By Katy Grimes

Stop the presses! A really good Republican bill just passed the Assembly 63-0. What? How?

AB 527 by Assemblywoman Beth Gaines, R-Rocklin, would repeal the existing exemption of the Western Climate Initiative, Inc., and its appointees, from the Bagley-Keene Open Meeting Act when performing their duties.

Thus far, WCI, Inc. an arm of the California Air Resources Board registered in Delaware, has been operating in secrecy.

Immediately after its passage, a very happy Gains explained more about her bill to me.

“First, the bill prohibits the Air Resources Board from making a payment to WCI, Inc., the out of state company charged with implementing California’s cap-and-trade, unless the Air Resources Board certifies that WCI, Inc. complies with the provisions of the California Open Meetings Act and Public Records Act insuring that all meetings and actions are subject to public scrutiny.”

“Secondly, it makes WCI, Inc. subject to audit by the California State Auditor. In the event of an audit, ARB may not make any payments to WCI, Inc. unless WCI, Inc. complies with the audit.”

What is the WCI, Inc.?

According to their website, WCI, Inc. was created to develop a compliance tracking system that tracks both allowances and offsets for the CARB’s can and trade program. WCI, Inc. will also administer allowance auctions; and conduct market monitoring of allowance auctions and offset certificate trading.

According to Gaines, existing law imposes conditions on the Western Climate Initiative, Inc., which is a nongovernmental entity created to assist the state board in the implementation of the act.

The Bagley-Keene Open Meeting Act, requires that all meetings of a state body be open and public. But the law creating the WCI, Inc. exempted the corporation, and its appointees from the Bagley-Keene Open Meeting Act.

Gaines’ bill would repeal that exemption.

Interestingly,  WCI, Inc. was coincidentally registered in Delaware.

A little CARB History

In November 2011, the California Air Resources Board  formed WCI, Inc., a non-profit corporation, formed to provide administrative and technical services to support the implementation of state and provincial greenhouse gas emissions trading programs.

According to their website, WCI, Inc. will develop a compliance tracking system that tracks both allowances and offsets; administer allowance auctions; and conduct market monitoring of allowance auctions and offset certificate trading.

The Board of Directors is made up of public officials from Quebec and British Columbia, and public officials from the State of California.

California officials include:

Matt Rodriguez, Secretary for Environmental Protection, Mary Nichols, Chairman of the California Air Resources Board, Assemblywoman Nancy Skinner, D-Berkelely, and Kip Lipper, senior staff member to California State Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, and D-Sacramento, often called the “41st senator,”  and referred to as the godfather of California’s environmental bills.

No environmental legislation passes, or gets killed in the Legislature, without Lipper’s approval.

“Lipper is officially classified as an “environmental consultant” to the state Senate.  Any environmental bill that has come out of the Legislature in the last decade has only done so because Lipper allowed it, or because he made it happen,” I wrote in CEQA reforms blow smog over state. “When a bill becomes ‘Lipperized,’ it is altered into a far different bill than the original. Or the bill will die in a committee upon Lipper’s orders.”

And Lipper is now on the WCI, Inc. Board of Directors.

According to bill analysis:

Existing law sets out the authority and duties of the California State Auditor in conducting audits and surveys of specified entities. Existing law authorizes and provides access to the California State Auditor and his or her authorized representatives to examine and reproduce various records of any agency of the state. This bill would require a contract between the state and the Western Climate Initiative, Incorporated, to be subject to audit by the California State Auditor.

Bringing in the State Auditor is a great idea. The Air Resources Board could use a dose of this transparency as well.

“The Air Resources Board, with the authority of AB 32, The Global Warming Solutions Act, has already started down the path of abuse of power,” Gaines said recently on her Assembly website. “I have always been opposed the high cost and ambiguity of AB 32, but now that it is being fully implemented my primary goal is to expose the outrageous cost to job creators in this state.”

By Katy Grimes

In the wee hours of the night, at the end of the last legislative session, language was added into a bill to push forward reforms to California’s 40-year old environmental policy, the California Environmental Quality Act.

The reforms were sponsored by the CEQA Working Group, a business-labor-government coalition.  Intended to reduce frivolous environmental litigation and duplicative government oversight, the reforms ended up being part of a smoggy deal.

Before anyone could stop them, the Democratic leadership swooped in on the bill and changed it.

SB 317

Because of California’s stringent environmental laws and project-killing local planning requirements, nearly all public and private projects in the state are legally challenged under CEQA, even when a project meets all other environmental standards of state law.

SB 317, co-authored by Sen. Michael Rubio, D-Shafter, a gut-and-amend bill, would not have actually changed CEQA, but instead would have introduced a companion law to dictate how CEQA is enforced. The new legislation would have restricted certain types of lawsuits, and would have exempted some projects from CEQA review, as long as those projects conformed with local planning and zoning codes.

It was essentially a tort reform bill just for CEQA, specifically addressing the act’s legal abuse.

CEQA is often called “the tort lawyer full employment act.” Most efforts for CEQA reform stem from the volume of frivolous lawsuits by opponents not always motivated by environmental protection. Most often, political and personal issues motivate the zealots who file CEQA lawsuits. They are willing to dramatically complicate and even halt development projects of all kinds, just because they can.

What is CEQA?

What started 40 years ago as a reasonable idea has transformed into one of the more putative forms of business regulation in the state.

The California Environmental Quality Act, enacted in 1970, requires that state and local agencies analyze the potential to harm the environmental of any development project, and identify measures to reduce that harm.

There are now 17 areas of environmental concern and 84 criteria in CEQA, including water, air quality, animal life, plant life, hazardous materials and even traffic.

Since CEQA’s 1970 passage, the Legislature has enacted more than 120 additional environmental laws. Most of California’s environmental laws are far more stringent than mandated by federal law, which SB 317 sought to address.

SB 317 claimed that federal laws are better at ensuring environmental compliance than CEQA. “Environmental laws and regulations identify compliance obligations that apply uniformly to similarly situated projects and activities … and thereby provide greater clarity than the project-by-project ad hoc review process that was created for CEQA in 1970,” the bill states.

SB 317 criticized CEQA duplicating environmental impact studies.

Even some in the Democratic Party want to see CEQA reforms, and acknowledge privately what a disaster it has been. But Capitol insiders say the political reality is that nothing is going to change because of a couple of powerful Capitol staff members who really control CEQA.

CEQA “Lipperized”

Often called the “41st senator,”  Kernan “Kip” Lipper, Senate President Darrell Steinberg’s executive staff director, is the godfather of California’s environmental bills.

Lipper is officially classified as an “environmental consultant” to the state Senate.  Any environmental bill that has come out of the Legislature in the last decade has only done so because Lipper allowed it, or because he made it happen. “Lawmakers used to jokingly ask whether a bill had been ‘Lipperized’ — and they still say that, only no longer in jest,” Capitol Weekly reported in 2010. When a bill becomes “Lipperized,” it is altered into a far different bill than the original. Or the bill will die in a committee upon Lipper’s orders.

“’He has more influence than some senators,” said state Sen. Tony Strickland, R-Thousand Oaks, “but that’s not necessarily a compliment,” the Los Angeles Times reported in 2009. ” ‘You can’t fault Kip for being good at what he does,” Strickland said, “but I personally believe the voters would rather that the power lies with the people they elected.’”

Gifts to friends

On Sept. 13, SB 317 appeared to have been “Lipperized,” as it was sent to a dark corner of the Senate closet. Simultaneously, Steinberg appointed Rubio as Chairman of the Senate Environmental Quality Committee.

The EQ committee “has jurisdiction over environmental quality, air quality, water quality, integrated waste management, toxics and hazardous waste,” a Senate press release said. “In upcoming weeks and prior to the beginning of the next legislative session, Senator Rubio will host several introductory roundtable meetings and hearings throughout California to learn from environmental groups, businesses and residents what environmental issues are of concern in their area.”

Oddly, the press release also said, “Senator Rubio also looks forward to working closely with all stakeholders to strengthen the core purpose of the California Environmental Quality Act to protect the environment, while eliminating abuses that inhibit economic growth in the state.” Could that have been a warning?

Many in the state say that CEQA reform is not possible given the existing unelected circumstances of legislative control. In the coming months, Californians will see if lawmakers’ talk of CEQA reform is more spin, or if California’s most stringent environmental law will be loosened to allow some economic recovery in the state.