As the Los Angeles Times just reported, the oil industry is not only behind a request from Assemblymember Adam Gray and a dozen other lawmakers to audit the Air Resources Board, at the forefront of state efforts against global warming, but wrote the request for Gray.
In 2002 I stood up in front of the U.S. Senate Energy Committee and presented reasons why Enron had caused the so called “California Energy Crisis.” I was alone that day on a panel of senior regulators and energy officials. My picture in the New York Times the next day captured the puzzled looks of my more important panelists as I failed to support the consensus that nothing was wrong.
JUNE 14, 2016 UPDATE: This morning, the Assembly Business and Professions committee voted 16-0 for SB 482 by Senator Lara, to rein in opioid over-prescribing and curb the overdose epidemic. Prince’s death, and the loss of thousands of Californians every year, has helped spur lawmakers to stand above politics and stand up for reform.
The much awaited hearing in the Senate Utilities, Energy and Communications Committee this morning was largely a dud, but it offered some key admissions by the utilities and energy regulators.
Despite widespread warnings to the contrary, in the report issued by energy regulators and So Cal Gas that was the subject of the hearing, there will be no blackouts this summer due to Aliso's closure.
It’s not whether you vote yes or no, but whether you vote at all that really matters. That’s the lesson from years of non-voting scandals that have rocked the Capitol and killed critical legislation.
Legislators are paid to take stands, not to stand by and help powerful special interests through their inactions and abstentions when they are present.
At 9:30 AM on Tuesday the California Senate Energy, Utilities, and Communications Committee will examine whether So Cal Gas and state energy regulators rigged a report claiming there would be blackouts in LA if Aliso Canyon's natural gas storage stays off line.
The hearings have the potential to pull the curtain back on who really wrote the report (So Cal Gas?) and whether the public was misled.