The Newspaper of the San Francisco Bay Chapter
January - February 2007
TABLE OF CONTENTS
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Sacramento legislative wrap-up - 2006
After a productive legislative session for the environment, Sierra Club California identified five top-priority bills for Gov. Schwarzenegger to sign. The Governor responded with a mixed record, signing two and vetoing three. The signed bills were AB 32 (Pavley and Núñez), putting a cap on greenhouse-gas emissions, and AB 1870 (Lieber), eliminating the loophole that allowed vehicles with visibly smoking tailpipes to pass Smog Check.
AB 1012 (Nation), which would have increased clean alternative fuels, SB 1796 (Florez), which would have helped to improve flood protection, and SB 927 (Lowenthal), which would have enabled improved security and air quality at specified ports, all fell victim to the governor's veto pen.
Sierra Club California requested the governor's signature on an additional 34 environmental bills. Of all our 39 requested bills, he ended up signing 25 and vetoing 14.
The most important bill that the governor did sign was AB 32, the Global Warming Solutions Act, which makes California the first state to adopt a binding limit on greenhouse-gas pollution. Sierra Club California will now work with the Air Resources Board and other state agencies to effectively implement this landmark law.
Another triumph was the passage of SB 1360 (Kehoe), to create, on the internet, a central public registry of conservation easements. Such easements protect land from being developed by preserving it as farmland, open space, or wildlife habitat. A comprehensive and centralized list of easement locations and other relevant information about them will help planners and the public to better protect these areas.
Once again, Sierra Club California was influential in stopping a number of bad bills from progressing. We also worked to get amendments to an array of legislation to make those bills acceptable. Our work in this regard generally will not show up in scorecards on the legislature or governor, or make it to the mass media, but is critical to protecting our environmental laws.
© 2007 San Francisco Sierra Club Yodeler