Sacramento's sausage-making comes for plastics
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With help from Alex Nieves and Blanca Begert
IN A PLASTIC WORLD: California is on the cusp of a potentially society-transforming climate policy change — and having some cold feet.
We're not talking about electric cars, massive solar farms or corporate emissions reporting: We're talking about making producers recycle their plastic packaging.
CalRecycle is facing a March 7 deadline to submit to the Office of Administrative Law its rules implementing Sen. Ben Allen's SB 54, a 2022 law that requires thousands of companies to reduce their single-use plastic packaging by 25 percent and pay to recycle or compost all their products, or else it has to start over. By one environmental group's estimate, the law could save 115 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions over a decade, equivalent to shutting down 28 coal-fired power plants.
But the companies that will have to carry out the program are pushing back, saying that the rules as written are both too costly and setting them up to fail.
'I feel like we're prioritizing expedience over getting it right,' said Rachel Wagoner, the head of CalRecycle until last March and since December the California executive director for Circular Action Alliance, the organization CalRecycle selected to set up the recycling program on behalf of all producers. (She's said she's following state rules banning her from lobbying her former agency for a year.)
A broad coalition of business and farming groups, including Circular Action Alliance, signed on to a Dec. 14 Chamber of Commerce letter to Gov. Gavin Newsom outlining some of the concerns. Among them: The rules as drafted would cost much more than initially estimated (CalRecycle has estimated that as many as 13,615 manufacturers would have to participate and pay a total of $500 million per year beginning in 2027) and don't allow for new technology that could help process tricky materials.
On the other side, environmental groups and 14 lawmakers including Allen are pushing CalRecycle and the governor's office to proceed with the current draft rules, even if they acknowledge the rules may not be perfect. They say that negotiations with industry leading up to the law have already settled some of those concerns, including by disallowing controversial chemical recycling.
'We need a strong foundation on which to base future actions,' the lawmakers wrote in a letter to Newsom this month. 'Stay the course.'
Both sides argue that California's mantle of environmental leadership is at stake.
California wasn't the first state to pass a bill setting up an 'extended producer responsibility' program for plastic packaging (that title went to Maine in 2021) nor will it be the first to formally approve the industry's plan for compliance (Oregon just claimed that title last week by approving a plan by Circular Action Alliance). But California has the largest market and the most detailed rules so far, attracting outsized attention from other states and countries.
Just last year, the state of Minnesota and the European Union passed EPR laws that borrowed from California's approach, said Anja Brandon, the director of plastics policy at Ocean Conservancy.
'That adds to the crux of this moment that we are in, where we want to see California stand by this groundbreaking law that it passed,' she said.
Newsom spokesperson Daniel Villaseñor said his office was 'considering all options.'
'California is committed to achieving the goals of SB 54 — to cut down on plastic pollution — and we take stakeholder input very seriously,' he said in an email. 'We are considering all options for how to move forward to successfully implement this ambitious program.'
CalRecycle spokesperson Melanie Turner said Monday the agency was still working to finalize the rules by March 7.
On Tuesday, Wagoner, Brandon and a bevy of other advocates from either side will testify to the Senate Environmental Quality Committee on the concept of extended producer responsibility.
Expect SB 54 to come up, as well as philosophical debates about what EPR is at its core: 'Something we hear from industry often is if you get too prescriptive, you shy away from EPR, and that's just not true,' said Brandon. 'EPR is defined by holding producers accountable for the whole life cycle of their product.' — CvK
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THE BILLS ARE IN: Friday was the deadline to introduce new bills in the Legislature. All told, 2,350 bills have come in, 226 more than by the cutoff deadline last year, according to attorney and lobbyist Chris Micheli. Here are some of the newest ones that caught our attention:
CAP-AND-TRADE: We still don't know what the legislature is planning to do on cap-and-trade, where reauthorization past 2030 is a stated priority for the year, but the spot bills are in. Watch these spaces: SB 840 from Sens. Monique Limón and Mike McGuire and AB 1207 from Assembymember Jacqui Irwin.
You can also watch the Joint Legislative Committee on Climate Change Policies hearing on Wednesday where lawmakers will be discussing changes to the state's carbon market.
LITHIUM BATTERY FIRES: Fires at battery plants are hot — literally, and in the Capitol. The Assembly Committee on Emergency Management introduced AB 1285, which would require the State Fire Marshal to develop fire prevention, response and recovery plans for utility-grade lithium storage facilities. That measure comes after fires at Moss Landing Power Plant, the world's largest battery storage facility. It joins Assemblymember Dawn Addis' AB 303, which would ban energy storage facilities from environmentally sensitive areas or within 3,200 feet of schools and homes and reverse a 2022 measure that accelerated the permitting process for them.
GAS STOVES: Freshman Assemblymember Carl DeMaio is taking Republicans' latest swing at efforts to ban gas appliances, a climate policy that's sparked a national culture war in recent years. His bill, AB 1238, would block state agencies and local governments from adopting or enforcing any rule or ordinance that prohibits the use of gas stoves in residential or commercial buildings.
CPUC HEARINGS: Assemblymember Joe Patterson's AB 1273 would prohibit the California Public Utilities Commission from placing utilities' rate-increase applications on its consent calendar, which means they get voted on without discussion. If you haven't tracked the CPUC lately, the public comment period is typically filled with fiery speeches opposing rate increases, and you may be surprised how much ends up on the consent calendar.
COMMUNITY SOLAR: Assemblymember Chris Ward is back with a bill to force the California Public Utilities Commission to do what he always wanted on community solar — make it more accessible by reimbursing it in a way that accounts for its full cost savings to the grid.
Last year the CPUC, tasked with implementing Ward's 2022 law AB 2315 to boost community solar, rejected a proposal from the solar industry, environmentalists and a ratepayer advocate group to let renters buy credits in small solar projects and access savings like the ones people get from installing rooftop solar.
The commission instead voted through a proposal closely aligned with one introduced by utility Southern California Edison that expanded existing subscription programs from the state and utilities and created a new program using federal funds that are now in question. At the time, they argued their proposal was more cost effective.
Ward told the CPUC that its plan was 'outdated,' 'commercially unworkable' and 'wholly inconsistent' with his 2022 law. The new bill, AB 1260, would amend the program to be more in line with his intentions and use a pricing formula to account for more of the cost savings of community solar, like reducing the need for electrical wires to travel long distances.
WHAT MORE: What other bills do you think will be big this year? As always, please let us know.
BRB, MOVING TO OAKLAND: The cities of San Jose, Palo Alto, Orinda and Half Moon Bay and the unincorporated parts of Mendocino, Sonoma and Napa counties got some bad news from California's rollout of its new local fire hazard zone maps today.
In those places, the number of acres categorized at very high fire hazard and therefore subject to fire-resistant building codes and risk disclosure requirements for home sales jumped significantly from the last update in 2011. The reason is Cal Fire's more sophisticated modeling that accounts for factors like the winds that blew embers across LA neighborhoods last month and that will move 1.4 million acres statewide into the two highest fire risk severity areas.
Take San Jose for example: In 2011, it had 3,310 acres classified at very high risk. The new data suggests 7,142 acres are at very high fire risk.
The data released today covers the Bay Area and the North Coast and represents part two of Cal Fire's four-part rollout after inland Northern California. The Central Valley and Central Coast are scheduled for March 10, and Southern and Eastern California for March 24. The local jurisdictions must still formally adopt the maps, though they can make changes as they see fit.
One city got some good news: Oakland, the site of a deadly firestorm in 1991 that kicked off many modern urban fire preparedness efforts. In 2011, it had 10,838 acres categorized as at very high fire risk. Today's data showed only 1,945 acres in that category, with another 5,151 at high or moderate fire risk. — CvK
TURNING TO THE AIRWAVES: The auto industry is taking to the court of public opinion with an opening shot at California's electric vehicle mandate.
The California New Car Dealers Association announced today that it's funding a digital and television ad buy, kicking off the lobbying effort with a three-minute spot on a newly launched website.
The campaign calls on the California Air Resources Board to pause enforcement of the Advanced Clean Cars II rule to give 'infrastructure, consumer demand, and market readiness' time to develop. It also asks state officials to adopt a 'balanced, phased approach' to the EV transition, though it stops short of detailing a specific policy plan.
Spokespeople for Newsom and CARB didn't immediately respond to requests for comment.
Most automakers — with Stellantis as the notable exception — have been opposed to ACCII, which requires them to sell increasing percentages of electric vehicles annually, before effectively banning the sale of new gas cars by 2035. But the ad buy is the industry's first major attempt at spreading that message to California residents. (The dealers' association said it will reveal the other 'businesses, trade groups, and consumer advocates' that are part of its coalition later.)
The ad buy also comes as the Trump administration is attempting to overturn ACCII through the congressional review process. — AN
BACK TO ACCI: The Supreme Court has set an April 23 hearing date for a long-simmering case around a previous iteration of California's clean vehicle rules.
The court will hear Diamond Alternative Energy v. EPA, an oil industry lawsuit filed in 2022 shortly after the Biden administration reinstated Advanced Clean Cars I — the emissions waiver Trump's EPA revoked in 2019, Lesley Clark reports for POLITICO's E&E News.
Lawyers for the industry argue California should not have unique privileges to set stronger-than-federal emissions standards, a carve out under the Clean Air Act the state has held for more than 50 years.
The D.C. Circuit issued a unanimous decision last April that industry groups and Republican-led states lacked standing to bring their claim because they failed to show that tossing out the waiver would fix the injuries they say occurred.
The Supreme Court hearing comes after it rejected a Trump administration request to delay the hearing to give EPA time to reassess the 'soundness of the 2022 reinstatement decision.' — AN
SHOPPING FOR WIND: California is moving ahead on offshore wind despite Trump's plans to kill the industry. The CPUC today directed the Department of Water Resources to initiate centralized state procurement for various types of clean energy under a deal negotiated and signed into place in 2023. It's still a long way away. Solicitations for geothermal and the 7.6 gigawatts of offshore wind the state will be trying to buy won't open until 2027. — BB
— The firefighter union's backlash to Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass' decision to sack the city's fire chief is adding to her political headaches, writes our Melanie Mason.
— Some Yosemite National Park staffers hung an upside-down American flag off El Capitan this weekend to protest the Trump administration's job cuts.
— Vistra began a two-week process to disconnect batteries at its Moss Landing plant after they burned in a fire last month.
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Immigrants detained by federal agents in Southern California are being housed at the Glendale City Jail, making the Los Angeles suburb one of the few, if not the only, known jurisdiction in the "sanctuary" state to sidestep rules prohibiting local law enforcement from assisting in federal immigration enforcement. It's unclear how many detainees are being held at the 96-bed facility, but The Times confirmed at least two individuals were placed there over the last week by immigration officials. The facility is one of the busiest jails in the state and is staffed by the Glendale Police Department. Glendale City Council members defended the detentions this week, saying that the city had an 18-year-old contract with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, to temporarily house noncriminal detainees. They said the agreement is in compliance with state Senate Bill 54, a landmark law that made California the first in the nation to create a sanctuary state. 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And it raises questions about the state law amid ramped up enforcement efforts by the Trump administration, which has said it aims to arrest 3,000 undocumented immigrants daily. 'It is deeply, deeply troublesome," said Andres Kwon, senior policy counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California. 'This contract very much goes against the principle and value of creating a bright line between local resources and federal immigration enforcement.' At a minimum, Kwon said the contract should end immediately. 'This is where the attorney general has jurisdiction and responsibility to review and oversee how Glendale is acting pursuant to this contract,' he said. The attorney general also has a mandate to review and report on conditions of confinement, which it has yet to do. Other municipalities terminated their contracts after then-Gov. Jerry Brown signed SB 54, which prohibited local and state municipalities from using funds for federal immigration enforcement purposes, including the use of jail facilities. But Glendale's then-Police Chief Robert Castro, who opposed the law, did not. And at the time, the city manager warned against nixing the contract in a bid to maintain a good relationship with federal authorities. Jennie Quinonez-Skinner, a resident of Glendale, said she has been urging council members to abandon the contract since learning about it during the first Trump administration. 'They can end if they want to, they just don't want to,' she said. 'I see no justification for doing it. Under the current administration, with lack of due process, it's harmful.' At the time the contract was signed in 2007, the federal government promised to pay Glendale $85 a day for each detainee. Nearly 10 years later in 2016, the city reported that it received a little more than $6,000 for its services in one year. 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Read more: LAPD presence at South L.A. immigration raid sparks questions Glendale Councilmember Elen Asatryan tried to distance the city from immigration operations. 'We do not get involved, we are not even booking them, they are using the cells as a holding place in the city of Glendale,' Asatryan said. She disputed that detainees were not being provided food or water. The use of the Glendale City Jail to hold migrants has come up in recent weeks as the Trump administration pushes to increase the number of immigrant arrests by targeting them as they leave the courtroom. Immigration officials admit the effort has stressed their own resources as they look to increase capacity. ICE has about 7,000 beds in California with six privately owned facilities and has been looking to expand its footprint in the state as its enforcement begins to outstrip its detention space. 'U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's enhanced enforcement operations and routine daily operations have resulted in a significant number of arrests of criminal aliens that require greater detention capacity,' said Richard Beam, an ICE spokesman. 'While we cannot confirm individual pre-decisional conversations, we can confirm that ICE is exploring all options to meet its current and future detention requirements.' In Los Angeles, Santa Ana and around the country, masked federal agents in plain clothes have been arresting migrants as they leave their immigration hearings, often after a government lawyer asks that their deportation proceedings be dismissed. Family members who come to support their loved-ones often are left distraught. Read more: Father ripped from family as agents target immigration courts, arresting people after cases dismissed Typically, someone arrested by ICE in public would be transferred to a detention facility, but the rush of detaineesprobably strained the system and forcedofficials to look for other options, said Melissa Shepard, legal services director at Immigrant Defenders Law Center. 'I can imagine it will be an influx for detention centers that probably don't have the resources in place to keep all of these folks,' Shepard said. 'In Southern California, the detention centers were quite unprepared for the number of people being detained.' Times reporters witnessed more than half a dozen arrests at courthouses in downtown Los Angeles and Santa Ana courthouses Monday. In Los Angeles, Jianhui Wu, of China, was detained after the government moved to dismiss his case and seek expedited removal proceedings. The judge granted the man another hearing in August to give him time to find an attorney, telling him 'you need to talk to someone competent' about his case. But as he left the courtroom, a plainclothes ICE agent followed him, while another stopped him in the hallway. One agent took the man's backpack as they handcuffed him and swiftly took him down a service elevator. By Tuesday, he was being held at the Glendale City Jail. Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
