into the Paris Climate Accords that California takes dramatic action and a worldwide leadership position on rapidly reducing its greenhouse gas emissions. Opposing these bills seems especially short-sighted because 25% of substantial cap-and-trade funds related to these bills are slated for underserved communities, like many of the ones these Assemblymembers represent.
You likely know all of this already, but, we know climate change is not only here, but here with a vengeance. 2013 was the driest year on record in California history; 2014 was the hottest. You know about the crazy wildfires raging across Northern California right now, and we’re not alone. This year, across the planet, there are record heat waves all over Europe, Germany, France, many other places, Egypt, Pakistan, Iran, India, and Japan that have killed thousands of people. Droughts are also hitting in Washington State, in West Africa, Brazil, South Africa and North Korea, having devastating impacts on reservoirs and food production. Puerto Rico is actually rationing water. It’s getting scary. And where it is raining, it is flooding, like in Argentina and Myanmar, devastating floods displaced a quarter of a million people and killed hundreds in Malawi in January. Closer to home, heavy rains caused flash flooding in Colorado Springs and we’re expecting a “Godzilla” of an El Niño in a matter of weeks in California. This is serious stuff.
But you can help.
Call them all NOW: (Also, find your own representative and be sure to let them know you are calling from their district: http://findyourrep.legislature.ca.gov/. If at all possible, see if you can schedule a meeting with one of the staffers as soon as possible. This is very important)
Assemblymember Patrick O’Donnell (District 70 – Long Beach, San Pedro, Signal Hill, Lakewood Village, Bixby Knolls)
Phone: (916) 319-2070
Email click here
Assemblymember David Hadley (District 66 – Manhattan Beach, Redondo Beach, Torrance, Rolling Hills Estates, Carson, Hermosa Beach, Rancho Palos Verdes, Lomita)
Phone: (916) 319-2066
Email click here
Assemblymember Mike Gipson (District 64 – Compton, Carson, Willowbrook, Watts, West Rancho Dominguez, Wilmington)
Phone: (916) 319-2064
Email click here
Assemblymember Reggie Jones-Sawyer (District 59 – University Park, South Los Angeles, USC, South Park, Vermont Harbor, Florence-Graham, Walnut Park)
Phone: (916) 319-2059
Email click here
AND, PLEASE CONTACT THE ASSEMBLY SPEAKER:
Speaker of the Assembly Toni Atkins (District 78 – San Diego, Chula Vista, Coronado Island, La Jolla, Del Mar, Pacific Beach, Ocean Beach, Solana Beach, Point Loma)
Phone: (916) 319-2078
Email click here
Talking Points:
Assemblymember ______, it is vitally important for you to vote yes for the Senate’s package of climate change legislation, including SB-350 (De Leon and Leno), SB-32 (Pavley), SB-185 (De Leon) and SB-788 (McGuire and Jackson). As we approach the Paris Climate Summit at the end of November, California must continue its strong climate leadership if we are to have any hope for an international agreement on greenhouse gas emissions reductions, which is vital, because…
- Climate change is getting worse by the day, as evidenced by more extreme weather events around the world, including (pick some of the latest here).
- The Los Angeles Times reported on a study that came out last week which said that our historic drought has been made from 8% to 27% worse by climate change.
- UCLA came out with a study called “Mid-Century Warming in the Los Angeles Region,” which says that we will have a drastic increase in the number of extreme heat days over the next few decades: the number of days when the temperature will climb above 95 degrees will increase two to four times, depending on the location. Those days will roughly double on the coast, triple in downtown Los Angeles and Pasadena, and quadruple in Woodland Hills and the inland areas.
- Extreme heat and drought will severely impact low- and middle-income communities and underserved communities the most. Sensitive populations such as the elderly and young children will have serious health impacts, including death.
- The Centers for Disease Control reports that public health can be affected by climate disruptions of physical, biological, and ecological systems, including disturbances originating here and elsewhere. The health effects of these disruptions include increased respiratory and cardiovascular disease, injuries and premature deaths related to extreme weather events, changes in the prevalence and geographical distribution of food- and water-borne illnesses and other infectious diseases, and threats to mental health.
- According to the Joint Chiefs of Staff and other top U.S. security officials, climate change is a top national security threat.
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