De Leon panel-packing scheme died handily

Good morning. TGIF and TG for the three-day weekend.

Everyone is looking back at the recently wrapped legislative session. And while Democrats will walk away from it with a long list of environmental accomplishments, one got away.

A bill sponsored by Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de Leon, D-Los Angeles, would have added three members to the South Coast Air Quality Management Board, which regulates air quality in Los Angeles, Riverside, San Bernardino and Orange counties.

And while that probably seems as dull as watching paint dry to nearly everyone who just read it, the measure had major implications for Republicans, local governments, business interests, environmentalists and residents of the broad district that has some of the most toxic air in the nation.

CalWatchdog has more. 

In other news:

• On the heels of a Los Angeles Times story saying she was making a play for voters on the right, Democratic Senate candidate Loretta Sanchez pushed Gov. Jerry Brown to sign a bill increasing minimum penalties in sexual assault cases, according to CalWatchdog.
• “More than 250 of California’s 1,228 charter schools, including dozens in Southern California, violate state law by keeping out low-performing students and creating unfair admission policies, according to the American Civil Liberties Union,” reports The San Bernardino County Sun.
• “A major effort to overhaul the state’s energy regulator surprisingly collapsed after late legislative maneuverings led to the unraveling of the broad coalition that had pushed for changes at the scandal-ridden agency,” writes the Los Angeles Times.   
• Democrats in Sacramento pushed through the broadest liberal agenda in recent memory. The Sacramento Bee has more. 

Legislature:

• Gone ’til December. 

Gov. Brown:

• No public events announced. 

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Last week, the seven Republicans on the 13-member board forced out AQMD Director Barry Wallerstein, long criticized by business interests as hostile and indifferent to the economic downside of heavy regulation. In December, the GOP bloc passed on staff recommendations and adopted rules on refineries and other heavy industries that had been lobbied for by the Western States Petroleum Association and other oil interests.

State Senate President pro Tem Kevin de León, D-Los Angeles, reacted sharply to both moves. This week, he announced plans to introduce legislation that would add three members to the AQMD board. The board now consists of 10 elected officials from cities and counties in the AQMD region as well as one member chosen by the governor, one by the Assembly speaker and one by the Senate Rules Committee.

Adding one public health expert and two “environmental justice” members to the board would likely lead to …

… more aggressive steps to curb pollution and would give the state Legislature and Gov. Jerry Brown greater influence over the agency charged with protecting the health of 17 million people in the nation’s smoggiest region.

 

Under de León’s plan, two of the additional appointees would be selected by state legislative leaders. The public health member would be appointed by the governor, increasing the panel from 13 to 16 members. …

 

Recent appointees to the air board, including Highland Mayor Larry McCallon and Lake Forest Councilman Dwight Robinson, have said they want the agency to give more emphasis to the economic burden posed by tougher emissions regulations. Republicans gained a seven-member majority with the swearing in of Robinson last month following a campaign by GOP leaders to gain control of the regulatory agency.

That is from a Los Angeles Times report.

December decision triggers lawsuit from green groups

Meanwhile, the December vote against tough new emission rules has triggered a lawsuit, KPCC reports:

Southern California air has never met state and federal standards for ozone pollution, which is associated with various respiratory and health problems. In EPA-speak, it’s considered an “extreme ozone non-attainment area.” To reduce ozone pollution, the AQMD had proposed further reducing the emission of oxides of nitrogen — known as NOx. …

 

The AQMD staff had been working for three years to devise new rules that would limit the NOx that could be emitted by stationary pollution sources, mostly refineries and a cement plant. The AQMD board voted … for a proposal favored by … local refineries.

 

The WSPA proposal permits refiners and other stationary sources of pollution to emit 14 tons of oxides of nitrogen daily versus only 12 tons envisioned by the AQMD staff plan. The board also voted for a plan that relieved refiners and other polluters of a proposed requirement to install new emission controls and instead permitted them to buy air pollution credits.

 

The Center for Biological Diversity, Communities for a Better Environment, Sierra Club and the Natural Resources Defense Council filed a lawsuit Wednesday against the AQMD over the decision. They called the staff-written proposal “the most significant smog-fighting proposal within its jurisdiction in a decade.”

 

The groups want a Superior Court judge to set aside the December NOx decision and require refineries and other stationery polluters to install equipment to reduce the amount of NOx they put out. The groups do not want the companies to be able to buy pollution credits instead.

The L.A. region has a long history of pioneering in efforts to combat smog and other air pollution. The Los Angeles County Air Pollution Control District, established in 1947 — the first such agency in the nation — was the forerunner of the modern AQMD.

Air pollution in Los Angeles is generally believed to have peaked in the 1950s. Smog health alerts, once a common occurrence, are now rare. But the L.A. area still has the worst or among the worst records for air pollution of any U.S. city, depending on the category of pollutant.

On Saturday, Jan. 23, the South Coast Air Quality Management District approved an order drafted by SoCal Gas that contains language promoting secrecy in the cleanup efforts while limiting the levels of liability in what is certain to be multi-million dollar damages.

“This order is an attempt to limit the damages from the date that they ‘follow the rules’ – which is when this was signed, Jan. 23,” said attorney Patricia Oliver, who has filed a class action lawsuit. “It’s very bizarre, almost a finding of innocence. If they are in compliance with the law.”

The ruling came down one day after a town hall meeting attended by two members of Congress and environmental activist Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., who is also an attorney on the case. More than 1,000 residents packed into a local church to get medical and legal advice on how to deal with the disaster.

The offending site is in Northridge, where 115 natural gas wells are located 8,500 feet underground. Beginning Oct. 23, area residents began getting sick and experiencing bloody noses while reporting noxious fumes permeating the area. The catastrophe continued unmitigated and caused residents to move from their homes as Gov. Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency on Jan. 6.

SoCal Gas has been unable to plug the leak and predicts that it will need another month for full compliance. Los Angeles County Health Dept. says no long-term risks exist.

Resident Christine Katz doesn’t buy it.

“My daughter was hospitalized for three days in the ICU for upper respiratory problems,” she said. “My 2-1/2-year old was having trouble breathing and needed an inhaler. We were fine, living a normal happy family life until all of this happened and now we are living in a rental house with our three dogs far from home.”

Burrowed into the AQMD order is language that SoCal Gas can use as a defense in against the residents in a lawsuit, Oliver said.

Legal Cover

“Specifically, the order says it is being adopted to ‘further compliance with AQMD rules and regulations’ and that AQMD ‘believes that such conditions will mitigate the conditions contributing to the alleged nuisance and further compliance with AQMD rules and regulations,’” she said.

In other words, all SoCal Gas has to say in court is that they were following the order and the leaks were under legal levels, Oliver added.

SoCal Gas claimed that while inspecting the 115 wells it found numerous “minor leaks … below levels that would constitute a violation of current district rules” and that “all the minor well leaks … have been repaired.”

Yet the utility stopped short of including any language that would require proof of repair. Oliver has asked for such documentation and received none.

“There is no factual basis to support these statements,” she said. “All of their results have been secretive.”

While no facts have been forthcoming, SoCal Gas initially sought to specifically prevent its disclosure in the order by claiming that any data submitted regarding its progress be withheld from the public because it is a “trade secret.” This language was stricken by the AQMD.

An AQMD spokesman refused to comment.

In front a background of a steady stream of work vehicles ascending the Santa Susana Mountains to the Porter Ranch Aliso Canyon methane gas storage facility, several state senators laid out plans for dealing with the leak’s aftermath once the leak is stopped. The trick is to make sure residents are safe while assuring that energy is available for millions of California’s businesses and residents.