The California Legislature’s final days of session always are a frenzy, with backroom deals and last-minute voluminous bills the order of the day. This year’s antics were no exception, with the Legislature finishing up past deadline on Saturday. The real surprise, however, was that lawmakers made some oddly reasonable decisions.
For instance, California has long been all-in on a misguided climate-change agenda that has repeatedly increased it emission-reduction targets. With gas prices still much higher than the national average and refiners shutting capacity, lawmakers did the unthinkable. They passed a bill that would statutorily approve 2,000 new oil wells a year in California’s Kern County oil patch.
The measure further reduces offshore drilling, but the effort to compensate in a region that is highly dependent on the oil industry was a wise move. As the Los Angeles Times reported, “Crude oil production in California is declining at an annualized rate of about 15%, about 50% faster than the state’s most aggressive forecast for a decline in demand for gasoline.” Apparently, reality set in – even in the California Legislature.
The Legislature also voted to allow California to create a Western states energy grid – a move that will let the state more easily share electricity across state lines. It split environmentalists. Some believe it will expand California’s clean energy to other states while others believe it would reduce California’s control over the market. We see it as a way to offer relief to consumers and avoid brown outs.
On the educational front, lawmakers handed a huge defeat to the teachers’ unions by rejecting a heavy-handed bill (Assembly Bill 84) by Assemblyman Al Muratsuchi, D-Torrance, to hobble charter schools and crush the expansion of non-classroom-based charters. The Legislature passed an alternative that imposes new oversight, but is not viewed as an existential threat to these schools.
Regarding housing, the Legislature passed a far-reaching deregulation bill. Senate Bill 79 by Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, creates a “by right” approval process for high-density condos and apartments near train stations. This is useful legislation that reduces government red tape. But we always like to remind lawmakers that if they want to truly address California’s housing crisis they need to take a similar approach with single-family home construction, too.
The Legislature passed a ban on lawmakers from signing or forcing others to sign NDAs (non-disclosure agreements) when negotiating legislation. Some shocking news reports found that legislators had used NDAs to keep secret from the public negotiations surrounding California’s new law boosting the minimum wage for fast food restaurant workers. These negotiations are the public’s business and should never be shielded in such a way.
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