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IN THIS ISSUE – “For a guy who is not running for president, he sure acts like he’s running.”
David McCuan, political science professor, on Newsom’s trip to Israel & China
- Governor’s Legislative Scorecard: 890 New Laws, 156 Vetoes
- Four Key Lessons Learned from Newsom’s Actions on Bills
- Newsom’s Foreign Affairs Trip…
- Today, Israel (Surprise!)
- Next, China
- California Gets $1.2 Billion in Federal Hydrogen Hub Funding
- Offshore Windpower: The Future or “Industrializing the Coast”?
Capital News & Notes (CN&N) harvests California policy, legislative and regulatory insights from dozens of media and official sources for the past week. Please feel free to forward this unique client service.
FOR THE WEEK ENDING OCT. 20, 2023
Governor’s Legislative Scorecard: 890 New Laws, 156 Vetoes
Politico’s California Playbook
Gov. Gavin Newsom — who finished signing and vetoing bills last Friday, one day before his deadline — signed 890 bills this session and vetoed 156. That’s fewer than in 2022, when the governor signed 997 and vetoed 169. However, the veto rate stayed nearly the same, at just over 14%.
So how about those bills?
Unsurprisingly, the vast majority of those signed (83%) were authored by Democrats, the party to which Newsom belongs. A majority (63%) of the bills came from the .
As for those bills that were vetoed, 67% came from the Assembly and more than 88% of those were authored by Democrats. As for the other 33% of vetoed bills, they came from the Senate and 94% of them were authored by Newsom’s own party.
There were 891 Senate bills introduced in 2023, 330 became law and 51 were vetoed. There were 1,771 Assembly bills this year, 560 of those became law and 105 of them were vetoed.
Four Key Lessons Learned from Newsom’s Actions on Bills
Politico’s California Playbook
Gov. Gavin Newsom wrapped up bill-signing season, delivering his final action on proposed laws the Legislature passed in 2023.
This year’s vetoes were especially telling as Newsom leans closer to the political center in California — a shift that comes as he’s seen as a future presidential contender. Newsom vetoed several high-profile progressive bills related to criminal justice and labor unions. At the same time, he delivered labor several major wins.
Four key lessons we learned:
- He’s a labor ally — conditionally:Newsom delivered another major win for labor unions Friday as he signed a bill to raise the minimum wage for health care workers to $25 per hour. That measure byMaría Elena Durazo was the last big union-related bill on his desk — and the decision came down to the wire.
Labor unions — especially SEIU California — ran the board at the Capitol this session. Newsom also signed bills to raise the minimum wage for fast-food workers and to allow legislative staffers to unionize.
But that’s only part of the story. Newsom also tested his alliance with union leaders in a pointed way. He vetoed top labor priorities, including unemployment benefits for striking workers, and legislation that would require human safety drivers on autonomous semi-trucks. He also rejected a bill to set workplace safety protections for domestic workers, such as nannies and maids.
- He’s tightening the purse strings:The governor signaled in one veto message after another that he’s focused on fiscal responsibility. Newsom vetoed many bills simply because lawmakers sought funding that wasn’t included in the budget they adopted this past summer. An analysis of Newsom’s veto messages found that cost was Newsom’s most common rationale, cited in 64 of his 156 vetoes. The governor ultimately signed 890 bills and vetoed 156, a veto rate of nearly 15 percent.
Newsom has been cautious to avoid new spending amid an uncertain revenue outlook, largely due to a sluggish stock market.
3. He’s moderating on criminal justice:Newsom’s veto of a bill that would decriminalize some psychedelics, including magic mushrooms, was a stinging blow to justice-reform advocates. The governor wrote in hisveto message that research has shown psychedelic medicines can be effective in treating PTSD, depression and other mental illnesses. But he said state Sen. Scott Wiener’s bill didn’t set enough treatment guardrails around dosing and underlying psychoses. He also recently suggested that the issue concerns him as a parent.
The governor did say he would sign a decriminalization bill next year, provided it includes those checks. But it’s hard not to view his veto as another instance of Newsom moving closer to the political center. He also vetoed Assemblymember Matt Haney’s bill that would have allowed for Amsterdam-style “cannabis cafes” that allow on-site consumption. Newsom said that measure could hamper the state’s smoke-free workplace rules.
4. He’s a YIMBY, even if he doesn’t engage: The governor has rarely used his political clout to lobby the Legislature over bills that would promote the construction of housing. Nevertheless, Newsom signed every major housing bill that landed on his desk this session. It was a banner year for the YIMBY (Yes in My Back Yard) movement, as he inked bills that will streamline permit approvals in cities that aren’t meeting their state-mandated housing goals and to make it easier to sell or rent backyard cottages. Bottom line: Newsom seems willing to sign nearly all pro-housing bills. But the heavy lifting to broker compromises with unions, environmentalists and others? That’s on lawmakers.
Newsom’s Foreign Affairs Trip…
San Jose Mercury
In a surprise itinerary change, California Gov. Gavin Newsom is stopping today in Israel on his way to a planned trip to China, visiting the country-at-war with no official diplomatic agenda and raising more questions about his long-speculated presidential ambitions.
In a social media post Thursday, Newsom said he will be meeting “with those impacted by the horrific terrorist attacks and offering California’s support.”
Newsom’s trip comes just two days after President Biden became the first sitting U.S. president to visit Israel during a war and a day after New York’s Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul spent two days there, meeting with families as well as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
California is home to the largest population of Arab Americans in the United States, according to the Arab American Institute. It also has the second largest population of Jews in the U.S., according to the American Jewish Population Project at Brandeis University. Earlier this week, Newsom announced more security funding for places of worship in California, including $10 million to immediately increase the police presence at mosques and synagogues.
Political observers say Newsom’s trip is politically risky — he doesn’t want to be seen as an opportunist — but the trip could bolster his international credentials should he become a presidential contender.
It will also provide Newsom fodder for a televised debate planned for Nov. 30 with GOP presidential candidate and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who made news this week by using state money to charter flights to Israel to bring home stranded Floridians for free.
David McCuan, Sonoma State professor and chair of the political science department, said Newsom is looking beyond Sacramento.
“He’s trying to do what I would argue is the Newsom ‘two-step’,” said McCuan, who said Newsom is trying to show support for the Biden administration without ruffling feathers. “For a guy who is not running for president, he sure acts like he’s running.”
Newsom has adamantly denied he is interested in the White House, but “he is in a place where if something happens, he’s willing to fill the breach,” McCuan said. “He also is someone who doesn’t go off the national stage even when he’s termed out in 2026. … So this is still about building power.”
Newsom is not the first California governor to visit a war-torn country. In 2009, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger visited Iraq to meet with American troops there, and in 1971, Gov. Ronald Reagan flew with his wife and son to Vietnam to deliver a message from President Nixon congratulating the country’s president on his re-election.
What exactly Newsom will be doing in Israel on Friday and whether he was specifically invited is unclear. But the governor says his trip is about supporting Israel and the victims there. California is sending medical supplies to the region, his office said, including provisions intended for the Gaza Strip.
“It’s both the politically smart thing to do and the right thing to do,” said Dan Schnur, professor of politics and communications at UC Berkeley and USC. “California has a very significant Jewish population, and for a political leader to show solidarity with Israel right now sends a very important message.”
It also sends a message to Republican voters who perceive Newsom as no more than a knee-jerk San Francisco liberal who has let homelessness thrive in his home city. Newsom’s trip shows that support for Israel is bipartisan.
“Amid the horror unfolding in the Middle East following the unconscionable terrorist attacks in Israel, California is authorizing the immediate deployment of funds to increase security” at worship sites, Newsom said in a statement Wednesday. “No matter how and where one prays, every Californian deserves to be safe.”
Politico
Gov. Gavin Newsom will tour China beginning Monday on a climate-focused trip that will include stops at a Shanghai Tesla factory and Hong Kong University, his administration announced.
The trip takes place against a backdrop of chilly U.S.-China relations, although tensions have thawed somewhat in recent weeks with visits by Secretary of State Antony Blinken and a congressional delegation led by Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.). President Joe Biden is also hoping to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping next month at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in San Francisco.
Newsom administration officials said he would steer clear of engaging on hot-button issues like technology transfers, trade subsidies and human rights issues in Hong Kong and China’s Xinjiang province, even as he plans facility tours in the type of renewable energy and clean transportation industries that have figured in trade conflicts.
Officials said the trip would focus on climate policy collaborations and bolstering ties between China and California which stretch back over fifteen years to when former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) was in office.
“The trip is wholly focused on climate, and we are obviously a state, so I think we look to our federal partners on federal issues,” spokesperson Erin Mellon told reporters Tuesday.
The trip will be Newsom’s second formal international trip in his official capacity as governor, after a visit to El Salvador in 2019. He’ll visit six cities in five provinces, including Guangdong, Jiangsu, and Shanghai. He’ll be accompanied by his climate adviser, Lauren Sanchez, as well as representatives from California industry and environmental groups, Mellon said.
Newsom also plans to renew four climate-related agreements established by former Gov. Jerry Brown (D) and will sign a fresh one of his own with Shanghai, where he traveled with the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) in 2005 when he was mayor of San Francisco.
Notable stops on the trip include Hong Kong, the first city in Asia to require businesses to disclose their carbon emissions — similar to a law Newsom signed earlier this month covering businesses in California — and Shenzhen, the first city in the world to fully transition to electric buses.
Newsom will also do some wetland bird watching in the coastal city of Yangchen while discussing shared priorities related to a global pact to conserve 30 percent of oceans and land. And he’ll visit the Great Wall of China with leaders from five different provinces, although it remains unclear if there will be an opportunity to go tobogganing nearby as former First Lady Michelle Obama did back in 2014.
Sanchez said Newsom will be meeting with representatives from the Chinese Ministry of Ecology and the Environment in Beijing, as well as local officials.
He’ll also renew an MOU with China’s National Development and Reform Commission, China’s agency in charge of macroeconomic planning, and another from 2013 with Beijing on air quality, which facilitated collaboration between California Air Resources Board officials and Chinese regulators to reduce the city’s smog. She didn’t say whether he would meet with Xi.
“A lot of what China has done [in the EV space] is actually borne out of California’s innovation on ZEV mandates from the ‘90s,” Mellon said. “But clearly, they have kind of jumped ahead in terms of adoption of electric vehicles both by individuals as well as the government.”
California Gets $1.2 Billion in Federal Hydrogen Hub Funding
CalMatters’ What Matters newsletter
California will get as much as $1.2 billion from the feds for a seven-year initiative to produce and use more hydrogen. That’s a big chunk of the $7 billion for seven regional “hydrogen hubs” across America funded by the gigantic 2021 infrastructure package and announced Friday by the White House.
California’s money will go to the public-private Alliance for Renewable Clean Hydrogen Energy Systems, and was sought by the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development, the University of California and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and various labor unions. California’s two U.S. senators, Alex Padilla and the late Dianne Feinstein, also lobbied the Energy Department.
There are high hopes for the project on three fronts. One is to create jobs (a projected 130,000 for construction and 90,000 permanent). A second is to bring health benefits and lower costs (an estimated $3 billion a year). The governor’s office says 40% of these benefits are supposed to flow to disadvantaged communities.
And the third is to help the state reach its goal of no net carbon emissions by 2045. By 2030, the alliance’s goals include making hydrogen cheaper than diesel and other traditional fuels and boosting hydrogen use in key industries, including agriculture, aviation, maritime and power. The ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles requested $150 million each from the initiative.
Gov. Newsom, in a statement: “Today we are moving from concept to reality — advancing clean, renewable hydrogen in California which is essential to meeting our climate goals…. California’s Hydrogen Hub will cut pollution, power our clean energy economy and create hundreds of thousands of good paying jobs.”
But some environmental justice groups are warning that not enough safeguards are in place to make sure that the hydrogen is not produced with fossil fuels (the state says it won’t) and actually leads to cleaner energy. (Hydrogen can be produced from natural gas, nuclear power, biomass, wind or solar, but is energy intensive.)
Bahram Fazeli, research and policy director of Communities for a Better Environment, in a statement: “Production, delivery, storage, and end uses of hydrogen can present more harm to working class communities of color, while potentially setting us on a path to undermine California climate targets.”
With the cash, the hydrogen hub now begins more detailed design and development.
It’s separate from California’s effort to increase the number of cars and trucks on the road fueled by hydrogen.
As CalMatters climate reporter Alejandro Lazo has pointed out, Californians own only about 12,000, or about 1% of 1.1 million zero-emission vehicles. Still, the state is investing $106 million on hydrogen fueling stations through July 2030, about 15% of the money in a state clean transportation program.
And in even more hydrogen news, Caltrans announced Thursday it awarded an $80 million contract for passenger trains, mostly between Merced and Sacramento, the first hydrogen-powered intercity train in North America.
Offshore Windpower: The Future or “Industrializing the Coast”?
CalMatters
Ocean waters off California’s coast are being prepared to host a massive experiment, floating beyond the continental shelf: Platforms with giant turbines and spinning rotors will capture the Pacific Ocean’s prodigious wind energy. Hundreds of square miles of the ocean about 20 miles off the coasts of Humboldt County and Morro Bay have been leased to five energy companies to build wind farms.
What’s envisioned has never happened anywhere before — wind platforms floating in such deep waters, so far from shore. The five wind farms would have hundreds of turbines, each as tall as a 70-story building. The state envisions that by 2045 offshore wind will produce enough carbon-free electricity for 25 million homes.
But our CalMatters series, “Harnessing a Windfall,” reveals that their potential environmental impacts won’t be understood until they are already constructed and operating. And communities and tribes in the North Coast and Central Coast worry that the pace is so fast and the projects so massive that their local economies and environment are at risk.
California Coastal Commission staff, in a 2022 report: “…Realistically, we will not be able to know the full scope and scale of impacts from offshore wind to California’s marine resources until projects are in the water and we are able to monitor and measure the resulting effects.”
But Gov. Gavin Newsom and President Joe Biden are firmly behind the offshore wind initiative, and the projects will need that support. Creating an offshore wind industry in California is going to require a massive private and public investment and significant upgrades to ports and the electricity grid.
A short list:
At least $8 billion to build transmission lines and related infrastructure.
Hundreds of millions in state and federal grants and tax incentives to help the companies develop, assemble and build large floating wind farms. Each project could cost an estimated $5 billion from start to finish.
$260 billion in the next 20 years to fortify a domestic supply chain for the Europe-based industry.
Along with the costs come potential benefits: Aside from being critical to meeting California’s clean energy and climate goals, the wind projects could inject jobs and development into struggling regions of the state.
Scott Adair, Humboldt County’s director of economic development: “We were given this gift of this potentially massive economic opportunity. And it might, it might have some real energy benefits to it as well. But we aren’t necessarily equipped to or capable of receiving that gift, at least not at this scale. We need to be careful.”
In contrast to the measured but hopeful view from the North Coast, some residents along California’s Central Coast fear that the construction and maintenance will alter their quiet communities.
Rachel Wilson, Cayucos resident who regularly attends public meetings about the wind projects: “This is just another attempt to industrialize the coast. I can just see Port Hueneme with cranes and lights and a huge wharf, in my charming little coastal community. No way.”