• U.S. Rep. Salud Carbajal (D-Santa Barbara) denounced a measure put up for a vote that would “hamstring” the executive branch’s ability to release oil from the United States’ strategic reserves, despite evidence that previous releases have helped offset gas price spikes over the past year, according to a Jan. 27 statement from the congressman’s office. “Members of both parties agree that increased energy costs, including our gas prices, hurt our constituents—but sadly it seems the new majority in the House is more interested in tying the president’s hands on the most effective tool we have to combat price spikes than stabilizing energy markets,” Carbajal said in the statement. “I know Californians have felt the pinch of higher energy costs since Russia’s invasion almost a year ago. That’s why I’ve helped create new ways to help lower home energy costs for Central Coast families.” According to the Department of Energy, gas prices nationwide are down roughly $1.60 per gallon from last summer’s peak, about a 30 percent decline, thanks to releases from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve authorized by President Joe Biden in 2021. The bill offered by House Republicans this week, HR 21, would block any releases from the strategic reserve until oil and gas drilling in the United States is expanded on federal lands by the same percentage that it releases oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
• U.S. Sens. Alex Padilla (D-California) and Marsha Blackburn (R-Tennessee) introduced the bipartisan American Music Fairness Act to ensure artists and music creators receive fair compensation for the use of their songs on AM/FM radio, according to a Feb. 2 statement from Padilla’s office. “California’s artists play a pivotal role in enriching and diversifying our country’s music scene, but for too long, our laws have unfairly denied them the right to receive fair compensation for their hard work and talent on AM/FM radio broadcasts,” Padilla said in a statement. “As we celebrate the accomplishments of our musical artists at the Grammy Awards in Los Angeles … we must commit to treating them with the dignity and respect they deserve for the music that they produce and that we enjoy every day.” Currently, the United States is the only democratic country in the world in which artists are not compensated for the use of their music on AM/FM radio. By requiring broadcast radio corporations to pay performance royalties to creators for AM/FM radio plays, the American Music Fairness Act would close an antiquated loophole that has allowed corporate broadcasters to forgo compensating artists for decades. In recognition of the important role of locally owned radio stations in communities across the U.S., the American Music Fairness Act also includes protections for small, college, and noncommercial stations.
• In the wake of multiple mass shootings that took the lives of 19 Californians in just 72 hours, Gov. Gavin Newsom, Attorney General Rob Bonta, and state Sen. Anthony Portantino (D-Burbank) announced new gun safety legislation to modernize and strengthen California’s public carry laws, according to a Feb. 1 statement from the governor’s office. “Only in America do we see the kind of carnage and chaos of gun violence that destroys our communities and our sense of safety and belonging,” Newsom said in a statement. “America is No. 1 in gun ownership, and we far surpass every developed nation on Earth in gun deaths—it’s not complicated. In California, we’ve passed common-sense gun safety laws and they work: We have a 37 percent lower gun death rate than the national average. We’re doubling down on gun safety and strengthening our public carry law to protect it from radical Republican attacks.” The legislation will enhance the existing licensing system, set a minimum age requirement of 21 years, advancing stronger training requirements, and identifying certain sensitive public places establishing safe spaces where people should expect freedom from gun violence.
