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Last Thursday, environmentalists and public health advocates castigated the Schwarzenegger administration for weakening California’s Green Chemistry Initiative. The program, signed into law in 2008, directs the state Department of Toxic Substances Control to identify and regulate the use of toxic chemicals in consumer products like makeup and cleaners. The program was initially lauded by public advocates, but a recent revision to proposed regulations has led some advocates to warn that they will sue if the revised regulations are adopted.
Members of the coalition against the revision cite concerns about exemptions for microconcentrations of known toxins like bisphenol A and lead, and the limited scope of the new regulations, which propose to only evaluate household cleaners, personal care products, and products for children. Ansje Miller, the campaign director for Californians for a Healthy and Green Economy, also suggested that the revisions would make it easier for manufacturers to replace known toxins with chemicals whose safety has not been established.
In the next few weeks, the Department of Toxic Substances Control will evaluate the comments they have received and decide whether further review is necessary. If the Department determines that the revised regulations are sound, the regulations will be sent to the Office of Administrative Law for final review, and may be adopted as early as January.
Last week, two Bay Area newspapers have come out opposed to Proposition 26, the Polluter Protection Initiative on the November ballot, and have detailed the economic and environmental implications the passage of Proposition 26 would have on California. Currently, a majority vote by the State Legislature or a local government agency is required to impose a mitigation fee on a business or industry that causes harm to public health or the environment. Proposition 26 aims to make it nearly impossible for the state to collect these fees and hold polluters responsible for their pollution by classifying these fees as taxes, making them subject to a 2/3rds vote. Should this initiative pass on Election Day, some of California’s biggest polluters will no longer have to pay to clean up their messes.
The editorials, released by the Contra Costa Times and the Oakland Tribune, readdress what the Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO) has been saying since it submitted its review of Prop 26 on July 15th. According to the LAO, the state has collected important regulatory fees that, under the proposition, could be reassessed as taxes, making it much harder for them to be approved. For example, fees on oil manufacturers, businesses that “treat, dispose of, or recycle hazardous waste”, as well as fees imposed on alcohol retailers, which all go towards positive programs that focus on education, recycling, clean up and abatement, and investments in new environmental technologies, could be lost. Passage of prop 26 also puts Assembly Bill 32, California’s landmark global warming law, in jeopardy since a key part of that program is setting a price on carbon.
Furthermore, passage of Prop 26 would make it incredibly difficult for the state to collect revenue to clean up pollution and mitigate negative health impacts; meaning California would have to find some other way to finance these important efforts. With an already over tapped state budget, that task is more than daunting.
Two long sought after bills are nearing the finish line in the legislature before heading to the Governor’s desk. These policies could be huge victories for both public health and the environment, but both face intense lobbying from the American Chemistry Council.
Senate Bill 797 (Pavley) bans from children’s products the toxic chemical BPA (bisphenol A), which is suspected of wreaking havoc with hormone levels and causing a host of problems including impaired brain development, breast and prostate cancers and early puberty. This common sense policy was stopped twice before in the Assembly by intense lobbying from the chemical industry, but finally passed in July. Now the chemical lobby has ramped up efforts in the Senate to prevent the bill from making it over this final legislative hurdle.
Assembly Bill 1998 (Brownley) would eliminate single use plastic bags in grocery stores, pharmacies, convenience stores and numerous other commercial businesses. Following in the steps of environmentally conscious Germany, China, Uganda, Mexico City, San Francisco and about a dozen others, this ground-breaking bill would become a shining example of positive measures taken to avoid plastic pollution. Californians use 19 billion plastic bags every year, with most ending up in landfills or polluting our oceans. The American Chemistry Council opposes this measure even though retailers and grocers are supportive. They have mounted an expensive campaign full of deceptive advertising and political contributions trying to stop this important and overdue bill.
Both measures must get off the Senate floor by Tuesday, August 31st. If passed, the governor has until September 30th to sign or veto both of these measures. To support these important bills, call your Senate today.
With just a handful of days left in this year’s legislative session, both the Senate and the Assembly are contemplating final approval of hundreds of bills. Here are some of the top environmental and public health bills that we’re tracking:
SB 51 (Ducheny): Establishes the Salton Sea Restoration Council as a state entity within the Natural Resources Agency to implement preferred alternatives outlined in the Salton Sea Ecosystem Restoration Program.
SB 434 (Pavley): Improve air quality and reduce noise from motorcycles by enforcing existing federal requirements that motorcycles must display a label demonstrating compliance with noise standards.
SB 565 (Pavley): Address the current problem of illegal water diversions by allowing the State Water Resources Control Board to request annual statements of water diversion and use from major water diverters, and would update the existing statutory cap on civil liabilities for unauthorized water diversions.
SB 722 (Simitian, Kehoe and Steinberg): Bill creates a clear, enforceable 33% renewables portfolio standard (RPS) for all utilities.
SB 797 (Pavley and Liu): Protects children’s health by prohibiting the toxic chemical and synthetic estrogen bisphenol A (BPA) in baby bottle, sippy cups, infant formula cans and baby food jars and also ensures that the replacement chemical is not carcinogenic or a reproductive toxin.
SB 918 (Pavley): [PCL Co-sponsoring]: Increases water recycling in the state by directing the California Department of Public Health to complete public safety standards for using recycled water to recharge groundwater basins and augment surface storage and ensures the development of a safe, cost-effective, and drought-proof source of new water for the state.
SB 1142 (Wiggins): Creates a second track within the Department of Conservation’s California Farmland Conservancy Program to fund agricultural easements that can provide secondary conservation benefits such as flood protection and habitat preservation.
SB 1365 (Corbett): Allows the Department of Toxics Substances to test for lead and to enforce the federal Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act to ensure public safety.
SB 1433 (Leno): Adjusts ceilings for air pollution violations with inflation so the real value of statutory air penalties does not further decline. The ceiling for the most commonly used category (strict liability) has not been increased since 1982.
AB 1963 (Nava): Improves the pesticide poisoning prevention program to protect farm workers who handle pesticides. By simply having laboratories send test results electronically to the Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR), state officials will have the necessary information to monitor the existing pesticide poisoning prevention program and protect farm workers.
AB 1998 (Brownley): Reduces a significant source of waste and ocean pollution by prohibiting grocery stores from distributing single-use bags.
AB 2289 (Eng): Enacts critical updates to California’s Smog Check program that will save money for consumers and the state and boost the emission benefits of the smog check program, removing 70 tons of pollution per day.
AB 2595 (Huffman): Improves compliance with critical water quality laws that protect California’s waterways by linking compliance with polluted agricultural runoff requirements to the issuance of operator identification numbers needed for pesticide use.
