Here is filmmaker Constance Beutel’s video of the City of Benicia’s Air Monitoring Workshop with representatives from Benicia Fire Department, the Bay Area Air Quality Management District, Valero and the newly forming non profit, Benicia Community Air Monitoring Program.
For more background and the staff report, see Mayor Patterson’s invitation, Benicia City Council workshop on Air Monitoring.
Our October 8 General Membership meeting featured Benicia’s two elected officials representing us in the state Legislature – Senator Bill Dodd and Assemblymember Tim Grayson. The session was recorded on video by Benicia Filmmaker Constance Beutel.
Grayson and Dodd discussed their views on the recently completed 2019 Legislative Session, including bills related to the Northern California wild fires and PG&E’s bankruptcy and restructuring.
PDB also asked each to respond to the following question:
What are the three most important things that should be done to address the climate change crises and what are you doing to make those actions happen?
Following Sen. Dodd and Asm. Grayson, we discussed election security issues in the 2020 primary and general elections.
Is the vote we cast truly secure? Can an outside party manipulate the voting results in our elections?
John Michael Schwab, Chief of Staff to Secretary of State Alex Padilla, and John Gardner, Solano Co. Asst. Registrar of Voters, shared what steps the state of California and Solano County, respectively, have taken to address cybersecurity and hacking concerns in local and state election processes.
Should a paper trail for all votes be mandated as an anti-hacking protection? Should there be a prohibition on the inclusion of any connectivity-enabling devices in election-related equipment? Has California already adopted these provisions? Or, are they necessary?
These issues are extremely important to the viability and integrity of voting in the U.S.
The Tuesday, September 10th, Progressive Democrats of Benicia met and heard featured speaker, Kathy Dervin, Co-Chair of 350 Bay Area Legislative Committee and a consulting professional with a Master of Public Health (MPH) focused in Health Education/Environmental Health.
Kathy presented a compelling overview of pending legislation relating to Climate Change (see bold text below). She also coveredhe Sept. 20 Climate Strike and 350 Bay Area’s work through Youth vs Apocalypse, the youth‐led environmental justice program
| SB 1 (Atkins) SUPPORT Protect Califs Environmental, Health and Worker Safety Laws from Trump Administration roll backs of federal laws that California already administers in state programs under federal authority. (At risk are parts of the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, Endangered Species Act, OSHA and others). |
| SB 54 (Allen) SUPPORT (Companion bill to AB 1080-see below) This bill (with its companion AB 1080) requires manufacturers and retailers in California to reduce single-use plastic packaging and products by 75 percent by 2030. After 2030, all single-use plastics sold in the state would need to be compostable or recyclable, making plastic resale value sufficient enough to be economically worth recycling. |
| SB 210 (Leyva) SUPPORT Requires the state Air Resources Board to develop a smog check program for heavy trucks similar to the program that has existed for decades for cars and light trucks. This is a critical air pollution control bill, climate bill (reduces emissions and black carbon) and an important environmental justice bill to protect communities with disproportionate exposure to truck emissions. |
| Also (lower priority – NOTE – THIS BILL PASSED!) SB 127 (Wiener) SUPPORT Requires Cal Trans to implement its “complete streets” program to support walking and biking infrastructure and protections on “state highways” (like Ashby Ave and San Pablo Ave in Berkeley or Lincoln Ave in SF). |
| SB 520 (Hertzberg) OPPOSE Would create new obstacles for our CCAs/local clean energy programs in comparison to investor owned utilities. |
BILLS NOW IN SENATE Call Bill Dodd 707-551-2389 |
| AB 1080 (Gonzalez) SUPPORT (see companion bill SB 54 above) Reducing single use plastic by 75% by 2030. |
| Also (lower priority) AB 936 (Rivas) SUPPORT Requires additional state response planning and prevention for oil spills involving non-j/oating oil (tar sands or other heavy oils) which is a particular concern in the Bay Area as area refineries, such as Phillips 66, tries to expand their capacity to take tar sands. |
AB 857 (Chiu) SUPPORT Allows local governments to charter local public banks in partnership with “existing local financial institutions” such as credit unions and local community banks so as to increase the lending capacity of the local banking system.