Uncategorized

Questionable Bill Awaits Vote as Deadline Looms for Bills in their House of Origin

Bills must pass out of their house of origin today to stay alive

by Brian Leubitz

It’s Deadline Day!

Among those bills are some pretty controversial ones like AB 26. AB 26 addresses a very real problem in workplace safety issues as well as the modernization of big greenhouse gas emitting facilities. However, there are some serious flaws. A recent analysis from Communities for a Better Environment shows a few flaws:

Proposed Assembly Bill 26 claims to advance climate protection and worker rights, but a provision snuck into this bill after it was proposed would do just the opposite for California’s heaviest industrial polluters-oil refineries.

The provision (§ 39714 (c)) would define refinery maintenance as “public works.” It would give oil companies public money that is supposed to be used for climate protection in places hardest hit by industrial pollution, to keep refineries that do too little to curb their emissions running, and insist that they use contractors instead of the existing refinery workers to do all that maintenance work.

Perhaps something can be changed in the Senate to make the bill more palatable and less of a subsidy to oil companies. After all, Chevron played fast and loose with workplace safety and the integrity of our environment in Richmond. Why are we subsidizing Big Oil to do what they should be doing anyway?

It will be a pretty busy day on the floor of the Assembly, but much of the really tough process of pushing bills is done at the other house. That’s where you will see the big lobbying pushes for and against potential legislation.