Legislative Sessions, Governor’s Term Wind Down, All Wound Up

As his term in office winds down, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is anything but winding down. Fresh off his victory in the anti-Proposition 23 campaign, he hosted the Third Governors’ Global Climate Summit at UC Davis’ Mondavi Center, inviting dignitaries, celebrities, scientists and others from around the world to advance the climate change agenda through sub-national governments in advance of the upcoming United Nations Climate Change Conference to be held November 29 th through December 10 th in Cancun, Mexico. Several articles in this issue’s Press Releases Plus section, including one by Governor Schwarzenegger himself, describe the two-day event. The Governor has also called yet another special legislative session, his 18 th , to deal with the budget. The non-partisan Legislative Analyst’s Office has estimated that next year’s budget (2011-12) is out of balance by $25.4 billion, some $6 billion of it due to this year’s budget, which will carry over if something is not done by June 30 th . While the governor exudes his characteristic enthusiasm for the special session, he is having trouble finding someone who shares this emotional state. The dynamics of the next budget balancing act have changed dramatically since the record-shattering 100-day standoff of the current year’s budget process. Update from the still-being-counted election: Kamala Harris appears to have defeated Steve Cooley for Attorney General by a razor-thin 42,523 votes out of 9,384,593 cast, making statewide offices a clean sweep for the Democrats. Proposition 25 passed handily, giving the Democrats the sole voice in passing the budget, by eliminating the 2/3 vote requirement for passage. Propositions 21, 22, and 24 all punched big holes in the current-year budget, and locked the doors to new revenues by not raising a new tax, preventing future raids on local funds, and failing to repeal existing tax breaks, respectively. Incoming Governor-elect Jerry Brown promised voters in crystal-clear language that he will not raise taxes without a vote of the people. All of these factors combine to put the burden of cutting programs to meet the current level of revenue squarely on the shoulders of legislative Democrats. Without two-party involvement, there won’t be any point in having a prolonged stalemate, except by intra-party factions, which would clearly be a circular firing squad. So all this budget balancing will need to be complete by June 15 th or so. Given these dynamics, it is easy to understand a lack of enthusiasm on the part of legislative Democrats for a painful lame-duck session on the current budget, all of which can and will be re-lived in June, although it may be equally easy to understand that it is the responsible thing for Governor Schwarzenegger to do to call a session to at least give it a try. Don’t get your hopes up for much in the way of accomplishments in the special session. Within the executive branch of government there will be some action shortly. The Air Resources Board has released regulations that trigger a 45-day comment period that culminates in a public hearing December 16 th in Sacramento to adopt its proposed greenhouse gas cap-and-trade program. With the collapse last summer of federal climate bills, the eyes of the world will be on California’s implementation of this aspect of AB 32 in particular. Arnold Schwarzenegger will be flying cover for the ARB, and may find a post-retirement vocation in promoting action against global warming at sub-national levels, a theme which he clearly espoused at his climate summit earlier this week. He’s in a unique position to carry out this mission, and he is, in the words of the Sierra Club’s Bill Magavern, “a powerful ambassador for the cause.” The Public Utilities Commission will be considering adopting a Proposed Settlement, also on December 16th, that will change the regulatory world for distributed generation in California. See a separate article this issue for more details. Incoming governor-elect Jerry Brown will find unprecedented opportunities to appoint majorities on the Energy Commission and the sometimes-insular Public Utilities Commission. Energy Commissioner Jeffrey Byron’s term expires in January, and another commissioner’s term will expire each year, giving Brown four appointments at least. The PUC will graduate Commissioners Dian Grueneich and John Bohn this coming January. Commissioner Nancy Ryan was appointed by Schwarzenegger last January but has yet to be confirmed by the Senate. She has one year to be confirmed, in which case her term will run until 2014. There are unconfirmed rumors that a large southern California municipal utility is seeking the services of PUC President Michael Peevey to run the ship. If Peevey were to leave, and Ryan does not get confirmed, Brown will have four appointments on the five-member commission. If he needed to make sweeping changes to see his energy agenda carried out, he has that opportunity. Usually when a governorship changes parties, such an opportunity would make for a dramatic shift in policy. While much has been made in the media about the overlapping jurisdictions of the PUC, the CEC, and the ARB, (Brown even made mention of it in the campaign) all three agencies have been models of cooperation on Schwarzenegger’s watch. Issues such as renewable electricity generation, distributed generation, feed-in tariffs, climate change, power plant development, incentive programs, air emission regulation, advanced transportation, loading order, and other programs cross agency boundaries in direct potential conflict. Yet somehow these agencies have worked harmoniously together and reinforced each others’ efforts and programs. And even though it earned him the title of RINO from his own party, Schwarzenegger’s energy and environmental policies have been more similar than different from what Brown will be bringing in. In this case, Governor-elect Brown could do a lot worse than to reappoint the appointees of Governor Schwarzenegger.

Over 11K Stories!

| Independently Powered Energy News

Legislative Sessions, Governor’s Term Wind Down, All Wound Up

dgrandy

Related Posts

Auld Lang Zine

Air Regulators 2022 Scoping Plan to Slash Emissions is a Go

Accelerated Federal Relicensing of Diablo Protested

Smart grid implementation at SMUD