• California Gov. Jerry Brown took to the airwaves to chastise President Donald Trump after he pulled the United States out of the Paris Climate Accord on June 1. Brown spoke with PBS News Hour’s Judy Woodruff about Trump’s decision and climate change, which he called “an existential threat to all humanity and the natural systems on which all life depends.” He pointed to California’s historic drought, the loss of “a hundred million trees,” sea level rise, and melting ice caps as reasons to act on climate change, which he argued the Paris Climate Accord did effectively. From the rose garden on June 1, Trump said he may return to the accord or enter a new, “better deal,” and called the current agreement, “the latest example of Washington entering into an agreement that disadvantages the United States to the exclusive benefit of other countries, leaving American workers, who I love, and taxpayers to absorb the cost in terms of lost jobs, lower wages, shuttered factories, and vastly diminished economic production.” Brown rejected Trump’s words on PBS News Hour, calling them “a lie,” and going on to say that “California has lost jobs, but net, we’ve added 2.4 million jobs in the last eight years since the recession. That is a remarkable outcome, and it’s consistent—in fact I would say driven—by the clean tech investments and clean energy strategies that we’ve embarked upon.” Brown spoke with Woodruff just before he visited China beginning June 3 to lead a conference of countries to reaffirm California’s commitment to the Paris Climate Accord and efforts to combat climate change. Meanwhile, California’s State Senate was unable to move key climate change legislation forward—both a cap-and-trade bill and AB 378—according to the Los Angeles Times.
• Rep. Salud Carbajal (D-Santa Barbara) joined Rep. Elizabeth Esty (D-Conn.) and Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.) in introducing The Gun Violence Restraining Order Act to the U.S. House of Representatives on May 23, the third anniversary of the Isla Vista mass shooting. According to a release from Carbajal’s office, the bill “would incentivize states to enable family members to go to a court to seek a ‘gun violence prevention order,’ to temporarily stop someone who poses a threat to themselves or others from purchasing or possessing a gun,” Carbajal said in the statement. “The tragedy in Isla Vista is once again a reminder of the consequences of inaction by lawmakers on the epidemic of gun violence across our nation.”
• California Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson (D-Santa Barbara) saw her bill, the Coastal Oil Well Clean Up and Remediation Act (SB 44), pass the Senate floor with a 31-5 bipartisan vote on May 31. The bill would require the California State Lands Commission to “plug very old ‘orphaned’ oil wells in California waters when the original oil company that operated the well is out of business and cannot be held responsible,” according to a release from Jackson’s office. The impetus for the bill was abandoned wells in Summerland exposed by erosion, including two leaking wells in 2015. “It’s important that we locate and cap these very old wells once and for all, to preserve our economy, our beaches, and our public health,” Jackson said in the release. “Oil is toxic, it is a carcinogen, it leads to poor air quality, and it is unsafe for wildlife. We don’t want it on our beaches, nor do we want it near our children, our out-of-town-visitors, or our fish, birds, and marine life.” The bill was reintroduced after Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed its last iteration in 2016. The bill would redirect up to $2 million annually from state mineral leases “to a fund set aside for the remediation of improperly abandoned legacy wells,” according to the release.
This article appears in Jun 8-15, 2017.