• Gov. Gavin Newsom signed several bills to boost housing production across California, according to a Sept. 28 announcement from the governor’s office. These bills complement the $22 billion housing affordability and homelessness package as well as ongoing work by the state to encourage more housing production. “The acute affordability crisis we are experiencing in California was decades in the making, and now we’re taking the necessary steps to fix it,” Newsom said in a statement. Since taking office in 2019, the governor prioritized tackling the housing crisis, signing major legislation to boost housing production, and removing barriers to construction of accessory dwelling units. This plan focuses on four key areas: streamlining the building of new homes, breaking down barriers to build more affordable housing, addressing systemic bias by elevating fair housing principles, and holding local governments accountable to do their job. “These bills, plus this year’s historic budget investments in affordable housing, will directly lead to more inclusive neighborhoods across the state,” Newsom said the statement. “Creating denser housing near jobs, parks, and schools is key to meeting our climate goals as well as our affordability goals.”
• State Sen. Monique Limón (D-Santa Barbara) and Assemblymember Steve Bennett (D-Ventura) presented a $1.05 million check to the city of Carpinteria and Santa Barbara County to decommission the abandoned Venoco oil and gas pipelines, the senators announced in a Sept. 29 statement. Venoco owned the pipelines before it filed for bankruptcy in 2017. Now, the State Fire Marshall’s office turned to Santa Barbara County and Carpinteria to pay for abandoning these facilities. Last week, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Limón’s Senate Bill 47, allowing the California Geologic Energy Management Division to collect and spend $5 million a year on plugging and abandoning deserted oil wells. This investment will continue this work by ensuring these pipelines are correctly decommissioned and protecting the health and safety of surrounding communities. “The bankruptcy of oil companies and abandonment of their infrastructure has been a focus in a lot of my work in the California Legislature, not only ensuring taxpayers don’t bear the brunt of the cost, but most importantly the environmental and health consequences it brings,” Limon stated in a statement.
• U.S. Rep. Salud Carbajal (D-San Luis Obispo) voted to pass the National Defense Authorization Act, which includes several of Carbajal’s proposals to address Central Coast priorities and meet national security needs, according to the congressman’s office. “This bill includes my legislation to protect over 250,000 acres of public lands on the Central Coast, extends the lifesaving FireGuard program to help us detect and monitor wildfires, gives our service members a pay raise, and much more,” Carbajal said in a statement. “This bill is a major win for our troops, our communities, and our country.” Other national priorities in the National Defense Authorization Act include taking steps to close Guantanamo Bay, fund programs to address threats posed by Russia and China, and the SAFE Act that allows state-legal cannabis to access the banking system.
This article appears in Oct 7-14, 2021.
