SIERRA CLUB CALIFORNIA’S PRIORITY LEGISLATION, 2010
SUPPORT
Clean Energy/Green Jobs: SB 722 (Simitian) would both raise California's Renewables Portfolio Standard (RPS) goal to 33 percent by 2020 and revise California’s existing RPS program, quickly ramping up deployment of solar, wind and other clean technologies.
Clean Energy/Green Jobs: AB 1947 (Fong) would allow publicly-owned utilities to use California Solar Initiative funds to build large solar systems, and provide their customers the opportunity to offset a part or all of their electricity needs with the power generated by these solar systems.
Fair Share Oil Tax: AB 1604 (Nava) would impose a 10% severance tax on existing oil drilling operations in California. This would bring in over $1 billion annually to the state’s general fund without opening up any new drilling off California’s coast, and do what every other oil producing state does.
Water Conservation: AB 1975 (Fong) would save water by requiring new multi-family construction to meter or submeter each individual residence and require water billing to be based on meter readings and actual volume of water used.
Salmon Preservation: AB 2575 (Chesbro) would help protect and repair the riparian zones in watersheds with threatened or endangered salmon population. It also would improve data analysis of effective measures to protect our watersheds and the resiliency of our salmon runs.
Ingredient Disclosure: SB 928 (Simitian) would require manufacturers or wholesalers of consumer products to provide information on the substances contained in the product. Ingredient disclosure is one of the key recommendations of the Green Chemistry Initiative, because it would allow consumers to choose safer, healthier products.
Producer Responsibility for Carpet: AB 2398 (J. Perez) would make the producers of carpet responsible for the environmental impacts of carpet over its entire life cycle, including design, manufacture and distribution, as well as the collection, transportation, reuse, recycling, and final disposition of discarded carpet.
OPPOSE
Offshore oil drilling: AB 2719 (DeVore) would open up California’s coast to new offshore oil drilling and undercut the State Lands Commission’s jurisdiction over oil and gas extraction projects. Unaccountable
Development: SB 1010 (Correa)/AB 1805 (Calderon), the Governor’s proposal, would immunize up to 25 construction projects for the next five years (125 total) from any lawsuits challenging the adequacy of the environmental review of the project, no matter how shoddily done. The Business, Transportation and Housing Agency would select the projects, with emphasis on only 2 criteria: jobs estimates and capital expenditures. This bill could well shift the burden of coping with inadequately mitigated impacts to the surrounding communities instead of the project proponent.
Greenhouse Gas Loophole: AB 2691 (Hall), sponsored by Chevron, would prohibit state or local governments from imposing greenhouse gas emissions fees on pollution that is included in a market-based compliance mechanism and a fee regulation adopted by the Air Resources Board. This would let big polluters like oil companies out of their obligation to pay for mitigating the damage they cause.
OPPOSE UNLESS AMENDED
Transportation Priorities: AB 744 (Torrico) would authorize the development of a high-occupancy toll (HOT) lane network on state highways within the Bay Area. We are seeking amendments to assure that funding for mass transit operations and alternative transit methods proceeds concurrently with highway expansion, to minimize growth in vehicle miles driven and maximize mobility options for Bay Area residents.