Numerous local officials attended the groundbreaking event, including county Supervisor Lindsey Horvath, Los Angeles City Councilwoman Katy Yaroslavsky, Assemblyman Jesse Gabriel and Sen. Ben Allen.
A bill now being considered from state Sen. Ben Allen would require developers to analyze fire behavior and create evacuation plans in cooperation with local fire authorities as part of their projects.
Sen. Ben Allen (D-Santa Monica), the group’s co-chair, said it’s time to dramatically increase the scope of the task force’s efforts “or find another vehicle for a convening of these different entities to talk about more substantive policy changes in terms of the highway.” “I think more broadly in the long term I really welcome a broader discussion involving the re-envisioning of a highway that was established at a time when far fewer people were living along the road,” Allen said.
Earlier this year, state Sen. Ben Allen, a Redondo Beach Democrat, introduced Senate Bill 709 at the behest of environmental groups seeking to require the board to directly regulate the dairy sector like it does other methane-producing industries, like landfills. It’s a two-year bill to allow for more discussion of the issue, a spokesperson for Allen said.
The bill’s signing drew plaudits from Environmental Legislative Caucus co-chairs Senator Ben Allen (D-Santa Monica) and Assemblymember Laura Friedman (D-Glendale). “Accountability is a central component of efforts to protect our planet, and that accountability must include requiring top earning businesses to disclose if they are doing their part to reduce climate pollution,” they said in an email to Capitol Weekly.
“Emerging research is making it clear that artificial turf poses an environmental threat due to its lack of recyclability and presence of toxins such as lead and PFAS,” said state Sen. Ben Allen, the Redondo Beach Democrat who authored the bill. With the new law “local governments will again be able to regulate artificial turf in a way to both protect our environment in the face of drought and climate change but also by preventing further contribution to our recycling challenges and toxic runoff,” he said.
“It’s clear young people are focused on climate change and for good reason. A lot of past policies, actions, and inactions have created a situation that has folks very worried about the future, and I share that worry,” said state Sen. Ben Allen, the Redondo Beach Democrat who sponsored the 2021 budget item that funded the school program. “I hope that elected officials, industry leaders, and others in positions of power listen to what they’re asking for and respond with the urgency it demands."
"Politicians tend to shy away from water because it’s so politically fraught,” said Marcus. She pointed to lawmakers like Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas (D-Hollister), who has roots in both environmental and agriculture worlds, and Sen. Ben Allen (D-Santa Monica) and Assemblymember Rebecca Bauer-Kahan (D-Orinda), who have sponsored legislation to strengthen the state’s water authority, as some in the new generation to watch.
SB 389, by Sen. Ben Allen, a Democrat from Redondo Beach, spells out the state’s powers to investigate even the longest-standing claims to water from California’s rivers and streams. Under the state’s byzantine, Gold Rush-era water rights system, so-called “senior water rights” holders — those who have claims to water flowing past their property or that pre-date a 1914 law — use about a third of the surface water supply. They are not required to have permits or licenses, and the state’s power to investigate them has been murky.
Another bill, SB 676, which the Assembly passed on Tuesday, empowers cities and counties to ban or restrict the installation of artificial turf on residential properties — something they were prevented from doing under previous legislation that was adopted in 2015.
Supporters of the bill, which was introduced by Sen. Ben Allen (D-Santa Monica), said artificial turf poses significant environmental problems. They pointed to research showing that microplastics from artificial turf end up washing into streams and the ocean, and that harmful PFAS chemicals have also been found in artificial turf.
