What lawmakers did on their summer vacation
With help from Alex Nieves and Noah Baustin
SUMMER BREAK'S OVER: Lawmakers are back in Sacramento on Monday for a four-week cram session — think finals week but with lobbyists. On the syllabus: extending California's cap-and-trade program, refilling the state's wildfire liability fund for utilities and, of course, redrawing congressional maps to give Democrats more seats.
Lawmakers have been busy coming up with their asks for the end of session — but also stepping out of the Sacramento bubble with community meetings at home and policy-inspiring trips.
Senate Energy Committee Chair Josh Becker went big in Europe, meeting with Formula One officials in the United Kingdom, where he learned about the racing organization's plans to wean the famous cars off fossil fuels. He also met with European Union climate officials and noted that California, France and the United Kingdom have about the same level of greenhouse gas emissions. His takeaway: It's a three-way race to cut emissions.
'They've got some great plans, and it's good for them to hear that we are committed, and good for us to hear that they're committed,' Becker said.
His energy counterpart in the Assembly, Assemblymember Cottie Petrie-Norris, also crossed the pond for a trip to the United Kingdom organized by Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas' Office of Protocol. The agenda included a meeting with Lloyds of London on insurance and mounting climate risks. But it mostly focused on artificial intelligence — never mind the energy costs — and the U.K.'s attempts to attract investment.
'They look at California and our world-class technology sector with so much both envy as well as as respect, and I think it's good for us as California policymakers to to hear that, because we've got to make sure that we are intentional about the ways that we continue to be the birthplace for the next generation of big breakthroughs,' Petrie-Norris said.
Assemblymember Isaac Bryan and Sens. Ben Allen, Catherine Blakespear, John Laird and Lola Smallwood-Cuevas, meanwhile, visited Vancouver on a California Foundation on the Environment and the Economy trip focused on recycling.
Allen (who noted some centers were 'rather stinky' but most were clean) said he was impressed at the public participation in recycling, observing that Vancouver has a small but very diverse population. 'It really makes you wonder why we can't be more ambitious,' he said.
Bryan, meanwhile, said he felt like Canada was a 'step ahead' of California on recycling, and noted that a lot of the efforts were led by businesses. 'We are way more prescriptive sometimes, and I think that sometimes hurts us,' he said. One specific policy idea he took away: a recycling program for old motor oil cans that can also capture and refine any oil left over.
There was also some personal travel. Assemblymember Steve Bennett went full John Muir, backpacking with his family on both sides of the Sierra Nevada range. Wildfires were top of mind: 'The Eastern Sierra struck me as much healthier,' he said. 'We've got a tremendous dead tree problem on the Western Sierra.'
And Assemblymember Gregg Hart embarked on a 1,600-mile road trip exploring the geographic diversity of Eastern Oregon, from the Wallowa Mountains — known as the Oregon Alps — to the Alvord Desert. 'It was really just a get-back-to-nature trip,' he said. 'It was a wonderful reset.'
What did you do on your summer vacation? Email us — and include a fun picture. — CvK
Did someone forward you this newsletter? Sign up here!
EMISSIONS MISSION: Lawmakers are feeling the heat on cap-and-trade reauthorization ahead of Wednesday's scheduled quarterly carbon auction and the looming end-of-session deadline.
On Monday, the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus — 21 Assemblymembers and five senators — released their four principles for extending the state's cornerstone climate program: retain and expand free emissions permits, require a full cost analysis, build in regular legislative review and secure broad support to provide market certainty (they'll have to, since it requires a two-thirds vote).
'A clean extension of California's cap-and-trade program isn't good enough — we need changes that reduce Californians' cost of living,' said co-chair Assemblymember David Alvarez.
The group of lawmakers hammered out the principles after dozens of meetings this year, staking out the moderate stance in the cap-and-trade debate and adding pressure on the legislature's chief cap-and-trade negotiators to figure out a proposal. Progressive lawmakers have floated trims to permits in order to curb emissions further; Gov. Gavin Newsom has pushed for a 'clean extension,' reauthorizing the program largely as-is.
At stake is not only the future of California's signature climate program but also its billions of dollars in annual revenue. The pot of money is already one of Sacramento's hottest commodities — and it's only getting hotter. Lawmakers have already agreed with Newsom to set aside some cap-and-trade revenues to fund Cal Fire, and auction revenues have been declining as traders worry about the program's future after its 2030 expiration — leaving less money for a growing set of asks.
Environmental groups ramped up the pressure on Monday, urging lawmakers at a press conference and in a series of meetings to continue funding programs like community resilience centers and clean drinking water with the revenues.
Abraham Mendoza, senior policy advocate at the Community Water Center, said some of the Safe and Affordable Funding for Equity and Resilience program's services, including bottled water for communities without clean drinking water, can't be funded through other sources like Proposition 4, last year's $10 billion climate bond.
'If we're trying to move SAFER around to make room for these other priorities in cap and trade reauthorization, you run into a bind where you're essentially looking at running out of resources for the existing work,' he said.
Adding to the pile-on: Consumer Watchdog is urging lawmakers to avoid uplifting carbon capture technologies as part of the reauthorization. In a Monday letter to Senate President Pro Tem Mike McGuire and Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas, consumer advocate Liza Tucker mapped out the paths of top California Air Resources Board officials-turned lobbyists and advocates for carbon capture. — CvK
SPEAKING OF CAP-AND-TRADE: State carbon markets have rebounded from President Donald Trump's threat to investigate emissions trading programs after Attorney General Pam Bondi missed the president's June 7 deadline to issue a report, according to a new market analysis.
The report from KraneShares, a financial services firm, found that carbon market prices in California and Washington jumped immediately after Bondi missed the deadline, Anne C. Mulkern reports for POLITICO's E&E News.
Credit prices on California's secondary market dropped from $30.79 at the start of the second quarter to $26.70 after Trump's April 8 executive order, which directed Bondi to look for ways to 'stop the enforcement' of state climate laws. Prices rallied after the June 7 report deadline passed and closed the second quarter at $28.39. — AN
ON FIRE: California's investor-owned utilities kicked off a seven-figure advocacy campaign Monday to push Newsom's proposal to refill the state's wildfire liability fund for utilities before the legislative session ends Sept. 12 — and before potential liabilities from January's Eaton Fire drain it.
Southern California Edison, San Diego Gas & Electric and Pacific Gas & Electric are backing the plan with television and digital ads, mailers and messaging support from the California Professional Firefighters and electrical worker unions.
Newsom proposed last month injecting $18 billion into the fund — $9 billion from utility shareholders and $9 billion from ratepayers through a 10-year extension of an existing wildfire charge on bills.
But the plan is politically fraught: Lawmakers are already under pressure to address Californians' rising electricity costs, while insurers are blasting Newsom's proposal to cap their payouts at 40 percent of claims. — CvK
SETTING THE AGENDA: On Wednesday, Aug. 27, POLITICO is hosting its inaugural California policy summit: The California Agenda. Come see the Golden State's most prominent political figures — including Sen. Alex Padilla and gubernatorial candidates Katie Porter and Xavier Becerra — share the stage with influential voices in tech, energy, housing and other areas at the forefront of the state's most critical policy debates. The live event is currently at capacity, but will be streamed. Advance registration is required. Stay tuned for more on speakers and discussion topics, and request an online invite here.
OIL CHIEF: The Western States Petroleum Association named Jodie Muller its incoming president and CEO, after longtime leader Catherine Reheis-Boyd announced her retirement from the role earlier this year. Muller is a 25-year veteran at WSPA, most recently serving as the association's senior vice president of government affairs and chief operating officer. She'll start her new role on Sept. 1 and Reheis-Boyd, who's led the powerful group since 2010, will stay on in an advisory role through the end of the year.
TALKING TRAINS: Newsom appointed Kate Folmar chief of strategic communications at the California High-Speed Rail Authority. Folmar has run her own communications firm since 2021 and was previously deputy secretary for external affairs at the California Health and Human Services Agency. — AN
IN MEMORY: Andrew Meredith, former president of the State Building and Construction Trades Council of California, has died, the labor group announced on Monday.
Meredith served in the National Guard and as a local politician in the city of Galt before becoming president of the trades council in January 2022, according to his Linkedin. He left in 2023 to become director of labor relations at energy developer RWE, leading the company's strategy on U.S. offshore wind development.
At the 2023 California Democratic Party Convention, while still with the trades, Meredith made it clear that he envisioned a close alliance between the labor and renewable energy movements, including touting a labor agreement for offshore wind.
'Our members are the pathway to building a new energy portfolio in California, one that embraces all available technologies to address climate change,' he said.
As a vegan and an environmentalist, Meredith cut against the grain of the stereotype of a construction trades leader, according to California Federation of Labor Unions President Lorena Gonzalez. But he still carried the ethos of the traditional labor movement.
'He felt passionately about trying to help working people get into and stay in the middle class,' Gonzalez said in an interview. 'He was an exceptionally kind person.'
He is survived by his wife and three children, according to the announcement. — NB
— The American Lung Association and ICF Inc. found that replacing fossil-fueled industrial boilers with heat pumps across the U.S. could result in over $1 trillion in public health benefits by 2050.
— UC Berkeley economist Severin Borenstein sees gas imports as California's best strategy for winding down in-state refineries.
— Mercury Insurance folded in future-looking climate costs in its request for a 6.9 percent increase in property insurance rates, the first insurer to do so under a new set of rules aimed at enticing insurers to do business in the state.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Newsweek
12 minutes ago
- Newsweek
Gavin Newsom Scores California Supreme Court Win In Redistricting Battle
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. The California Supreme Court on Wednesday dismissed a challenge from Republican lawmakers aimed at blocking Governor Gavin Newsom's proposal to redistrict the state's congressional map. Republican lawmakers in California urged the state's highest court to intervene to pause Newsom's redistricting plan, arguing that Democrats bypassed a rule mandating a 30-day waiting period before voting on newly introduced legislation. But in a ruling on Wednesday, the court declined to act. "Petitioners have failed to meet their burden of establishing a basis for relief at this time under California Constitution article IV, section 8," the court said in an order. Newsom has positioned the move as a counter to the Republican-led redistricting in Texas, and has called for a November special election to let voters decide on a map designed to flip up to five Republican-held seats ahead of the 2026 midterms. California Governor Gavin Newsom speaking in Los Angeles last week. California Governor Gavin Newsom speaking in Los Angeles last is a developing story. More to follow.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
What's next in the battle over redistricting as the Texas House passes new GOP maps
The Republican-controlled Texas House has passed new congressional maps that aim to pad the party's majority in Washington by as much as five seats in the midterm elections as battles over redistricting spread across the country. With Texas set to fully enact its new plan as soon as this week, urged on by President Donald Trump, California Democrats are moving quickly to implement a plan to carve up their state's maps in retaliation. Meanwhile, top Republicans in states like Indiana, Missouri and Florida continue to talk about tweaking their maps to create more Republican-controlled congressional seats in the 2026 elections. Ohio's redraw, which it must do under state law, could benefit the GOP, too. Governors in Democratic-controlled states are weighing responses, too, but in many cases, they're restrained by procedural hurdles or by other practical limits — some have already stretched their own gerrymandered maps as far as they could go — that could make a tit-for-tat more difficult. It's all expected to come to a head in a matter of weeks, against the backdrop of a race for the congressional majority in Washington that sits on a knife's edge. The final outcome in Texas Lawmakers in the GOP-controlled Texas House passed their map Wednesday, days after Democrats returned from a two-week "quorum break" in which they fled the state to hold up the bill. But they could only delay, not derail, the new Republican maps, which convert three deep-blue districts into deep-red ones and tilt two Democratic-held South Texas districts slightly further toward the GOP, too. State Rep. Todd Hunter, a Republican who represents Corpus Christi and co-sponsored the new map, kicked off the day with some straight talk. 'The underlying goal is this plan is straightforward: improve Republican political performance,' he told his colleagues, adding that the crux of the changes to the maps center on five districts that 'now trend Republican in political performance.' 'While there's no guarantee of an electorate success, Republicans will now have an opportunity to potentially win those districts,' he added. After a handful of lawmakers remained in the chamber overnight to protest House leadership for requiring Democrats to agree to police escorts to ensure they don't try to skip town again, Democrats took to the floor to criticize their Republican colleagues over the maps. They questioned whether their Republican colleagues were truly not factoring in the racial compositions of districts, as they claimed, warning Democrats will have "their day in federal court." They also hit out at their scheduling in the special legislative session, which put redistricting on the calendar ahead of voting on relief for the victims of the July floods in the Hill Country. 'This is Donald Trump's map. It clearly and deliberately manufactures five more Republican seats in Congress because Trump himself knows the voters are rejecting his agenda, and instead of respecting that rejection, he's changing the rules," said state Rep. John Bucy III of Austin, a Democrat. "Instead of listening to the people, he's trying to silence them, and Texas Republicans have been more than willing to help.' California Democrats move to retaliate California's Legislature held an hourslong hearing Tuesday as Democrats there speed toward passing legislation that would call for a fall special election putting redistricting on the ballot. Voters will decide whether to override the state's independent redistricting commission and approve temporary, Democratic-drawn maps for the rest of the decade. Those maps are the political inverse of the ones in Texas — endangering a handful of incumbent Republicans and putting Democrats in position to net up to five seats from the new map, according to estimates from the University of Virginia's Center for Politics. The hearing turned contentious amid interruptions and partisan clashes between lawmakers. Republicans repeatedly accused Democrats of wasting state resources — a statewide special election would cost significant money — and for bucking the agreement that empowered the state's independent redistricting panel in the first place. 'California should lead the way — when other states decide to do something else, we shouldn't react to them; we should prove by example that we can do this better. That we create the foundations for the rest of the nation,' said Assemblyman David Tangipa, a Republican from the Fresno area. Steve Bennett, a Democratic legislator from Ventura, lashed out at Texas Republicans' mid-decade redistricting by comparing it to power grabs by 'autocrats' like Russian President Vladimir Putin. "We prefer the agreement we all had to play by the old rules," he said. "But when autocrats change the rules and the norms that we are using to decide who has power, we can either fight back or we can potentially permanently lose the ability ever to fight back again." Democrats need to get the maps passed through the Legislature soon to bring the question to the voters this fall if they want to enact the maps in time for the 2026 midterms. Republicans are seeking to delay that, with a group of lawmakers suing this week, arguing that Democrats haven't given the public the required time to review legislation before voting. Other states weigh jumping into the fray While the spotlight remains on California and Texas, redistricting remains a live ball in other states. Ohio must redraw its lines by law, since the Legislature approved its 2021 map without Democratic support. The timing could work out well for Republicans, who control the Legislature and could stand to gain depending on how the maps are drawn. Two of Ohio's three Democratic House members won re-election last cycle by less than 3 percentage points. Indiana's Republican members of Congress have in recent days announced their support for a redraw there, where the party already controls seven of the nine congressional seats. Gov. Mike Braun, a Republican, hasn't said whether he plans to call for a special session of the Legislature. But Vice President JD Vance traveled to Indiana this month to meet with Braun as the redistricting debate swirled. In Missouri, Republicans have been cajoling Gov. Mike Kehoe to call a special legislative session for redistricting there, where the GOP controls six of the eight congressional seats. In Florida, Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis said this week that people can 'anticipate' a mid-decade redraw because there has been a 'sea change in demography' since the 2020 census. Outside of California, where their efforts are subject to approval from voters, Democrats face a smattering of other challenges if they want to redraw maps in other states. Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, who has vocally supported the Texas House Democrats' attempts to delay the redistricting process in their state, hasn't ruled out a redistricting push in his backyard. But Democrats already hold 14 of the state's 17 congressional districts there. New York Democrats are also interested in redrawing the lines there, but they face logistical hurdles to change the state constitution, which would most likely mean no changes until 2028 at the earliest. This article was originally published on
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Texas' Republican-controlled House approves new maps to create more winnable GOP congressional seats
AUSTIN, Texas — The Texas House on Wednesday approved redrawn congressional maps that would give Republicans a bigger edge in 2026, muscling through a partisan gerrymander that launched weeks of protests by Democrats and a widening national battle over redistricting. The approval came at the urging of President Donald Trump, who pushed for the extraordinary mid-decade revision of congressional maps to give his party a better chance at holding onto the U.S. House of Representatives in the 2026 midterm elections. The maps need to be approved by the GOP-controlled state Senate and signed by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott before they become official. But the Texas House vote had presented the best chance for Democrats to derail the redraw. Democratic legislators delayed the vote by two weeks by fleeing Texas earlier this month in protest, and they were assigned round-the-clock police monitoring upon their return to ensure they attended Wednesday's session. The approval of the Texas maps on an 88-52 party-line vote is likely to prompt California's Democratic-controlled state Legislature this week to approve of a new House map creating five new Democratic-leaning districts. But the California map would require voter approval in November. Democrats have also vowed to challenge the new Texas map in court and complained that Republicans made the political power move before passing legislation responding to deadly floods that swept the state last month. Texas maps openly made to help GOP Texas Republicans openly said they were acting in their party's interest. State Rep. Todd Hunter, who wrote the legislation formally creating the new map, noted that the U.S. Supreme Court has allowed politicians to redraw districts for nakedly partisan purposes. 'The underlying goal of this plan is straight forward: improve Republican political performance,' Hunter, a Republican, said on the floor. After nearly eight hours of debate, Hunter took the floor again to sum up the entire dispute as nothing more than a partisan fight. 'What's the difference, to the whole world listening? Republicans like it, and Democrats do not.' Democrats said the disagreement was about more than partisanship. 'In a democracy, people choose their representatives,' State Rep. Chris Turner said. 'This bill flips that on its head and lets politicians in Washington, D.C., choose their voters.' State Rep. John H. Bucy blamed the president. 'This is Donald Trump's map,' Bucy said. 'It clearly and deliberately manufactures five more Republican seats in Congress because Trump himself knows that the voters are rejecting his agenda.' Redistricting becomes tool nationwide in battle for US House The Republican power play has already triggered a national tit-for-tat battle as Democratic state lawmakers prepared to gather in California on Thursday to revise that state's map to create five new Democratic seats. 'This is a new Democratic Party, this is a new day, this is new energy out there all across this country,' California's Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom said on a call with reporters on Wednesday. 'And we're going to fight fire with fire.' A new California map would need to be approved by voters in a special election in November because that state normally operates with a nonpartisan commission drawing the map to avoid the very sort of political brawl that is playing out. Newsom himself backed the 2008 ballot measure to create that process, as did former President Barack Obama. But in a sign of Democrats' stiffening resolve, Obama Tuesday night backed Newsom's bid to redraw the California map, saying it was a necessary step to stave off the GOP's Texas move. 'I think that approach is a smart, measured approach,' Obama said during a fundraiser for the Democratic Party's main redistricting arm. The incumbent president's party usually loses seats in the midterm election, and the GOP currently controls the House of Representatives by a mere three votes. Trump is going beyond Texas in his push to remake the map. He's pushed Republican leaders in conservative states like Indiana and Missouri to also try to create new Republican seats. Ohio Republicans were already revising their map before Texas moved. Democrats, meanwhile, are mulling reopening Maryland's and New York's maps as well. However, more Democratic-run states have commission systems like California's or other redistricting limits than Republican ones do, leaving the GOP with a freer hand to swiftly redraw maps. New York, for example, can't draw new maps until 2028, and even then, only with voter approval. Texas Democrats decry the new maps In Texas, there was little that outnumbered Democrats could do other than fume and threaten a lawsuit to block the map. Because the Supreme Court has blessed purely partisan gerrymandering, the only way opponents can stop the new Texas map would be by arguing it violates the Voting Rights Act requirement to keep minority communities together so they can select representatives of their choice. Democrats noted that, in every decade since the 1970s, courts have found that Texas' legislature did violate the Voting Rights Act in redistricting, and that civil rights groups had an active lawsuit making similar allegations against the 2021 map that Republicans drew up. Republicans contend the new map creates more new majority-minority seats than the previous one. Democrats and some civil rights groups have countered that the GOP does that through mainly a numbers game that leads to halving the number of the state's House seats that will be represented by a Black representative. State Rep. Ron Reynolds noted the country just marked the 60th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act's passage and warned GOP members about how they'd be remembered if they voted for what he called 'this racial gerrymander.' 'Just like the people who were on the wrong side of history in 1965, history will be looking at the people who made the decisions in the body this day,' Reynolds, a Democrat, said. Republicans hit back at criticism Republicans spent far less time talking on Wednesday, content to let their numbers do the talking in the lopsided vote. As the day dragged on, a handful hit back against Democratic complaints. 'You call my voters racist, you call my party racist and yet we're expected to follow the rules,' said State Rep. Katrina Pierson, a former Trump spokesperson. 'There are Black and Hispanic and Asian Republicans in this chamber who were elected just like you.' House Republicans' frustration at the Democrats' flight and ability to delay the vote was palpable. The GOP used a parliamentary maneuver to take a second and final vote on the map so it wouldn't have to reconvene for one more vote after Senate approval. House Speaker Dustin Burrows announced as debate started that doors to the chamber were locked and any member leaving was required to have a permission slip. The doors were only unlocked after final passage more than eight hours later. One Democrat who refused the 24-hour police monitoring, State Rep. Nicole Collier, had been confined to the House floor since Monday night. Some Democratic state lawmakers joined Collier Tuesday night for what Rep. Cassandra Garcia Hernandez dubbed 'a sleepover for democracy.' Republicans issued civil arrest warrants to bring the Democrats back after they left the state Aug. 3, and Republican Gov. Greg Abbott asked the state Supreme Court to oust several Democrats from office. The lawmakers also face a fine of $500 for every day they were absent.
