2023-24 California Legislative Session Concludes (Copy)
By Jennifer Cohen, Vice President of Government Relations, Pacific Merchant Shipping Association
August 31st marked the end of the two-year 2023-24 California state legislative session. Over 3,000 bills were introduced during the session, however only a few hundred survived passage by both the Assembly and Senate to be considered for signature or veto by Governor Gavin Newsom. The Governor has until September 30, 2024 to act on bills that survived this second year of the two-year session.
The end of session always brings about a flurry of activity and this session has been no exception.
At the heart of the drama was a last minute “gut-and-amend” of AB 98 (Carrillo and Reyes) to address how and where warehouses are built. PMSA had opposed an earlier version of this bill, AB 1000 (Reyes), but did not have a position on the new iteration which was only in print for several days before it was voted on. The business community was split with the California Chamber of Commerce being closely engaged in negotiations, while others were wary of a proposal that they had been excluded from negotiating and opposed to the bill’s broad terms that could potentially capture more activity than just warehousing. Environmental advocates opposed AB 98 for not being stringent enough, and cities and counties will also be pursuing a veto from Governor Newsom because they oppose the mandates that they identify truck routing in the bill. The bill passed the legislature by narrow margins in the final day and hours of session and is now being considered by the Governor. One thing is certain, more work will be needed to clean up this measure’s proposals next session if it gets signed.
Other last-minute drama involved AB 2331 (Gabriel), which was an attempt to clarify implementation timelines and applicability of Assemblyman Gabriel’s 2023 bill, AB 1305, on voluntary carbon market disclosures. This bill dramatically imploded in the final days of the session. PMSA was supportive of the bill’s effort to clarify and postpone implementation as this has bearing on PMSA and its members that participate in the LCFS program. The author unexpectedly and drastically amended the bill days before the session ended to remove our requested vital, long-standing clarifying language. It was unknown what prompted these changes, but ultimately the author pulled the bill from further consideration just before it was to be sent to the Governor. This leaves an urgent need to once again address the ambiguities in the older bill during the next session.
A showdown between legislative leaders during the final hours of session that was supposed to yield action on energy legislation, came up empty-handed. And as this stalemate emerged, Governor Newsom called for an extraordinary session to focus on gasoline refinery supplies during the fall. In an initial response to the Governor, Senate President pro Tempore Mike McGuire stated that he will not convene the Senate for a special session. If he follows through, this would be the first time a legislative body has defied a Governor’s order to convene a special session since the 1880s. Senator McGuire claims that his chamber had a proposal, votes lined up, and was ready to act during the regular session, but the Assembly and Governor were unable to get to the table. It is unclear whether the Senate will hold out or will relent.
As of the drafting of this article, several of PMSA’s 2024 priority bills are still awaiting Governor Newsom’s consideration. This includes two bills that PMSA worked on closely with the San Francisco Bay Bar Pilots, AB 1296 (Grayson) and SB 295 (Dodd). These critical bills pave a fiscally feasible path to comply with California Air Resources Board (CARB) Commercial Harborcraft regulations. Despite years of industry advocacy on this issue, CARB enacted regulations that are neither fiscally nor logistically attainable for this small, specialized fleet. If these bills are not signed into law, compliance with the state mandate to have a pilot boat situated 11 miles offshore from the Golden Gate Bridge is jeopardized. That would have major consequences for vessels traveling to and from the San Francisco Bay Area. Neither of these bills seeks an exemption to the regulations, but rather create a compliance pathway for the pilots with a prudent means of financing replacement vessels at lower cost to ratepayers. At the urging of PMSA and the Bar Pilots, the state’s Board of Pilot Commissioners (BOPC) took the unusual step of supporting these bills. These bills have had nearly unanimous support in the legislature despite the misguided reservations of environmental advocates.
In addition to being the end of a two-year session, numerous legislators will be “termed out” and leaving the legislature. A new class of legislators is to be elected in November and sworn in at the beginning of the 2025-26 session that starts on December 2, 2024.
The tumultuous conclusion of the recent session, plus an unusually large incoming class of freshman legislators promises to make the 2025-26 session busy and chaotic, as institutional memory is replaced by new leaders entering the building. This will be against a backdrop of a new Presidential administration in Washington, DC and the sunsetting of the Newsom administration era. Grab your popcorn!