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Politico
31-07-2025
- Politics
- Politico
Newsom blinks on fire rebuilding
With help from Alex Nieves, Noah Baustin, Jennifer Yachnin and Nico Portuondo HOT ZONES: Gov. Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass initially sided with builders by easing permitting rules in wildfire-hit areas. Now they're taking a different tack. Newsom issued an executive order late Wednesday allowing Los Angeles and surrounding areas to restrict development in high severity burn areas. It's a carveout to 2021's SB 9, which allows property owners to build as many as four units on land previously reserved for single-family homes. The order recognizes 'the need for local discretion in recovery and that not all laws are designed for rebuilding entire communities destroyed by fires overnight,' Newsom said in a statement. The move plunges Newsom into the long-combustible politics of building in fire-prone areas — with a twist of Los Angeles wealth and political muscle. The order is a response to pressure from LA City Councilmember Traci Park, who sent a letter to Newsom Monday calling for a pause on increased density in her Pacific Palisades district and citing the 'overt risks' of evacuating more people from fire-prone regions. Bass quickly backed the call, saying Tuesday that added development in the Palisades 'could fundamentally alter the safety of the area.' It's a shift from the immediate aftermath of the firestorm, when Bass and Newsom rushed to waive permitting requirements under the California Environmental Quality Act and the California Coastal Act in the name of speeding up rebuilding. Environmental groups who criticized those moves as reckless are now cheering the reversal. 'We're definitely happy to see that the state and local officials are recognizing the risk of building in these very high fire-prone areas,' said Elizabeth Reid-Wainscoat of the Center for Biological Diversity. She urged the state to go even further and block new development outright in burn zones, saying California needs 'neighborhoods that are safe, affordable and near transit and job centers.' The political pressure hasn't just come from the left. Online right-wing voices recently fueled a social media backlash against a bill from Sen. Ben Allen that would have created a new authority to acquire burned properties and offer them back at discounted rates. Allen paused the bill earlier this month. Now Newsom's executive order is drawing fire from the opposite direction. Pro-housing advocates warn it could set a dangerous precedent where wealthy, well-organized communities can carve themselves out of state housing law under the banner of 'fire safety.' 'If safety becomes a political football, then we're in deep trouble,' said Matt Lewis of California YIMBY. 'What does this say for all the places that don't have the power and influence when they burn?' He also questioned how much development the order would materially affect. Neither county nor city planning officials responded Wednesday to questions about how many property owners had applied for an SB 9 development in the burn scars, but a Park spokesperson said they had heard of seven. Even within the Democratic fold, the issue has proved divisive. Sen. Henry Stern, whose district includes much of western LA County, voted against SB 9 in 2021, citing his family's harrowing evacuation from Malibu during the Woolsey Fire. 'I had a very lonely vote on that bill,' Stern later said. He now has some company. — CvK Did someone forward you this newsletter? Sign up here! HARRIS OUT: Start your engines, former Rep. Katie Porter, Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis, former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, former U.S. Health Secretary Xavier Becerra and other 2026 gubernatorial contenders. Former Vice President Kamala Harris announced Wednesday that she's not running for governor, ending her flirtation with a run that would have upended the current field. Harris, with her near-universal name identification, strong approval ratings among Democrats and a national fundraising network, would have begun the 2026 race as an imposing frontrunner, POLITICO's Melanie Mason reports. Her entry would have also put more eyes on her complicated climate policy record as gas prices and energy affordability loom as top issues in the race to replace Newsom. Harris pledged during her 2019 presidential campaign to reject fossil fuel donations — joining most of the field — and called for a ban on fracking, while promising to prosecute oil companies over their contributions to climate change. She backed away from those positions during her 2024 race against President Donald Trump, arguing during a debate in Pennsylvania that the Biden-Harris administration oversaw the largest increase in domestic oil production in U.S. history. — AN COLD COMFORT: Climate change and good news are rare bedfellows. But researchers from UC San Diego and Stanford University have found a potential sliver of sunshine. California could see 53,500 fewer deaths and 244,000 fewer hospitalizations as extreme cold becomes rarer between now and 2050, according to a paper published Wednesday in the academic journal Science Advances. That reduction in hospitalizations could save the state $53 million in healthcare costs, the researchers wrote. But there's a catch. As cold days slacken, high temperatures will send more people to the ER, to the tune of $52 million for 1.5 million excess visits through 2050, they found. 'Heat can harm health even when it doesn't kill,' said UC San Diego assistant professor Carlos Gould, one of the study's authors. — NB ANOTHER RAY: Solar power is under a barrage of attacks from the Trump administration, but one of the industry's top voices still sees room for optimism. Abigail Ross Hopper, CEO of the Solar Energy Industries Association, pointed to rapidly growing energy demand and last-minute Senate compromises that give clean energy projects until July 4, 2026 to start construction or the end of 2027 to begin service and still qualify for federal subsidies — rather than ending them immediately, Nico Portuondo writes for POLITICO's E&E News. 'I do think that the transition period of one year to commence construction will allow companies to pivot,' Hopper said. 'I think the sort of the word of the day, or even the rest of the year, is pivoting.' SEIA more than doubled its spending in the second quarter of 2025 to $950,000, according to lobbying disclosure reports, and launched several efforts to emphasize the impact of Inflation Reduction Act tax incentives on red states and districts. Hopper credits that effort for helping secure extra time that lawmakers like Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski fought for. Senate Republicans are still fighting for clean energy projects as the Trump administration has taken more steps to disrupt the industry in recent days, including the Interior Department's order calling for the identification of any 'preferential treatment' toward wind and solar facilities. 'They are stranding capital by precipitously ramping down some of these programs. They're going to probably regret it,' said North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis. Read the full Q&A with Hopper on POLITICO Pro. — AN, NP RIVER RHETORIC: California's top Colorado River water official says the state is supportive of the direction negotiations are headed, but that states in the river's lower basin need assurances they'll receive their fair share. JB Hamby, chair of the Colorado River Board of California, said in an email Tuesday that multi-state discussions around a concept known as 'natural flow', based on how much water would travel downstream without human intervention, could send 55 to 75 percent of its flow to California, Arizona and Nevada, a figure 'we believe that provides enough room to negotiate a balanced, reasonable release number.' Hamby emphasized, however, that a deal won't be reached without guarantees that states in the upper basin — Colorado, Wyoming, Utah and New Mexico — will meet their end of the bargain, Jennifer Yachnin reports for POLITICO's E&E News. 'Without clear, binding commitments from all parties — including reductions or conservation — there can be no seven-state agreement,' Hamby said. Hamby warned that without those commitments, the lower basin states could demand their share under a provision of a 1922 compact that's never been invoked. The seven states face a November deadline to reach a water sharing deal or have federal officials step in with their own plan. — AN, JY — Newsom is circulating a legislative proposal to bolster a fund that covers utilities' liability in case they spark a fire — to the tune of another $18 billion, according to Bloomberg. — The United Nations' top official is calling on major tech firms to fully power data centers with renewable energy by 2030. — Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy writes in an op-ed that Newsom's defense of high-speed rail shows he 'has no clue what functional government looks like.'
Bloomberg
03-07-2025
- Politics
- Bloomberg
In California, Pro-Housing ‘Abundance' Fans Rewrite an Environmental Landmark
Matt Lewis and Brian Hanlon met in 2017 while advocating for an affordable housing complex in downtown Berkeley. It was a typical California land use debate. 'The NIMBYs were losing their you-know-what,' Lewis recalled. Hanlon told Lewis that he was starting a new organization called California YIMBY — that's 'Yes In My Backyard' — that would be dedicated to ending these arduous, building-by-building fights over housing. One of its main goals would be reforming the California Environmental Quality Act, or CEQA, a 1970 law that gives anyone the power to legally challenge nearly all development projects in the state, from housing to highways to transit.
Politico
26-06-2025
- Business
- Politico
‘Abundance' movement hits a labor wall in California
SAN FRANCISCO — California's Year of Abundance just crashed into political reality. For months, Democrats here raved about an ascendant movement to supercharge housing and energy infrastructure, mainlining the buzzy Ezra Klein book, 'Abundance.' Gov. Gavin Newsom, a potential presidential contender, and allies in the Legislature argued that an aggressively pro-building agenda could lift their moribund fortunes by addressing skyrocketing housing prices while proving they are the party of bold action. But now top Democrats are confronting opposition from unions wary that the rush to ease regulations could undercut hard-fought wage and training standards. The animosity spilled over this week, with proposed new wage minimums for fast-tracked housing projects spurring a backlash from unions and some Democratic legislators. 'Abundance' may be a wonky rallying cry for many California Democrats. But for some of their closest allies, it has become a slur. 'On one hand, we have Gavin trying to sit down with these right-wing podcasters to talk about losing young men, and on the other hand he's putting his name on some bill that reduces the wages of working-class men in California,' California Labor Federation leader Lorena Gonzalez. 'Anyone who thinks this abundance movement is how we're going to get our groove back just hasn't talked to real people.' Or as state Sen. Dave Cortese, a San Jose Democrat and a staunch labor ally, put it: 'I've been around long enough to know that some of this latest trendy stuff is bullshit.' Democrats focused on spurring housing development insist they are on labor's side. They've enlisted an influential ally in California's carpenters union, and argue that crushing housing costs — the result of decades of under-building — are burdening the very working men and women unions represent. Democrats still reeling from defeats in 2024 are desperate to win back working-class voters who have fled the party. 'No one wants to actually go against labor — and not because they're powerful, but because we stand with labor,' said Matt Lewis, communications director for California YIMBY, an influential pro-development advocacy group. 'We don't want to undermine labor. We want people to have good wages and be able to live in the homes we've built.' But many union officials are unpersuaded. They recoiled when journalist Josh Barro tolda gathering of centrist Democrats last month that when he examined policies that 'stand in the way of abundance,' he'd often 'find a labor union,' following up with a post entitled, 'In Blue Cities, Abundance Will Require Fighting Labor Unions.' Barro does not speak for the nebulous abundance movement. But the kind of sentiment he expressed does little to disabuse progressives and union members of their belief that it is a Trojan Horse for the kinds of big-donor-friendly policies that have unmoored Democrats from their onetime base. The wage proposal in Sacramento this week offered them more evidence. 'Folks who want to make dramatic changes to the system to benefit their agenda like to repackage them as the new shiny thing,' said Scott Wetch, a longtime labor lobbyist who on Wednesday likened the bill to Jim Crow-era efforts to suppress wages. Gretchen Newsom, a representative of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, said Democrats should focus on struggling working-class voters. 'Instead,' said Newsom, who is not related to the governor, 'we're doing this abundance theory that is abundantly going to abandon workers.' It's widely accepted among politicians of both parties in California that building housing and infrastructure takes too long. San Diego County Building and Construction Trades Council leader Carol Kim pointed to unions' efforts to translate Biden-era infrastructure funding into projects and jobs, noting that excessive red tape and delays posed 'the biggest challenge in convincing blue collar workers that Democrats were taking the right steps to help working people.' 'We've been doing that work, so this whole abundance stuff is not new,' Kim said. 'What some of us in labor right now are worried about is that it's absolutely being glommed onto by the bad actors, the people who use these types of exceptions to undermine job quality standards or fatten their own pockets.' In some ways, 'abundance' applies a new name to an old idea. Long before Klein's book with Derek Thompson was published, California Democrats — particularly in sapphire-blue San Francisco — had rallied around an agenda that faulted excessive regulation and protracted environmental reviews for stalling needed housing, driving up costs. Bills to speed up that process have repeatedly run into opposition from construction unions who warn of eroded labor standards. But this year the philosophy became inescapable. Legislative leaders met in San Francisco with Klein, who had already forged ties with housing-focused Bay Area elected Democrats. Newsom hosted Klein on his podcast, where the governor said 'abundance is fundamentally, foundationally who we are' and boasted about his administration forcing San Francisco to proceed with a contested housing project. 'You've got an ideological war that's going on in progressive cities,' Newsom told Klein. 'They don't believe in the supply-demand framework. They don't believe in this notion of abundance. Fundamentally, they don't have a growth mindset.' Weeks later, Newsom transformed California's housing debate by sweeping ambitious housing bills into his state budget proposal, putting more pressure on Democratic lawmakers to approve them. The maneuver thrilled abundance-aligned allies whose agenda was now being advanced at the highest echelons of political power. 'The Legislature has a chance to deliver the most significant housing and infrastructure reforms in decades,' Newsom's press office posted on X this week. 'This is our moment to build the California Dream for a new generation.' But Newsom also set up a showdown by making a budget deal contingent on passage of housing legislation. Labor and environmental groups condemned the wage proposal in extraordinarily acrimonious hearings where legislative Democrats echoed concerns about alienating allies. 'To ask the legislature to, in a very sweeping manner in the name of abundance or something ... take down years and years of thoughtful labor standards,' Cortese said, 'should be shocking to people.' Facing enormous pressure, lawmakers on Thursday pulled the minimum-wage bill in a compromise that reverted to existing labor standards, although the proposal could still resurface. Accompanying streamlining legislation was expected to be pared back during negotiations. Those shifts vindicated labor foes and underscored the volatile politics at play. 'The governor has historically pushed the boundaries and tested some creative policies,' said Joseph Cruz, executive director of the California State Council of Laborers. 'We have to make it easier to build in California, and I don't think anyone disputes that. But at what expense to workers?' Eric He contributed to this report.
Yahoo
21-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Lawmakers push to fast-track radical housing model that could transform urban areas: 'Faster timelines and fewer bureaucratic hoops'
In February, a revolutionary housing bill was introduced in the California State Assembly. Assembly Bill 609 will streamline the approval process for urban multi-family housing on pre-developed land (a.k.a., infill housing). This presents an alternative to suburban sprawl, which develops unused land outside cities. California YIMBY, an organization that advocates for affordable housing, collaborated with Buffy Wicks, a California State Representative, to create the bill. If passed, infill housing will be exempt from review under California's Environmental Quality Act. Since it's been proven that infill housing benefits the environment, the bill's proponents argue that there's no need for such extensive review. "The science is clear: building infill housing in cities reduces pollution that causes climate change," Brian Hanlon, CEO of California YIMBY, said in a press release. "AB 609 codifies that science in law." According to the press release, new developments would still have to comply with local regulations, which are already approved by the CEQA. Building cheap, affordable housing in urban centers is key to solving California's ongoing housing crisis. Infill housing also takes less of an environmental toll. Residents will be closer to work and other daily necessities, meaning less pollution from cars and shorter commutes. More cities around the globe are waking up to infill housing. London's Elephant and Castle neighborhood utilizes infill housing to keep the city's emissions down, for example. If the process becomes simpler in California, it could set a great precedent for the rest of the United States. AB 609 is part of a larger package of bills introduced in the California state legislature in early 2025. A press release from Assemblymember Wicks' office said, "The Fast Track Housing package is about making our systems work better: clearer rules, faster timelines, and fewer bureaucratic hoops." Do you think America is in a housing crisis? Definitely Not sure No way Only in some cities Click your choice to see results and speak your mind. Join our free newsletter for good news and useful tips, and don't miss this cool list of easy ways to help yourself while helping the planet.
Yahoo
29-01-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
L.A. County says state housing laws stand in way of rebuilding. Advocates disagree
A request by L.A. County officials to temporarily waive state housing laws as residents rebuild in fire-ravaged swaths of unincorporated areas drew the ire of housing advocates, who accused the officials of skirting efforts at boosting affordable housing. County Supervisors Kathryn Barger and Lindsey Horvath, who represent districts blackened by this month's wildfires, put forward a motion Tuesday with 41 steps they want department heads to take to speed up the recovery process. That included an ask to Gov. Gavin Newsom to temporarily exempt the county from some of the state's most significant housing laws intended to speed up the creation of affordable housing, including parts of Senate Bill 330, aimed at preserving affordable housing, and the Density Bonus Law, which encourages developers to build new units. Amy Bodek, head of the county planning department, said she believed the state laws could end up hampering recovery, incentivizing density at the expense of homeowners looking to rebuild what they had. 'In order to provide the community the ability to return and not face immediate displacement, we understand the need to pause some of these policies,' she said at Tuesday's Board of Supervisors meeting, adding that she wanted to ask for a five-year waiver for unincorporated areas, which include Altadena and some of the communities burned by the Palisades fire. 'We are not antihousing,' she said. 'To say that we are antihousing is someone that's not been paying attention.' At the meeting, housing advocates contended that the county's waiver proposal would slash too many restrictions, bypassing laws aimed at solving the region's affordable housing crisis. 'This is just totally going in the wrong direction,' said Nolan Gray, senior director of legislation and research for California YIMBY, noting that the laws have spurred the construction of thousands of affordable units across the state. 'There's so much in here that has nothing to do with helping people rebuild.' Chris Elmendorf, a law professor at UC Davis who studies California housing law, said the county was too broad in requesting a waiver in undefined 'fire impacted communities.' 'If the goal is to get people back to their communities as fast as possible, shouldn't the goal be to build as much housing in those communities as fast as possible?' he said. Barger, who represents Altadena, said the accusation that the county was uninterested in ramping up housing 'could not be further from the truth.' Bodek said it was unclear whether the governor would agree to the county's waiver request, but she hoped the letter would be a starting point for conversations with the state. The remarks came as part of a larger discussion over how the county should prepare for an influx of new buildings in areas reduced to rubble. Bodek said the planning department, which is responsible for permitting in unincorporated L.A. County, is expecting as many as 8,000 permit applications from homeowners wanting to rebuild after the Eaton fire and 600 from the Palisades fire. Without beefing up staffing, she said, 'it is going to be breaking our department.' Mark Pestrella, the head of the county public works department, said his agency was similarly preparing for a mammoth undertaking in repairing utilities in fire-scarred areas. 'A small public works department needs to be created in particular for the Altadena area if we are to meet the needs of the community to rebuild,' he told the supervisors Tuesday. The repairs and rebuilding are likely to cost the county billions of dollars, much of which county officials hope will come from the federal government. On Tuesday, the White House said it would freeze trillions in federal grants and loans that don't align with the Trump administration's priorities. The order was quickly blocked by a federal judge. 'We are very concerned about that,' said Fesia Davenport, the county's chief executive. 'We do need to know what the exact impact will be on the county.' 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.
