LegAlert #97-13

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Two Weeks Left in the Legislative Season:
Bills Start Moving Quickly
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The legislative season ends September 12 this year, which leaves
just two weeks to move the hundreds of bills that are still alive.
Expect to receive several more alerts over the next fourteen days,
as we try to ensure that our priority bills reach the Governor's desk
this year. Please respond as quickly as possible to the alerts --
phone calls and faxes to your legislators within a day or two after
receiving our notice -- because things move quickly in the final days
of the legislative year.

All the following bills will come up for vote early next week
(probably Monday) on the Senate floor. Please contact your state
Senators and urge them to support these bills.

** AB 595 (Brown) ** AB 595, described in LegAlert #97-4,
would authorize the Metropolitan Transportation Commission to
impose, with voter approval, a gas tax to fund regional
transportation initiatives within the Commission's jurisdiction.

MESSAGE TO YOUR SENATOR: AB 595 encourages a
proactive, collaborative approach to transportation planning,
putting increased control of transportation facilities into the hands
of the people who use them.

** AB 834 (Bowen) ** AB 834 would require the Bureau of
Automotive Repair to set up a voluntary leaking fluids inspection
program called the Ocean Safe Vehicles Program.

Runoff from streets and highways is one of the greatest threats to
coastal waters and inland waterways, and AB 834 would establish
an important program for reducing the amounts of leaking auto
fluids that are eventually washed into storm drains and cause
damage to coastal environments and wildlife. By notifying vehicle
owners of leaking fluids and providing them with information on
the toxic impacts of fluids, the bill will motivate substantial numbers
of owners to fix their vehicles.

MESSAGE TO YOUR SENATOR: AB 834 addresses the serious
environmental and public health threat of stormwater runoff into
California's coastal and inland waters. The voluntary program it
creates would impose no new duties on businesses, but it would
allow responsible repair shops to benefit by advertising their
involvement. It is an important addition to the state's pollution
prevention efforts.

** AB 968 (Knox) ** AB 968 would require the Air Resources
Board to conduct a monitoring program for fine particulate
pollution (PM 2.5).

Particulate pollution causes the premature death of at least 35,000
people each year, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency. A recent study by scientists from the EPA and the
National Center for Health Statistics also suggests a strong
relationship between particulate matter and infant mortality. Fine
particles, PM 2.5, pose the greatest risk to human health of any
particulate matter.

In California, the biggest contributors to the particulate problem are
diesel trucks and buses. A recent ARB study linked as many as
2000 cancer deaths per year with particulates in diesel exhaust
alone. California's unique fine particulate problem demonstrates the
need for a monitoring network which can better characterize public
exposure and establish a basis for future control efforts.

MESSAGE TO YOUR SENATOR: Fine particulate pollution is a
major threat to public health in California. Establishing a
monitoring program is the first step towards better characterizing
the exposure levels to PM 2.5 pollution and better protecting the
public from its health effects.

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To find out who your state legislators are, call:
(916) 445-3614 (Assembly)
(916) 445-4251 (Senate)

To find out the email addresses for your state legislators, check the
following Web pages:
http://www.assembly.ca.gov/acs/acsframeset7.htm
http://www.sen.ca.gov/htbin/seninfo/sen.senator

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