California lawmakers have a plan to effectively eliminate carbon emissions from the state’s behemoth economy. But the process is taking too long, they say.
Now, they’re seeking ways to eliminate red tape and remove roadblocks that prevent rapid adoption of green technologies. Our Deborah Brennan breaks it all down in her latest Sacramento Report.
Last week, Brennan joined a group of lawmakers and energy experts at a battery storage site in the Coachella Valley to learn first-hand what needs to change and what state leaders are doing about it.
Energy of the Future: Assemblymember Buffy Wicks, D-Oakland, who chairs the Assembly Select Committee on Permitting Reform, held an onsite hearing of the committee at the storage site to discuss streamlining the permitting process for renewable energy transmission and generation.
Community Concerns: Lawmakers’ intent to fast-track such projects could be controversial, Brennan reports. In September, an Escondido battery storage facility caught fire, prompting evacuations and closures of nearby schools. Our MacKenzie Elmer covered the fire and ensuing debate about whether the risk of toxic emissions made such facilities a bad idea in urban areas.
The Escondido fire was one of several such fires around San Diego County over the past year, prompting county supervisors to tighten regulations, though supervisors stopped short of placing a moratorium on the storage facilities.
At the same time, green energy projects face concern that their environmental effects place disproportionate burdens on low-income and rural communities that already face high pollution and industrial activity.
Lawmakers say they need to press forward anyway and find ways to balance the many competing concerns.
“There’s a huge chasm between the things we say are our priorities and what we are actually delivering in the state” on renewable energy and climate action, said Cottie Petrie-Norris, D- Irvine. “The number one thing we need to do to accelerate the pace is permit reform.”
Read the full Sacramento Report here.
Politics Report: King of the Phone Booth
We pulled the section below from the Politics Report. That’s our editor Scott Lewis’ weekly newsletter, exclusively for Voice of San Diego members.
In the latest newsletter, Lewis unpacks a growing conflict among members of San Diego’s Republican Party. Here’s a short section:
A little more than a week after the election, Mike Turk, a longtime supporter of Republicans and business-friendly candidates in San Diego, held a meeting at his restaurant, Pueblo, in Pacific Beach, to help the Republican Party of San Diego County avoid an all-out fight.
He failed. The party is headed for a chaotic showdown in about two weeks when its Central Committee convenes to elect a new executive team and chair.
One of the most predictable of many consequences of Carl DeMaio’s decisive win in the 75th Assembly District race was that, before he set about revolutionizing Sacramento, DeMaio would settle some scores in the Republican Party that tried to stop him. He moved to take control of the party and is demanding the ouster of the chair of the party, Corey Gustafson. The executive director of the party is already out.
It’s a diminished party, even while Republicans dance across the country, in San Diego, this is a fight for the king of a phone booth. But it’s a vicious one.
To read the full post, consider becoming a Voice member.
VOSD Podcast: This week on the VOSD Podcast, investigative reporter Will Huntsberry joins our co-hosts to discuss his latest story about how a man, who was once involved in a major law enforcement scandal, is doing big business with the city of San Diego.
Listen here now or wherever you get your pods.
In Other News
- San Diego City Councilmembers reacted tepidly last week to Councilmember Kent Lee’s efforts to regulate the rodeo industry. The lukewarm response to Lee’s proposal to curtail calf roping and steer wrestling disappointed animal welfare proponents. Opponents of the regulations, including local tribes, say rodeos are an important part of Indigenous, Black and Mexican-American culture. (Union-Tribune)
- With both Measure E and Measure G sales tax increases headed for apparent defeat in the latest election vote count, San Diego city and county leaders face the prospect of plugging a $1 billion deficit in the city’s budget and funding countywide transit projects, Axios reports. Michael Zucchet, the head of San Diego’s white-collar employee union, said one possibility is an immediate hiring freeze at City Hall.
- The San Diego City Council is expected to consider new regulations that would make it harder for affordable housing owners to sell their properties to profit-seeking buyers. The proposed rule would eliminate a loophole that lets affordable housing owners sell to for-profit buyers before rent restrictions expire. (KPBS)
- City housing commissioners voted Friday to approve contracts needed to replace 263 of the hundreds of city-funded shelter beds that must close by the end of this year. Our Lisa Halverstadt previously detailed these plans and others that are in the works.
- A Starbucks cafe in Oceanside became the second location of the worldwide coffee chain to unionize in San Diego County last week. Workers at a Starbucks in National City voted to unionize earlier this year. (Union-Tribune)
The Morning Report was written by Jim Hinch and Andrea Lopez-Villafaña.