CalWatchdog Morning Read – August 24

24 Aug, 2016 by CalWatchdog Staff

Environmentalists get big win
Cap and trade auction falls flat … again
Lawmakers can’t commit to police body cameras
Daylight savings time safe for now
Recreational pot = big money for the state

Good morning. Happy hump day.

Speaking of getting over the hump, California environmentalists notched a major victory yesterday, as an extension and expansion of one of the state’s landmark environmental laws cleared the Assembly on Tuesday — all but guaranteeing the bill’s ultimate passage.

Senate Bill 32 would require the Air Resources Board to ensure that greenhouse gas emissions in the state are reduced at least 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2030. Essentially, the bill builds on its predecessor, AB32, which required the ARB to achieve 1990 levels by 2020.

To achieve these goals, the measure would continue to give the ARB the authority to create and implement regulations with blanket legislative approval, which has been one of the main critiques of the current program.

CalWatchdog has more.

And if we needed yet another reminder that we’re in an election year, more than a dozen members of the Assembly switched their votes from last year to support the measure, reports the Los Angeles Times.

In other news:

“The cap-and-trade market had another bad day Tuesday, with hundreds of millions of dollars worth of unsold carbon credits left over following the latest state-run auction. … It was the second straight quarterly auction in which scores of carbon credits failed to attract buyers, although there was higher demand this time around,” The Sacramento Bee has more.
“For the second straight year, California lawmakers have failed to pass any major legislation regulating police body cameras after a bill that would have allowed families of fallen police officers to block the release of body camera footage showing the officers’ deaths stalled in a legislative committee Tuesday,” reports the Los Angeles Times.
A San Jose legislator’s efforts to abandon Daylight Saving Time ended Tuesday when the state Senate rejected a measure that would have allowed California voters to end the twice-annual ritual at the ballot boxes,” reports The San Jose Mercury News.
“If Californians legalize marijuana under Proposition 64 in November, legal cannabis sales in the state likely will climb by $1.6 billion within the first year of implementation, according to a report released Tuesday.” The Orange County Register has more.

Assembly: