Why Ben Allen worries about Trump - POLITICO - POLITICO

Why Ben Allen worries about Trump - POLITICO

Why Ben Allen worries about Trump

With help from Wes Venteicher, Ariel Gans, Ry Rivard, Blanca Begert and Camille von Kaenel

Programming Note: We’ll be off this Monday for Presidents’ Day but will be back in your inboxes on Tuesday.

BEN’S BOND: Sen. Ben Allen is at the center of this year’s trickiest climate policy negotiations.

The Senate Environmental Quality Committee chair is carrying one of the two bond proposals that could provide billions in funding for water infrastructure, wildfire prevention and climate resilience programs. That means he’ll play a key role in trying to satisfy the environmentalists, renewable energy companies, labor unions and water agencies that are jockeying for funds.

The Santa Monica Democrat also has his eyes on the election, amid concerns that another Trump presidency could undermine California’s emissions goals.

This transcript has been edited for length and clarity.

How are you thinking about climate policy when we have such a large budget deficit looming over everything?

It really puts a damper on things. The numbers are not pretty. And it basically puts us in a situation where things that cost more money are going to be viewed with a certain degree of skepticism. It’s a time of contraction and there will be a reluctance on the part of everyone in the system, but certainly folks in the governor’s office, to get too ambitious about big ticket items.

How does the budget impact bond negotiations? And how do you think about prioritizing what actually makes it to the ballot?

It puts more pressure on this bond. We needed to fund all the things in this bond before we had budget troubles, right? These are all things that we know we need to finance regardless.

I proposed this back in 2019, and I had concerns when [Gov. Gavin Newsom] mentioned the bond as something that could be used to fund a number of priorities that environmentalists were asking him to fund that he didn’t choose to prioritize in his budget a few years ago.

Now we’re being told it has to be lower, significantly lower in size. This is not just a way to backfill cuts. You propose a bond for long-term investments, because you’re ultimately asking people in the future to pay for these investments that benefit them. That’s the whole point of a bond.

Are you thinking about how former President Donald Trump winning a second term could impact California’s efforts to reach our emissions goals?

Serious concern. I think we’re particularly concerned about the willingness to continue to extend

Obviously there used to be a certain healthy respect for states’ rights. Even if the Republican side may not have agreed with all of our policy solutions, there was at least a respect for the fact that states ought to be able to go their own way and push for these kinds of things that they saw as necessary and important for them. And that’s now being called into question in a serious way.

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ALMONDS ON THE FLOOR: Lawmakers munched on almonds in celebration of Almond Day after Sen. Marie Alvarado-Gil’s resolution honoring the nut passed unanimously today. The senator shared her favorite flavors (sponsored by Blue Diamond) after the session to celebrate.

Even Sen. Caroline Menjivar, who is allergic to the nut, came out in favor.

Sen. Brian Dahle, who cosponsored the resolution, was the only one to acknowledge the nut’s environmental controversies.

“Don’t listen to all the people on the other side — they’re talking about water,” Dahle said. “There’s good reason to have — for the environment and for the soil, and for food production and a good protein that is heart-healthy and very good for California.” — AG

TROUBLED WATERS: Sen. Melissa Hurtado is trying to batten down her Central Valley district against outside investors as her bid to represent a swing district in Congress devolves into a messy Dem-on-Dem race.

The package of bills she introduced this week broadly target outsiders purchasing farmland in her district and controlling increasingly scarce water resources — concerns that will resonate with light-blue voters:

— SB 1151 would require foreign agents to register with the Secretary of State and file periodic reports.

— SB 1153 would ban hedge funds from purchasing agricultural land in California. It’s a slightly revamped version of Assemblymember Rebecca Bauer-Kahan’s proposal last year to ban hedge funds from purchasing farmland for their water rights, which stalled in the face of opposition from the trade group Western Growers Association.

— SB 1154 would require the Attorney General to submit reports about emerging markets to the Legislature, with a focus on data security and anticompetitiveness.

— SB 1155 would ban former political appointees and agency heads from lobbying the Legislature for one year.

— SB 1156 would require board members and executive staff of groundwater sustainability agencies to disclose financial interests related to groundwater management.

— Hurtado also said she was considering bringing back her proposal to ban foreign entities from purchasing agricultural land in California, which failed to advance the past two sessions.

She acknowledged in an interview yesterday that the bills have an uphill battle in the Legislature, where they will likely face pushback from business groups. But she said it’s an opportunity to continue pressing her long-touted economic and security issues.

“I definitely want to talk about what I’m doing at the state level to address the concerns of my constituents, and that it goes beyond the congressional district,” she said. — CvK

NOT PENCILING: The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California’s Central California land grab is looking more like a major cash suck.

The district spent $175 million in 2016 to buy a handful of islands in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta during the height of the push to build former Gov. Jerry Brown’s twin tunnels. That deal was described by the Sacramento Bee as the Southern California agency’s move into “enemy territory.” But, so far, the islands mostly just lose the district money.

This week, Metropolitan’s board got a report about the five islands’ 20,000 acres of land being worth $138 million — millions less than the district paid for the islands, one of which the district has since sold to the state.

The land was along the route of Brown’s twin tunnel project, but that project is dead. Still, the land might be used to help mitigate environmental impacts of some kind of future project, like Gov. Gavin Newsom’s single tunnel.

The water district gets some revenue from farming and a cell phone tower on the islands, but that $900,000 a year does little to cover the $7.8 million in annual costs, including $2.4 million in interest-only debt payments and $2 million in property taxes. Beyond that, if the islands in the flood-prone delta were ever breached, it’d cost up to $70 million to reclaim them. — RR

GAS REBRAND: A new bill from Sen. Henry Stern would replace the term “natural gas” with the word “methane” throughout all of the state’s energy codes.

The move comes as some climate advocates have argued for changing the name of natural gas to “fossil gas” or “methane gas,” to reflect that natural gas is almost entirely made up of methane, a potent greenhouse gas.

Public polling has shown the word “natural” in the title of natural gas gives people the impression that it is safe for the environment.

ON PRIVATE PLANES: In other Stern news — his office introduced a bill today that would require private plane owners to register with the DMV. Call it the Taylor Swift tax. More details to come. — BB

BAKER GOES INSIDE: The California Public Utilities Commission’s ratepayer advocate is moving up. Newsom today named Matt Baker, director of the PUC’s Public Advocates Office, to fill the commission seat being vacated by Genevieve Shiroma.

The selection of Baker, an enthusiastic advocate for the state’s beleaguered ratepayers, signals the administration’s focus on affordability, which might be Energy Issue No. 1 in the Capitol this year due to skyrocketing utility bills and the backlash they’re setting off to the state’s energy policies. — WV

— Sacramento Councilmember Eric Guerra, a California Air Resources Board member, owns at least $10,000 in Chevron stock.

— “Not long ago, it would have sounded preposterous: A San Francisco Democrat asking to peel back California’s treasured environmental protections in the heart of the city.” Except that SF native Jerry Brown tried essentially the same deal less than a decade ago.

— Ending green subsides, creating nuclear warheads, and breaking up NOAA: a peek into Trump’s 2025 climate agenda.

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