• U.S. Rep. Salud Carbajal (D-Santa Barbara) announced recently that an amendment he authored aiming to ban offshore oil and gas drilling off the west coast passed the House of Representatives on June 25. The amendment was included in a fiscal year 2020 appropriations package. “Protecting our environment is paramount, and I refuse to put big oil over the well-being of our environment, our economy, and our communities,” Carbajal said in a press release. “Our Central Coast knows the devastating impact of oil spills, and I won’t let us experience that again. This is one step in the fight for a cleaner environment—I’m glad the House took that step.” Carbjal claims the amendment, which will now go to the Senate, will prevent further oil and gas drilling off the coast for fiscal year 2020. Carbajal also introduced a bill, the California Clean Coast Act (H.R. 279), to permanently ban oil and gas activities off California’s Coast.
• State Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson (D-Santa Barbara) released a statement on June 24 in opposition to Assembly Bill 97, California’s cannabis budget trailer bill, which the Senate passed in a 28 to 9 vote the same day. In the statement, Jackson wrote that while she is not against the legalization of marijuana, she voted against the bill because the cannabis industry is “encroaching on our communities, schools, public spaces, vital agricultural industries, our tourism economy, and our quality of life in Santa Barbara County.” More than a third of all cultivation licenses issued in California to date are held in Santa Barbara County, and Jackson said many legislators like herself are frustrated with the “limited authority” they have to help residents who feel overburdened by local cannabis cultivation. “However, one lever we do possess at the state level is through the granting of licenses to growers,” Jackson wrote in the statement. “I had hoped that this trailer bill language might be better refined to help us get at bad actors, ensure adequate environmental review, and provide greater safeguards. Unfortunately, those changes were not made, and for that reason, I am not able to support this legislation.” The bill is now making its way through the Assembly.
• Several state gun policy reforms approved by voters in 2016 went into effect on July 1. Proposition 63, a package of gun-related policies intended to stop dangerous individuals with violent histories from accessing firearms and ammunition, implements a system for taking firearms from former felons who are prohibited by law from owning them; requires people and businesses to report lost or stolen guns; requires background checks for ammunition purchases; and requires internet sales of ammunition to be conducted through a licensed vendor. Proposition 63 also includes a ban on high-capacity magazines in California, a common accessory used in nearly all mass shootings, but that policy is currently being litigated in the Ninth Circuit. Before the policies went into effect, Gov. Gavin Newsom cheered the reforms in a statement released on June 25. “Proposition 63 is proof of what we can accomplish when we stand up together and show the NRA that our children’s lives are more important than their profits,” Newsom said in a press release. “California will continue to lead the way when it comes to sensible policies that protect our families and communities from gun violence.”
This article appears in Jul 4-11, 2019.
