Climate scientists on strike - POLITICO - POLITICO

Climate scientists on strike - POLITICO

Climate scientists on strike

With help from Blanca Begert and Alex Nieves

STRIKE FORCE: Some of the California climate work that Gov. Gavin Newsom champions isn’t getting done today, because state scientists are on strike.

The California Association of Professional Scientists, representing 4,200 employees, this morning launched the first strike among state civil service employees since the workforce gained collective bargaining rights 46 years ago.

The union is demanding raises of up to 43 percent to make up for what it says are longstanding pay disparities that are driving state scientists to leave for the private sector.

The strike puts Newsom — who has benefited in elections from the support of state employee unions — in a tricky spot. He has portrayed himself as a science proponent intent on setting a climate action template for the world, and state employees ultimately make it happen. But he’s also strained to avoid an image as a “profligate” progressive, and giving out big raises — especially with a projected budget deficit looming — could puncture that.

Roughly 500 people were marching this afternoon outside the California Environmental Protection Agency headquarters at 10th and I Street in Sacramento to support the strike, tailoring many of their messages to Newsom with chants such as “Gavin Newsom, you can’t hide, we can see your greedy side.”

“What we’re fighting for aligns perfectly with the things he cares about, and that includes ensuring the longevity of the state scientific programs, ensuring that the state truly is the employer of choice and ensuring that his employees are being paid equitably,” said Jacqueline Tkac, a Central Coast Water Quality Control Board environmental scientist who became the union’s president two weeks ago after an election.

Contract negotiations that began in 2020 broke down recently, leading to the escalating action including the union member-authorized strike.

The Newsom administration has filed an unfair practice claim with the Public Employment Relations Board to try to stop the strike. The board hasn’t ruled on it yet.

California Human Resources Department spokesperson Camille Travis said the state is taking steps to ensure “as little disruption as possible.”

“The state views the strike activity with disappointment,” she said in an email. “The state continues to bargain in good faith, including the PERB-ordered mediation process, and will continue to work with CAPS to achieve a fair successor agreement as we have with other bargaining units.”

The strike is scheduled to expand across the state from Sacramento tomorrow and Friday. Among the participants Wednesday was Chris Hyun, a climate lead at the State Water Resources Control Board, who spoke with POLITICO in his capacity as a union member.

If he weren’t striking, he would have been working on emergency drought regulations that require action soon, he said. He said many of the state’s environmental scientists work on climate adaptation programs focused on helping California contend with increasingly extreme weather.

He said he loves the work but keeps an eye on LinkedIn.

“This is a great way to have an impact on climate,” he said. “At the state level working on policy. But I have a graduate degree. I could go back into academia and be paid more.” — WV

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TALKING AT APEC: The Asia Pacific Economic Forum has descended on San Francisco.

The biggest event was the Xi and Biden meeting that happened today outside Filoli Historic House and Garden in Woodside. Biden has yet to issue statements about the closed-door part of the meeting, but this morning, ahead of the meeting, Special Climate Envoy John Kerry announced he’d come to a deal on climate with his Chinese counterpart, Xie Zhenhua.

As POLITICO’s Zack Colman reports, China made concessions in the agreement to incorporate all non-carbon dioxide greenhouse gases in its climate action plan by 2035, including methane, and use less coal-fired power, although there was little in the way of new firm targets for either country. The agreement is expected to stabilize political tensions around climate between China and the U.S., the world’s two biggest polluters, ahead of COP28.

The other big climate news that could have come out of APEC, but most likely won’t, would have been the announcement of the complete Indo-Pacific Economic Framework, an initiative launched by Biden in 2022 that would set binding rules governing 40 percent of the global economy. The most significant of the framework’s four pillars, the trade pillar, is still under negotiation, with labor and environmental provisions as sticking points.

“Those have been the most controversial and the hardest to get across the finish line,” said Arthur Stamoulis, director of the Trade Justice Education Fund, an advocacy group that’s demonstrating in San Francisco along with other organizations for stronger emissions rules and more attention to disproportionate climate impacts on communities of color, and against trade provisions that limit countries’ abilities to develop clean energy. — BB

FIRE FIGHT: Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara’s main antagonist is out with a poll today throwing cold water on his plans to shore up the state’s crumbling wildfire insurance market.

Consumer Watchdog’s poll, taken last month of 639 likely California voters, finds 62 percent oppose the plan Lara announced in September to require insurers to cover more people in fire-prone areas in exchange for letting them use rate-setting models that will likely lead to higher premiums.

“It is clearly a warning to Lara and the Legislature that if they pursue this policy, it’s going to be wildly unpopular,” said Jamie Court, Consumer Watchdog’s president.

Lara’s spokesperson, Michael Soller, pointed out the plan has support from the California Farm Bureau, United Policyholders, the California Building Industry Association and other groups.

“Unlike Consumer Watchdog, Commissioner Lara and the Department of Insurance have actually met with 120,000 people over the last 4 years, all across California,” he said. “We are going to continue to take public input as we pursue much needed and long overdue reforms.” — DK

TRANSITION TENSIONS: The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach are steaming ahead with plans to cut shipping emissions over the next decade, but the union representing port workers says the pace of the transition could put them in harm’s way.

Port staff speaking at a community workshop in LA County last night laid out goals to deploy low- and zero-emission vessels by 2025, and demonstrate the feasibility of the world’s first zero-emissions container ship by 2030. Those plans are banking on partnerships with Asian ports known as green shipping corridors, which are focused on switching to alternative fuels, like hydrogen, renewably produced ammonia, and e-methanol (hydrogen combined with carbon dioxide).

International Longshore and Warehouse Union members are worried that they’re not ready to handle a toxic fuel like green ammonia, said Sal DiCostanzo, a union representative who spoke during a Q&A session at the event, hosted by Pacific Environment and C40 Cities.

“Let’s not put our whole community in danger by having a fuel that we’re not ready to work with because we’re trying to rush it,” he said. — AN

— A Public Policy Institute of California fellow and a principal scientist at carbon management firm Carbon Direct were asked if carbon offsets are actually working. Their answer was not really, no.

— China is the world’s top generator of the renewable energy and is also responsible for a third of the world’s carbon emissions — these eight charts help paint a fuller picture.

Monday’s newsletter listed state Sen. Aisha Wahab as part of a delegation attending COP28. She will not be attending.

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