How California climate action will cut tax revenue

The biggest outcome from the United Nations climate change conference was the breakthrough agreement by nearly 200 nations to phase out fossil fuels. The pact is expected to mark the “‘beginning of the end’ of the fossil fuel era,” the U.N. declared after COP28 wrapped up Wednesday in Dubai.

California is already in the process of phasing out fossil fuels and making deep investments in renewable energy, such as electric vehicles and offshore wind power. The state sent a delegation of administration officials and legislators to the conference, including California Natural Resources Agency Secretary Wade Crowfoot, who praised the move as “obviously needed” but only a first step.

• Crowfoot, in an interview with CalMatters: “We need to take as aggressive action in California as possible to ultimately help meet the targets set by our federal leaders and to demonstrate to the world that the U.S. will lead on this transition.”

Sen. Monique Limón, a Democrat from Santa Barbara and member of the natural resources committee, also told me that the agreement was “part of the conversation” the entirety of the conference, which was extended by a day, but reaching a consensus “came down to the wire.” She anticipates that with the new agreement, California will play an even larger role as the Legislature continues to pass and implement laws that curb fossil fuel supply and demand.

• Limón: “It is true that California is among the most advanced in this area. It’s also true that we are not alone, that we are standing with most of the globe in this transition…. That is why our role there matters. People are looking to us.”

But California environmental group The Climate Center argues that the U.N. agreement — which is voluntary and non-binding — is more symbolic and doesn’t go far enough. 

• Barry Vesser, the center’s operating officer, in a statement: “On the heels of another disappointing COP, the world desperately needs climate leaders like California to step up…. If we can do it in California — the fifth-largest economy in the world and still a major oil and gas producer — we can do it anywhere.”

In response, Crowfoot acknowledged that “an agreement on paper does not equate needed action,” but at the same time it shows the state is on the right path. “The agreement we signed won’t change what California is doing because California in many ways has been leading this. But it does very much validate our approach,” he said.

The other side of phasing out fossil fuels: Fossil fuels may be a major contributor of climate change, but it’s also a key energy source that has helped build economies large and small. Plans to transition away from it will be complicated, as the latest assessment from the Legislative Analyst’s Office proves, explains CalMatters climate reporter Alejandro Lazo.

On Wednesday, the nonpartisan office reported that as more Californians adopt electric vehicles and zero-emissions technology, the state will lose nearly $6 billion over the next decade in gas taxes. That money goes toward highway programs and road maintenance, and particularly hurts low-income communities that rely more on public transit options (which could also lose out in funding) and are slower to adopt zero-emission vehicles.

To make up for the loss of revenue, especially in the face of a projected $68 billion state deficit next year, the Legislature and governor will have to find new funding sources, which could mean increasing gas taxes or vehicle fees even more. Alejandro tried to ask legislators about this, but received no response.

For more on the impact of climate action on gas tax revenue, read his story.

It may not seem like it with the dysfunction in Washington, D.C., but an open congressional seat is a coveted prize for politicians. So when former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy of Bakersfield announced last week he’s leaving, that drew a lot of attention.    

Assemblymember Vince Fong beat Wednesday’s filing deadline to run and got a leg up with McCarthy’s endorsement. 

But there’s the small matter of state election law: It says that it’s too late for Fong, also a Bakersfield Republican, to withdraw from his Assembly campaign and that candidates can’t seek two offices at the same time.  

MAGA candidate David Giglio says he will challenge Fong’s right to run in court.

• Giglio, in a statement: “Former Speaker McCarthy and Mr. Fong’s misguided actions are yet another example of the corrupt Washington cartel acting outside the boundaries of the law.” 

Fong’s campaign insists it’s a non-issue, while the Secretary of State’s office says it’s looking into it.

In any case, the race got more interesting with the last-minute entry of Tulare County Sheriff Mike Boudreaux, a Republican in his third term. In his announcement, he said he would focus on border security, immigration, water and other issues important to the Central Valley.

Earlier this week, he told KSEE this week that he would bring a “law and order” perspective.

• Boudreaux, in the interview: “I could be sitting in Congress with the idea that I’ve investigated cases, I know what evidence it takes, I know when people are lying to me. I don’t know that that’s the best perspective, but I do feel that I bring a positive note…”

Two other Republicans are also in the mix, according to GV Wire: Kyle Kirkland, a Fresno casino owner, is a first-time candidate, while Matthew Stoll, a former Navy fighter pilot, ran for Congress in the 2022 special election to replace Rep. Devin Nunes.

On the Democratic side, John Burrows announced Wednesday that he’s pulling out of the race and throwing his support to fellow Democrat Marisa Wood, a Bakersfield teacher. Burrows, most recently public relations director for the city of Fresno, said that after talking to pollsters and others, it’s clear to him that if multiple Democrats run in what’s considered a safe Republican district, it’s likely to box out any Democrat from finishing in the top two in the March 5 primary and advancing to November.

• Burrows, in a statement: “The Central Valley can’t afford to choose between two MAGA Republicans.”

From CalMatters higher education reporter Mikhail Zinshteyn:

Marlene Garcia, the California Student Aid Commission’s executive director, said Wednesday that she’ll be retiring at the end of next June.

Since taking the post in 2019, she has helped to oversee a massive expansion of state financial aid, which the commission oversees, particularly the Cal Grant and Middle Class Scholarship, as well as aid for emerging teachers and opportunities for students to earn paychecks. Through state legislation and dollars, Garcia steered an organization that is now serving  nearly 300,000 more Californians who were eligible for financial aid.

As executive director, she helped to push California toward a nation-leading vision of higher education affordability that looked beyond tuition to instead focus on the full cost of college attendance a student must pay, including housing, books, food and other related expenses.

The commission supersized the Middle Class Scholarship under her watch. The program was bolstered by hundreds of millions of dollars in new state funding, and expanded aid from some 50,000 students to nearly 300,000. 

The commission also led a campaign to overhaul the state’s flagship financial aid tool, the Cal Grant, so that it would become more readily available to so-called non-traditional students — those who pursue college more than a year after finishing high school. Not all of those goals have translated into law, but some have. In 2021 lawmakers expanded the Cal Grant to 100,000 more community college students. Work to provide the grant as a guarantee to other community college students, plus older University of California and California State University students, remains an ongoing effort, stymied largely by the state’s shaky finances.

Still, she leaves a legacy in which the commission’s state funding surged from $2.4 billion in 2018-19 to $3.3 billion in 2023-24. 

The commission will soon begin a search through a private search firm to replace her.

In other campus news: Following the breakout of the Israeli-Palestinian war in October, several incidents of student harassment have been reported on college campuses nationwide. Under Title VI, schools must provide students an environment “free from discrimination,” including based on shared ancestry or ethnicity. The U.S. Department of Education is investigating “antisemitism, anti-Muslim, anti-Arab, and other forms of discrimination,” and its list now includes three in California: Stanford University, UCLA and UC San Diego. 

And after months of organizing throughout the year to join the California State University Employees Union, Cal State student assistants have scheduled their first union election on Jan. 25. Seeking higher wages, more hours and paid sick leave, the 20,000-member group is expected to form one of the largest student worker unions in U.S. history.

Last week, the U.S. Department of Labor announced that major California processor The Exclusive Poultry Inc., and its owner Tony Bran, must pay nearly $3.8 million in back wages and penalties for employing children, retaliating against workers and for failing to pay overtime to their employees.

The lawsuit underscores the state’s problem with wage theft and the country’s recent surge in child labor cases, writes Alejandra Reyes-Velarde of CalMatters’ California Divide team. A labor department attorney, Nisha Parekh, told Alejandra that at two processing plants, investigators found at least eight child workers. The children, some as young as 14 and all of whom were indigenous Guatemalan migrants, stood for 12 hours a day, cutting and deboning chicken with deep cuts on their arms.

• Parekh: “It’s incredibly hard work. It is not an environment for a child to be working in.”

Bran, and a number of front companies that he set up, also tried to hide minors from investigators, concealing them in bathrooms and closets or sending them through a back door whenever investigators came by, according to the department’s complaint.

Since 2018, the department has documented 34 child labor cases in California, with 103 children employed in violation of labor laws. In September, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a law to require teachers to instruct high schoolers on workplace rights, workplace safety, child labor laws, wage theft and unions. The law also mandates school administrators, whenever they sign a minor’s work permit, to also give that student a document summarizing their workplace rights. 

For more on the Labor Department’s investigation, read Alejandra’s story.