http://www.environmentcalifornia.org/newsroom/other-news/other-news http://www.environmentcalifornia.org/newsroom/other-news/other-news/major-environmental-bills-pass-california-legislature This was a great year for California’s environment as the California Legislature, under the leadership of Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez (Los Angeles) and Senate President Don Perata (Oakland), passed several pieces of historic environmental legislation. “We applaud the Legislature for taking great steps to protect California’s environment. The leaders worked tirelessly to pass legislation that will reduce global warming pollution, increase solar power, and reduce our exposure to dangerous toxic chemicals,” said Dan Jacobson, legislative director for Environment California. We would like to recognize several legislators who stood out as environmental champions this legislative session. Speaker Nunez and Senate President Perata were champions on global warming pollution. Senators Sheila Kuehl (Los Angeles) and Joe Simitian (Palo Alto) continued their environmental leadership in the Senate. Assemblymembers Hector De La Torre (South Gate) and John Laird (Santa Cruz) were environmental champions in the Assembly. Here is a selection of key environmental issues that the Legislature took action on this year. Global WarmingPASSED AB 32(Nunez and Pavley) Sets a cap and requires reporting of global warming gases. PASSED SB 1368 (Perata) Establishes a greenhouse gas performance standard for new generation resources. Energy PASSED SB 1 (Murray) Requires builders to offer solar power as an option on all new homes. Allows solar homes and businesses to receive a credit for excess power sent back to the grid by raising the cap on net metering . Sets a goal for the state’s municipal utilities to adopt their own solar rebate programs. PASSED SB 107 (Simitian) Increases the Renewable Portfolio Standard to 20 percent by 2010 and 33 percent by 2020. FAILED 426 (Simitian) Requires the CEC to evaluate proposed liquefied natural gas terminals. PASSED AB 1632 (Blakeslee) Requires the CEC to evaluate public costs and vulnerability of California’s aging nuclear power plants. Environmental HealthPASSED AB 2865 (Torrico) Extends the Healthy Schools Act to private, licensed day cares to promote the use of Integrated Pest Management practices and protect California’s youngest children. PASSED AB 289 (Chan) Authorizes state regulators to obtain the detection methods for toxic chemicals from chemical companies to save the state money. PASSED SB 1379 (Perata) Creates a biomonitoring program in California to detect chemicals in people. FAILED AB 815 (Lieber) Closes the gap between environmental and workplace standards for toxic chemicals. \PASSED AB 2490 (Ruskin) Creates the California Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) program in response to rollbacks of the federal TRI program. Protect California's Coast PASSED AJR 55 (Nava/Yee) A resolution that calls for the California Congressional Delegation to protect our coast PASSED AB 2485 (Jones/Laird) Reduces contaminants going into our oceans and establishes protection for the Sea Otter. Clean Drinking Water PASSED SB 187 (Soto) Requires state officials to consider the cost of drinking water pollution to public health in setting state standards. Clean Air PASSED SB 927 (Lowenthal) Levies a $30/container user fee on each shipping container processed through the Ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles to be used for mitigating the environmental impacts at the port. FAILED SB 1205 (Escutia) Increases penalties for air polluters and help fund asthma programs. FAILED SB 1252 (Florez) Prevents weakening of California air quality standards if the Bush administration relaxes federal rules for air quality. http://www.environmentcalifornia.org/newsroom/other-news/other-news/major-environmental-bills-pass-california-legislature Sun, 11 Nov 2007 18:02:25 -0600 http://www.environmentcalifornia.org/newsroom/other-news/other-news/environment-california-releases-end-of-session-watch-list-for-top-environmental-bills Sacramento – The http://www.environmentcalifornia.org/newsroom/other-news/other-news/environment-california-releases-end-of-session-watch-list-for-top-environmental-bills Sun, 11 Nov 2007 18:02:25 -0600 http://www.environmentcalifornia.org/newsroom/other-news/other-news/speaker-nunez-praised-as-environmental-champion http://www.environmentcalifornia.org/newsroom/other-news/other-news/speaker-nunez-praised-as-environmental-champion Sun, 11 Nov 2007 18:02:25 -0600