Legislative Update -- Governor's Vetoes

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With Vetoes, Special Interests Trump Environment
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After a successful legislative season in which environmentalists were able
to move numerous proactive measures through the Legislature and onto
the Governor's desk, our efforts at strengthening environmental laws were
impeded once again by Governor Pete Wilson. The Governor vetoed bills
without regard for their positive impacts on public health and the
environment, demonstrating an unwillingness to do anything that might
irritate his business and industry friends.

ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE: In an affront to equity and fairness, the
Governor vetoed the two environmental justice bills that reached his desk
this year: SB 451 (Watson) and SB 1113 (Solis). The bills would have
taken steps to ensure that people of all races, cultures and income would be
fairly treated in the siting of polluting facilities.

SB 451 would have required local governments to distribute industrial
facilities in such a way as to reduce exposures to hazardous substances
near residential and school areas, regardless of race, culture and income
level. The bill was considerably stronger when introduced, but Senator
Watson amended it to remove industry opposition to it. Wilson refused to
accept responsibility for his veto and attributed it to the remaining
opposition of the League of California Cities, however, fancifully asserting
that the bill would "add nothing of practical value to the present extensive
and rigorous protections and planning requirements demanded by existing
law." Of course, if those protections were sufficiently extensive and
rigorous, then low-income and minority communities would not continue
to be disproportionately exposed to environmentally damaging projects.

In his veto of SB 1113, Wilson explicitly rejected environmental justice in
favor of reducing environmental regulations on industry. The bill would
have required the adoption of guidelines under the California
Environmental Quality Act to ensure that polluting industries are not
concentrated near minority and low-income communities. In vetoing the
bill the Governor demonstrated far greater concern for polluters than for
those subjected to their pollution. He wrote, "The California
Environmental Quality Act was not designed to be used as a tool for a
social movement. The California Environmental Quality Act is a
cumbersome process and any changes made to it should be to streamline
the current process, not add new requirements that will only negatively
affect the economy and people of this state."

COAST: Governor Wilson drew accolades from the press for signing into
law many of the coastal bills that reached his desk. He received almost no
attention, however, for vetoing some of the most crucial legislation that
addressed California's serious water quality problems.

Most importantly, Wilson's veto of AB 1479 (Sweeney) effectively ends an
eight-year effort to clean up California's bays and estuaries. The bill
extended and restructured the Bay Protection and Toxic Cleanup Program
to address toxic hot spots. Funded by polluter fees, AB 1479 continued a
program that has already demonstrated significant results. While the
Governor feigned commitment to the program's goals in his veto message,
his unwillingness to continue the fees demonstrate yet again his greater
concern for the health of businesses than for the health of people.

He further ignored coastal water quality problems in vetoing SB 499
(Alpert), which would have required development and implementation of a
program to control polluted runoff.

On other coastal issues, Wilson vetoed bills to improve accountability
among Coastal Commissioners (AB 1022 Lempert), and to create and fund
programs to acquire, restore and enhance coastal wetlands (AB 241
Lempert).

PUBLIC RECORDS: Two bills which would have improved electronic
access to public records were vetoed by the Governor, who claimed they
were too "rigid" and "inflexible." AB 179 (Bowen) and SB 74 (Kopp)
would have provided for public inspection and copying of records,
requiring government agencies to make public records available in an
electronic format, when the records exist in such a format. The bills were
among the more important "sleeper" bills of the year, ensuring the public
affordable access to information in a usable and less resource-intensive
format. The Governor ignored the right-to-know issues implicit in the bills,
though, and instead vetoed them citing apprehension about potential
lawsuits.

*******

Governor Wilson did do some fairly good things this year, signing a
number of coastal bills, some widely-supported legislation to protect
drinking water from contamination by MTBE and other gasoline
constituents (AB 592 Kuehl and SB 1189 Hayden), a bill that would
establish a monitoring program for fine particulate matter (AB 968 Knox),
and a bill that would allow Bay Area voters to vote on a gas tax to fund
regional transportation initiatives (AB 595 Brown). However, on the most
crucial legislation he failed to stand up to business and industry interests
and instead vetoed bills that could have made significant steps towards
protecting and restoring California's environment.

For a complete report on the 1997 legislative season, including the
Governor's actions on all legislation the Sierra Club watched, please
contact Megan Mullin at (916) 557-1100 x102 or
<megan.mullin@sierraclub.org>.

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