Please note that the transcript provided below is AI-generated and intended for reference. It may contain missing words, misspellings, or other small errors. To request a correction or clarification, please contact info@theclimatecenter.org.
Woody Hastings, The Climate Center (00:04:41):
Good afternoon folks. My name is Woody Hastings, I’m the phase out polluting Fuels program director for the Climate Center. Thank you all so much for being here today. This session is a session on the Polluters Pay Climate Superfund. It’s the second breakout in this track. We just heard from a panelists about the closures of refineries and the dynamics around that we heard from the workforce and from community folks and from technical experts about the dynamics and the challenges around refinery closures. And this next panel is going to help us try to understand how can we pay for the transition and how can we pay for some of the consequences of the climate crisis.
(00:07:28):
I’m just going to run through a few opening slides before I hand it off to our moderator, Sarah Shor from Fossil Free Media. And thank you so much for stepping up to be our moderator, and thank you to the panelists today who Sarah will introduce. But once again, I just wanted to thank everybody for being here. So we also want to just thank our sponsors, Sunrun Peninsula Clean Energy, heirloom Bay Area Air District, GM, Clean Power Alliance, Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, San Jose Clean Energy, SMUD, the Sacramento Municipal Utility District, AVA Community Energy. No idea what AVA stands for, the Energy Coalition. It used to be East Bay Community Energy that I understood a little bit better. Anyway, MCE, that used to be Marin Clean Energy, first Community Choice Agency in the state of California, 2010 Citizens Climate Lobby, Dcbel, Renew Home, Policy Pulse, Silicon Valley Clean Energy, and thank you to all the individual donors who have helped make this event possible.
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Also to our promotional partners, 350 Bay Area 350 Sacramento, Act Now Bay Area, California Environmental Voters Center for Biological Diversity, Climate Action California, Climate Resolve, Coalition for Clean Air, and Sierra Club California. Event Leaf is the platform. You’ve probably figured that out by now. If anybody wants to try to capture QR code on your phone to dial into the event, that’s where you would do it. I’m not seeing any phones raised up, so I will move along. And the hashtag, if you want to post anything out on socials is hashtag ca Climate Summit. And I think that is what I wanted to say and I just want to hand it off to Sarah, and if you want to advance the slides for them, just click the down arrow. Yeah, great. Thank you. Yay. Yay.
Sara Shor, Fossil Free Media (00:09:33):
Thank you. Woody. Can you guys hear me if I’m back here? Yeah. Okay, great. Hi everyone. Welcome to the PLU Pay Climate Superfund, getting it over the line panel. Thank you all for being here today. My name is Sarah Shor. I’m the partnerships and organizing director with the National Make PLU Pay Campaign and Fossil Free Media. And I’m super excited to moderate this panel. We’re actually still waiting on one of our panelists, but hopefully she’s going to run in late and we’re going to, yeah, it’ll be a dramatic entrance and it’ll be great. So just to start this off a little bit, the National Make Polluters Pay campaign is a national campaign to basically have accountability for the players that we know are most responsible for the climate crisis, the big oil and gas companies. And we’re seeing a ton of momentum. Let me know if you can’t hear me in the back of the room.
(00:10:35):
Oh, got it. Okay. Thank you. So sorry, lost my train of thought there. But the idea of this campaign is to get the biggest contributors to climate change, which are the big oil and gas companies to actually pay for the damages. The idea is if you make a mess, you clean it up. My three-year-old knows that. I’m sure everyone who has kids here, that’s one of the first things you teach your kids. If you make a mess, you clean it up. And that’s the idea of this campaign. Let’s make the companies that have had the biggest impact on our climate crisis actually pay for the costs so that we as taxpayers are not footing the bill for the climate crisis. So we’re seeing this idea take hold all across the country and internationally it’s not a new idea, but I would say it’s catching a lot of momentum in this last year, especially with the context of increased climate disasters.
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Obviously we know that all too well here in California, especially in the last few months, but even nationwide, we’re seeing more and more climate disasters, a higher percentage of people who are impacted with their homes being destroyed or having to evacuate or just having to deal with the realities of climate change. Now we’re obviously also dealing with a national administration that is rolling back all kinds of things and is driving costs up for Americans across the board. So that’s the context that we’re operating with. And this campaign really allows us to go on the offensive against the industry, hold them accountable. And we’re talking about a lot of money here. We’re talking about holding them accountable, charging them essentially billions of dollars, sometimes hundreds of billions of dollars for their impact on our lives, on our communities, on our climate. So we’re going to get into a little bit about what that looks like here in California.
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And I’ll just say we’re going to be talking about climate super funds as the way that this campaign is running in state legislatures across the country, but specifically here in California Climate Superfund, bills are actually running in about 12 states across the country right now. They’ve already passed in New York and Vermont. So this is not a far fetched idea. This is something we can actually make happen here in California and we’re going to do it. So with that, I’m going to introduce our panelists, and what we’re going to do is just have them introduce themselves a little bit and go through a little bit of answer the first question and then I’ll ask a couple questions and then open it up to all of you. We’ll take questions at the end, unless it’s a
Audience member 1 (00:13:33):
Did the other two states that have done it, are they collecting money yet?
Sara Shor, Fossil Free Media (00:13:38):
They’re not. Not collecting money yet, but they have passed the bills. Okay. So I want to first introduce Jason Ffel from the Center for Biological Diversity. And Jason, I’m hoping you can introduce yourself and just talk a little bit more about the problem and sort of the specific California context and how the actual climate Superfund bill here in California works.
Jason Pfeifle, Center for Biological Diversity (00:14:05):
Alright, thank you, Sarah. Yeah, so Jason Pfeifle, senior campaigner at the Center for Biological Diversity. My role for this campaign is one of the co-leads on convening the coalition behind this bill. So could we go to the next slide? So to go through the problem, as we all know, climate disasters are wreaking havoc on our state and are getting worse and worse. The LA fires were absolutely horrific. They displaced thousands of people and caused an estimated 275 billion in damages. We’re seeing extreme heat and the costs and health harms associated with it increasing year to year. The California Department of Insurance recently put out a report that found 7.7 billion in losses from just seven heat events in the last decade. And these sorts of incidents are really just the tip of the iceberg of the astronomical costs and human harms that we’re going to experience because of climate impacts in California and without any sort of protections in place, we as Californians continue to pay the price even though giant fossil fuel companies are responsible for the vast majority of climate heating emissions. Next slide.
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And so working families, taxpayers, public sector workers are paying the price without a funding solution in place to cover these costs. We’re seeing home insurance companies backing away from California, both homeowners and renters are facing increasing costs because of it. I’m sure everyone heard State Farm make this request to increase $600 in annual insurance costs across California. We’re also seeing utility bills go up. We’re seeing medical expenses rise and these costs are hurting Californians and they’re driving up the cost of living in our state. Next slide. Meanwhile, state and local budgets are stretched to the brink. We’re seeing money pulled out of the general fund to cover the cost of climate disasters. We saw that with the governor’s announcement for two and a half billion in relief funds to address the LA fires. That money likely part of it will come for the general fund. We’re also seeing local budgets, local government budgets that are stretched to the brink. They’re struggling to absorb these costs. And then the impacts of that are potential cuts to essential services that we as Californians rely on. And we see delays in wage increases for public sector workers. It makes bargaining for wage increases more difficult. So these are some of the impacts that are happening with respect to both the state and local budgets and part of the problem that needs to be addressed. Next slide.
(00:17:48):
I think. Can we go to the next slide? And so then the question is like, who profits while we pay? And it’s the fossil fuel giants, right? The fossil fuel companies that are responsible for the vast majority of climate heating emissions. They’re continuing to rake in record profits. You can see here Chevron, what is it? Chevron made $35,691 in profits per minute in 2023 and 2024. These companies are seeing profits in an hour that families will never see in a lifetime. These companies knew about climate change decades ago and they lied and deceived the public about it, and they’re the ones who need to pay. Next slide. So the solution here is the Polluters Pay Climate Super Fund Act by Senator Menjivar and Assembly member Addis. This bill will make the largest fossil fuel companies pay their fair share for the climate damage they’ve caused in California.
(00:19:00):
In terms of the way it works, it directs CalEPA to do four things. So first, identify the responsible parties. So these are the fossil fuel corporations that have emitted over 1 billion metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions from 1990 to 2024. So that’s step one for CalEPA if and when this bill is passed. Step two is for CalEPA is to conduct a comprehensive statewide study that quantifies the total cost of climate damage to California up until 2045. So step one, identify who’s responsible. Step two, quantify the total cost to California of climate damage. And then step three is to assess a fee to the responsible fossil fuel corporations. And it’s a fee that’s proportional to their emissions during the covered period, so proportional to their emissions from 1990 to 2024. And then step four is to get that money out the door to use that money to fund disaster relief and climate resilient programs that will help support the transition to clean energy that will protect communities from future disasters and that will support workers who are essential to a thriving California.
(00:20:37):
Next slide. So I think a few things to note about the bill. So one, there’s precedent for it. This bill is based on California’s own childhood led poisoning prevention Act, which was passed in 1991. That bill did the same thing. Essentially what it did was for gas companies and paint companies that used lead in their products, they had to pay a fee from the harm caused by their products. And then those fees were collected and they were put into a fund to prevent kids from being poisoned by lead. So similar in structure, purpose, and outcomes. So that’s number one. There’s precedent for it. Number two, it’s fair. So this bill is requiring companies to pay their fair share of the damage they’ve caused. So companies have to pay proportional to the emissions that they’re responsible for. So for example, if an oil company is responsible for a quarter of emissions globally during the covered period, then they have to pay a quarter of the cost of damage to California. So it’s proportional, it’s fair. And then number three, it’s a lot of revenue. We’re talking about hundreds of billions of dollars. And this is desperately needed money to invest in communities and it’s money that when it can be used for disaster relief, it can protect existing budgets like the California General Fund, like local budgets which are stretched to the brink. And then finally, I just want to uplift that there’s an equity focus. So at least 40% of the funds have to go to communities that are hardest hit by pollution. Next slide. Welcome Fatima.
(00:22:42):
And then I’ll just wrap up on my part. So I wanted to just give a kind of overview of what the funds could be spent for. So the funds have to be used to address the harm cost. So that’s the general legal theory. And so these funds would be used for all sorts of benefits, like all sorts of programs and projects that are critical investments for communities that are critical for supporting workers who are central to a thriving California. So just to kind of name a few, the funds could be used for climate resilient schools. So things like air filters to protect kids from wildfire smoke, things like cooling systems like heat pumps to protect kids from extreme heat in the classroom and to improve working conditions for teachers. Home hardening. We heard from assembly member Addis this morning, just the concerns people have. What am I going to do to protect my home when that wildfire hits my community? This would be funds for that sort of community protection for that sort of investment. And supporting firefighters and first responders, ensuring they have the tools they need to protect us. And then continuing to maintain and build out public transit systems so that folks have easier, more accessible ways to get around in their neighborhoods and communities. And I think with that, I’m going to stop there and pitch it back to you, Sarah. Thank you.
Sara Shor, Fossil Free Media (00:24:19):
Great. Thank you so much Jason. And we’ll take some questions at the end. I now want to introduce Fatima Iqbal-Zubair, did I pronounce that correctly? Great, thank you. From Cal Environmental Voters and Fatima, could you just tell us a little bit more about the coalition that’s working on this bill and just the Sacramento landscape and what you think it’s going to take to actually pass this bill?
Fatima Iqbal-Zubair, California EnviroVoters (00:24:54):
Thank you for being here and for filling up this room. It’s amazing. Yeah, so the coalition and support and what it’s going to take to sort of pass this bill. Yeah. So as far as I know, this bill has the most support. I think we love all the climate bills, by the way. It’s not a competition, but I’ll just start by. But if you saw the hearing yesterday, I mean you’ll see, right? Just the diverse coalition of support this bill has. It’s something that a lot of, not just climate orgs, but I think just communities really need and agree on. And really that’s what it’s going to take to pass something like this bill, right? And so where one of the co-sponsors along with Center for Biological Diversity and Campaign for Safe and Healthy California. So did we already go over last year’s bill and sort of that?
(00:25:46):
No. Okay. So I’ll get, okay. Yes. And Kylie was already introduced too? Not yet. Oh, saving the best for last. Okay. All right. Okay. Alright. Okay. Yes. So basically last year, right? SB 1497, and you all were co-sponsors of the bill? Yes. So if you all remember who remembers SB 1497? Alright, I’m going to have a little engagement here. Is that okay? All right. Can one person tell me where that bill, how far it went? Does anyone know on the floor? Not quite. Yeah, the Senate held it because she didn’t think it was going to go through the Right. So it got up to appropriations, right Through Appropriations, right? Yeah, that’s what I was, I meant through appropriations and the Senator, yes, pulled it, but it got pretty far. And so this year I feel like, I mean, Jason told me if I’m wrong, the coalition’s probably even bigger.
(00:26:43):
We have a couple more co-sponsors and I’ll talk a little bit about, I just really appreciate Center for Biological Diversity. They’re so great at so many things. I can’t even name policy writing, the legal expertise, just organizing all of it. And then California Environmental Voters. A big part of our mantra has sort of been that we have the solutions, we don’t have the political will, so we really try to help support some of the political strategy and then campaign for Safe and Healthy California also, oh, another engagement opportunity. Who knows what campaign for Safe and Healthy California is? Yes,
Audience member 1 (00:27:18):
They threw out of the climate well ion and then the offset that we were going to have to vote on, but we didn’t. It got pulled. And so that meant that we could come together to make sure that the setback was reality.
Fatima Iqbal-Zubair, California EnviroVoters (00:27:39):
Exactly. So if you can imagine how much the Setback law that passed is really impacting frontline communities, they’re really great to have on as a co-sponsor because what they really bring is that frontline community voice. They’re made up of many organizations that support frontline communities. And so they’ve been really great to have on as co-sponsors. And as you can see here, 200 organizations are supporting. Want to highlight that? Like I mentioned, it’s not just climate organizations. This Bill has a lot of labor support groups like afscme, California Federation of Teachers, California Nurse Association, ILW, north California Association Professional Engineers. And then I hope I’m not missing any. Did I miss one? Okay, that’s good. So Audrey, a lot of labor organizations on board. We also have a really large business coalition, I believe over 150 business organizations that support climate justice. And then as you can see, faith leaders, youth organizations.
(00:28:32):
I know we have, yay. Shout out to your work. I know you’re leading. I think a lot of that. So thank you. And local elected officials, shout out. I saw Megan in the room. Shout out to Megan. Yes, vice mayor in the United States. But yes, so just to kind of get back to the big picture, it has a really robust coalition. And that’s what it’s really going to take to finish up the question, to pass the bill, because this bill has a lot of opposition as well from the typical big oil to the state trades and it’s pretty strong opposition. So we need all of this kind of coalition, not just climate groups to really join together. And I will add to pass the bill, we need all of you also to show up, whether it’s in person, whether it’s organizing, but really show up because we are seeing our opposition show up in numbers also because it’s a two thirds bill and our legislature right now isn’t at the progressiveness level that we need it to be.
(00:29:30):
Let’s just put it that way so that we can just get those votes. So all of you really make a difference and make an impact. Alright, is this my slide as well? Great. Okay. So making polluters pay is overwhelmingly popular. I mean, you can see some of the stats up here. I don’t need to get the numbers. It’s right here. And I’m sure we could share some of these slides out to you guys, but 70% of likely California voters support a climate super fund to hold fossil fuel companies accountable. So this is widely popular for those of you that are organizing on the ground in any community, not just frontline communities. I always say climate change is something that’s impacting everyone. Rich, poor, every region of the globe, every region of this planet, 69% say they would be more likely to support a candidate who prioritize this bill. So yeah, I don’t know how many organizations also do the election side of the work, C four C3 stuff, but it’s also widely popular for candidates that are running. And then this last one’s really important across party lines. So this is not a polarizing issue, it crosses party lines as well.
(00:30:42):
That’s the end of our slides. All should speak to the affordability piece. Yeah, that was huge. Or should I do? Yes. Should I speak a little bit to the affordability piece, Sarah, or has it been covered?
Sara Shor, Fossil Free Media (00:30:54):
Let’s come back to that. Thank you so much, Fatima. Lemme just, yay. Thank you. And now I’m very excited to turn it over to Kylie Baranowski, who works with assembly member Addiss office. Assembly member. Addis is the lead sponsor or the lead author on the assembly side of the bill. And Kylie, it would be great if you could talk a little bit about the author’s motivation on this bill and just any additional lay of the lands that you want to put out there for everyone.
Kylie Baranowski, Assemblymember Dawn Addis (00:31:31):
Sure. Absolutely. So hi, Kylie Baranowski, Legislative Director for Assemblymember Dawn Addis. Thank you all so much for being here. It really means a lot. And thank you to everyone who showed up yesterday. So Assembly member Addis represents the 30th assembly district, that’s parts of Santa Cruz, San Luis Obispo and Monterey Counties. And she was originally elected in 2022. Just for a little context, she’s also the chair of budget subcommittee one on Health, and she’s a member of insurance health and education committees. She’s a former special education teacher. She taught for over 20 years and she comes from local government. She was on the Morro Bay City Council. She also co-founded the Women’s March in San Luis Obispo, which got her involved. Why she wanted to work on this bill in particular, one thing I can say is that when she got up here, she was the first Democrat.
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I don’t know if I have the exact stats, but this is a new seat for Democrats, which was very exciting. And she felt that the Central Coast wasn’t getting the representation it deserved in the legislature. So she founded the Central Coast Caucus. And the Central Coast is uniquely impacted by climate change. I would say floods, wildfires, coastal erosion. When she was first elected, our constituents were immediately being evacuated because of really bad winter storms in 2023. So that obviously was very eyeopening for her. And people on the central coast are really heavily impacted by climate change. Also, some of you may be familiar with AB 32, 33 from last year. That was so obviously what inspired that bill was seeing her constituents trying to actually have a choice in the matter in terms of oil production and being disenfranchised. So she’s definitely not afraid to take on big oil and big interests, and I think this is naturally something she wanted to get involved in. I can talk, should I talk a little more about the Bills path?
Sara Shor, Fossil Free Media (00:33:50):
Yeah, that’d be great.
Kylie Baranowski, Assemblymember Dawn Addis (00:33:53):
AB 1243 this year. It just passed out of Assembly Natural Resources yesterday, thanks to everyone who was there. So we had nine votes in, which is more than we needed, which is great. And now it’s going to be headed to Assembly Judiciary Committee on Tuesday. So that is going to be a little bit of a tougher committee, but that’s something that we’re working on to try and make sure that we have the votes to pass that out. And if it were to pass out, it would be headed to, it’s going to pass out, it’ll be headed to assembly Appropriations committee after that. And because the bill has, it’ll have an impact in a given fiscal year of more than $150,000. It would go to the file. And so the path after that would be get off the suspense file, it would go to the assembly floor and then it’ll head over to the Senate.
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Same, it’ll need to go through Senate, environmental Quality Senate judiciary, Senate Appropriations, and then the Senate floor. And then it heads to the governor. Actually first it would come back for concurrence if we amend it in the Senate. So the bill has a lot of hurdles still left to get through. But I think one thing that is important to note is the bill has an urgency clause in it, which does mean it would go into effect immediately when it’s passed, but it also means that normal deadlines don’t apply, which gives us a little more flexibility. We don’t have to meet the House of Origin deadline that’s coming up necessarily. So that’s just a fun fact to note. And then the last thing I was talk about is sort of what people can do to help. So the biggest thing that I would say in my experience is contacting your own assembly member and your state senator.
(00:35:47):
And it really does make an impact when people hear from their constituents. And if you’ve already done that, that’s amazing. I would encourage your friends to do so. And I would say I wouldn’t just assume that just because you have a Democrat, I mean probably everyone, I’m preaching to the choir here, but I wouldn’t take anyone for granted on this. I would contact your assembly member, even if you think that they should be supporting this, you should still contact them and just let them know that you support this bill. I think that’s really impactful. Other than that, I think people have been showing up to the hearings, which is so appreciated, and it really sends a loud message. Really appreciate your support there and if you’re part of any organizations, you can request meeting with members as well. But really just showing up and supporting it really is so impactful and we appreciate it so much.
Sara Shor, Fossil Free Media (00:36:43):
Amazing. Thank you so much, Kylie. Round of applause. Thank you to all the panelists. These three have been working super hard to move this bill, organize all of the different pieces and move it over the line. So grateful for all of you. And I’m going to kick us off with a few questions and then open up the floor for questions. We know, and Fatima began to speak to this, but we know that affordability is just the issue of the day, not just in Sacramento, but all across this country. We’re seeing rising costs of living for Californians and really everyone. So Fatima, can you just talk about how this bill addresses affordability and actually can keep costs down?
Fatima Iqbal-Zubair, California EnviroVoters (00:37:35):
Yeah, I had some stats that on my phone. I was like, I’ll just want to talk generally. Yeah, for sure. I mean, again, I’m a former teacher, so I love engaging. No engaging. Is it? Oh, I’m so sorry. Okay. Yeah, so I mean, let me just get a raise of hands. Who’s had just their living costs rise in any way, whether it’s home insurance, car insurance, groceries, salad, salad dressing, right, eggs, I mean eggs, right? I mean we see the memes there, but yes. So I just want to start with that. We’re all feeling it, and that is just a fact of life. Everyone’s costs have risen, but it’s mostly impacting obviously the most vulnerable communities. I just want to start a little larger scale a little bit. So California is a fifth largest economy. Our income inequalities actually the greatest and the widest and it’s ever expanding.
(00:38:31):
It’s not like staying stagnant. It’s actually getting worse than equality year by year by year. And I think that is why this bill is so compelling because if you just think about it very simply, you sort of see that we’re paying for it. I mean, you all raise your hands. We probably can’t find someone who’s not paying for it in some way. We definitely see cities and counties, I know local elected officials, past and present are feeling it. Their budgets can’t feel it. Our state can’t really afford it either. So if you look at our budget and the general fund, we are at a very modest surplus. And I just want full sympathy, by the way anyone’s experienced the LA fires. I am sure it came up, but my heart goes out to you. I can’t even imagine the trauma and the loss and what you’re feeling. And this bill is such a righteous bill because like I mentioned, everyone’s paying for it. We can’t have cities and counties pay for it, but we are in an affordability crisis. And spoiler alert, who is the one sort of entity not paying for this, let’s just say together, who’s not paying for this
Speaker 3 (00:39:44):
Big
Fatima Iqbal-Zubair, California EnviroVoters (00:39:45):
Oil? They paid not even a dime. They paid zero. And that is the great injustice in this. When their profits have really raised, Jason, I know you probably went over the per minute, if you remember, I don’t need to go over those numbers again, but it’s crazy that they haven’t paid a dime for it. And in terms of affordability, a lot of the arguments are sort of hearing against it. And Sarah, you’re such an expertise. So chime in with all the stats please. But in terms of affordability, right? It’s really a myth. When our opposition says that this is going to sort of lose jobs, this is going to make it unaffordable. When you guys see those talking points, why it’s so important that you meet, and I wouldn’t just say with your staff, even if you can get a meeting with a member, I know that’s hard, but it makes a big difference.
(00:40:32):
And I’m going to have a little bit of accountability here. Meci who has voted on lot of climate bills, has a great record, did not vote. I believe that’s on the record, has a no vote. It has a not present vote for this bill that should tell you that no member is safe. If your members voted for climate bills before, they are not necessarily going to support this bill because it is huge. It’s really addressing the affordability crisis, the income inequality crisis. And so that’s really what it’s about. I’ll read a little bit of stats just to close out, but I wanted to make sure we talked a little bit to that messaging. So the cost of climate change in California are estimated to equal approximately 4% of state GDP for every one degree Celsius increase in temperature. So just another way of how that’s raising costs.
(00:41:26):
Climate change is also projected, and I’ll send maybe links out to this study as well. I’m looking at climate change is also projected to increase food prices by up to 3.2% annually and overall inflation by up to 1.2% annually. One thing we did with one of the other bills which died, is that we had some research done on some of these affordability pieces. I can send that out. And the California Department of Insurance estimates that extreme heat events between 2013 and 2022 cost California 7.7 to 210 million per event in lost wages primarily for outdoor workers. That one’s really important because when we talk about frontline essential workers, this bill is also for the working class. It’s for folks that are on the front line and there are lost wages. We already heard the wildfire costs and lost labor income for up to 161,000 workers. And really the biggest threat to Californians who work in the fossil fuel sector is agreed of their CEOs.
(00:42:26):
I think that’s really important because there’s something crazy happening in California where they think that if you make corporations pay their fair share that it’s going to be bad for the workers. But that is not true. The CEOs are making exorbitant amount of money. And so here’s one weeks after CEO O Mike Wirth announced record cash to shareholders from Chevron’s, nearly 18 billion 20, 24 profits. The company laid off 20%, 20% of its global workforce. Shell, Exxon and BP have also made major layoffs to maximize their profit margin. So these are some of the talking points and some of the facts. And the last thing I’ll say is I saw an article today where I believe the oil companies are shipping jobs to India. I saw that recently. There’s an article that just came out today. So all of what they’re saying is a myth. They’re actually, this is not about their workers. They care about their profit margins. And so it’s about time we make them pay so we can have affordable lives. So
Sara Shor, Fossil Free Media (00:43:19):
Yeah, thank you, Fatima. I’ll just add that right now, California taxpayers are footing the entire bill for climate change. We’re not getting money in from the federal government. Cities and states are struggling, especially in the wake of, we see LA has a ton of costs, rebuilding costs, so a hundred percent of the costs are what we’re paying right now. And so this would just charge the industry a fraction of those costs. I’ll just also say there’s a ton of evidence to back up the fact that this will not raise gas prices or energy prices. The campaign has gathered just testimony and sort of letters from well-known economists, and that proves and sort of makes the case for why this will not raise costs on consumers. So the industry will say over and over and over again, this is going to raise gas prices. This is going to raise energy prices. It doesn’t do that. There’s no evidence to show that it does that. And there’s a ton of evidence to show that it actually does not do that, and it actually lessens the costs on taxpayers. So we need to continually go up against that.
Fatima Iqbal-Zubair, California EnviroVoters (00:44:39):
Sarah, could I add one thing? In the Senate judiciary committee, if you guys were listening, they used this study and it was a guy that was contracting with Saudi Arabia oil. And so just be very, whenever they give evidence of affordability, reliable, so they’re not reliable, right? It’s just made to fit their agenda.
Sara Shor, Fossil Free Media (00:44:57):
And we need to be leading with some of those arguments on our side too, because we actually, when we lead with those arguments, we win those arguments. So we will continue to talk about that from our side as well. So Jason, I’m going to direct one question to you and then I do want to leave some time for questions from the audience. So just last question, can you just talk a little bit more about what this bill could and would fund if passed?
Jason Pfeifle, Center for Biological Diversity (00:45:26):
Yeah, I’m happy to do that. I think certainly we saw the destruction from the LA fires funding to rebuild in LA is obviously at the top of that list. And then I went through a number of the different climate resilient programs and projects that could be funded. I think a lot about just even thinking about my own experience, to go back to the example of schools, my kid goes to a public school in Oakland, and even this past year when he started school at the beginning of August, the teacher in the classroom was having to fundraise for a cooling system in the classroom. And my reaction is like, why the hell are teachers and parents and a school district that’s like struggling with revenue, having to pay for this when it’s oil companies and fossil fuel companies that cause this problem?
(00:46:32):
You are thinking about in the Bay Area, you see that BART has financial challenges getting money into protect our existing public transit to expand public transit that serves communities and people who are going to their jobs each morning is desperately important. And then even thinking back again to some of my experience, there was a fire over the summer in Oakland in the hills, and we live where the flatlands meet the hills. And it was super concerning how far was that fire going to get into Oakland? And meanwhile, days after you hear news stories about how Oakland City Council was considering cutting the firefighting budget, these are things where it’s like we desperately need this money to come in to be protecting communities from the disasters we know are going to happen. So I think just to put a little bit of personal story to it, those are some of the really, really important things that can and should be funded by this money.
Sara Shor, Fossil Free Media (00:47:42):
Thanks so much, Jason. Let’s open it up to some questions.
Speaker 8 (00:48:03):
Hi there. I’m Rena from the California Air Resources Board. I’m just curious on one of the slides that talked about supporting job quality through this act, what kind of labor for us and what sectors do you expect this bill to support? And how are workforce standards or other labor guardrails built in to either the bill or plan implementation?
Jason Pfeifle, Center for Biological Diversity (00:48:22):
Yeah, certainly infrastructure jobs would be one of the main sectors where jobs would be created. And then, I don’t know, maybe I’ll pass things to you, Kylie, in terms of standards for jobs.
Kylie Baranowski, Assemblymember Dawn Addis (00:48:45):
So this is something that we’re also currently thinking about. And I think a lot of the bill so far, we’ve wanted to incorporate feedback from the people who are actually in the field doing the jobs about how can we best ensure that this bill is creating good quality jobs. But I think this is something that we’ve heard in some of the questions in the previous committee hearings. So we are thinking about potential amendments to make that even stronger. So stay tuned.
Jason Pfeifle, Center for Biological Diversity (00:49:17):
And then I’ll say maybe just going back to some of my previous comments, primarily infrastructure jobs in terms of jobs created, jobs in construction and the jobs that are critical to rebuilding. But there are all sorts of ways in which this funding can support workers who provide essential services. Again, in thinking about the childcare provider who is taking care of kids in her home and has to deal with wildfire smoke and how are you going to protect those kids or increasing heat, and how do you get cooling into that home so those kids have an environment in which to thrive and to be cared for. And so I think those are other ways in which this funding can support workers, essential workers who in many ways end up being on the front lines of the climate crisis and some of these disasters.
Sara Shor, Fossil Free Media (00:50:13):
Let’s take you in the front, and I’m going to go all the way to the back in the blue shirt and then back to you.
Speaker 9 (00:50:19):
Does that include farm workers?
Jason Pfeifle, Center for Biological Diversity (00:50:23):
A hundred percent, yeah. Yeah. So the way that it’s written in the bill is support for workers whose livelihood is impacted by climate change.
Speaker 9 (00:50:33):
And so on days where they wouldn’t be able to work due to climate or whatever that looks like, how would they get those employment benefits or those types of things?
Jason Pfeifle, Center for Biological Diversity (00:50:43):
So the bill language is written intentionally to be broad so that it’s not exclusive and doesn’t exclude any workers who are impacted by climate change from being ones to potentially benefit from this. But in terms of the way things would work is CPA gets the bill language and that provides the statutory requirements and then cpa as it does, the cost study will refine guidelines for the expenditures. And then once fees are collected and the money comes into a fund, then CEPA through the usual budgetary process in California will propose expenditures for the funds. So that could be adding on to existing programs that support workers. It could be new programs and projects, but that’s just a little overview of how that process would work
Fatima Iqbal-Zubair, California EnviroVoters (00:51:50):
In the back.
Speaker 10 (00:51:52):
Thank you. Chris Juzi, Citizens Climate Lobby, San Francisco. I love everything I’m hearing, but there’s one area that I’m not hearing about and that’s the US Supreme Court. And I’m wondering if you can comment on what Vermont and New York, I think there’s the two that are ahead of us, whether they have faced lawsuits and what the legal perspective is, because I do not see this court siding with us against fossil fuel companies. I think fossil fuel companies will fight as hard as they possibly can to get this to the Supreme Court. And I also think that if they do get to the Supreme Court, it may risk some of our other favors for California, which we know the Trump administration doesn’t want and which they could in principle invoke the commerce clause against. So I would love some legal perspective. Thank you.
(00:51:52):
Sara Shor, Fossil Free Media (00:52:50):
Okay, great. Yeah, so as you said, the industry is going to fight tooth and nail against anything that charges them money for their product. We’re already seeing that in New York and Vermont. Both states have been sued by the industry, we believe. And this entire campaign was crafted on, and I’m not a lawyer so I can’t give you specifics, but there was a whole team of lawyers before we started going about passing these Superfund laws that crafted these bills on what we think is very solid legal precedent based on in California. Jason talked a little bit about the legal precedent. It’s also based on C, which is the environmental Superfund national law, which essentially makes polluters pay to clean up rivers or Superfund sites or contaminated land. So it’s based on that legal precedent, which has held up for decades.
(00:53:59):
And there’s sort of an army of lawyers that are currently working to defend both New York and Vermont. They’re working together to do that, and we expect to win in court. We think we have a solid foundation and a solid team to challenge us. We’re also trying to keep it in the state court so it doesn’t move to the Supreme Court. So that’s a couple of the answers. If you want a much more detailed answer, there’s plenty of lawyers that you could talk to that are working on this. And I’ll also just say that the legal efforts are not just coming from the state AGS offices that have already passed these bills. The state ag offices are incredibly committed to defending these laws, and that’s amazing to see. But there’s also philanthropy funded lawyers that are working real hard to make sure that these laws gets offended. And anything to add to that?
Fatima Iqbal-Zubair, California EnviroVoters (00:55:02):
I know that the drafters of the V, right? So C, B, D, they’re thinking backwards on potentially, right, exactly the question you asked. And so I think the language is intentional. I’ll just say that very intentional in thinking ahead of how we’ll be successful, anticipating it’ll be challenged. But
Sara Shor, Fossil Free Media (00:55:22):
Each line of these bills we’re gone through with a fine tooth comb about what will the industry challenge and how can we set this up so that we are standing on the most solid legal foundation that we can, because we know when we have a successful campaign like this that goes after the industry, they’re going to hit back. And I think that’s how we know we’re being successful at really threatening their power and ability to operate. So yeah, up here in the front with the hat, and then I’ll go over to this side.
Speaker 11 (00:55:56):
Hi, I’m John Schafer from Citizens Climate Lobby in Santa Rosa. I think it’s a weak case to make that prices won’t rise as a result of this. And it’s all right. It’s okay because we cannot reduce our GHGs climate warming gases unless we raise the prices. So don’t ’em push you around on that issue. It’s a good thing to do. This is a great bill. I am so pleased it’s coming and I hope you all will talk to your legislators and get ’em to support it. Maybe that’s not a question if you want.
Fatima Iqbal-Zubair, California EnviroVoters (00:56:41):
I appreciate your activism, sir, and your comment, I didn’t share this. You probably read my bio, but I live in South LA and our community is one of the lowest income in the state. So I understand what you’re saying when I talk to my partner too. It’s like climate change is an existential threat, but I believe we have to run towards economic and environmental justice as fast as we can. It’s not okay if prices rise. I just don’t want to normalize that because there are people who are living one paycheck away from being unhoused or not having food. So I do think the facts are in our favor, though. It is hard to prove something sometimes down to the dollar, but what we’re trying to do here is have a fund to avoid prices from rising and things like that. And I just want to say, and hopefully panelist up here, agree that our communities are also struggling with economic issues. And a lot of people, we can’t afford climate injustice, but we also can’t afford economic injustice. I think that’s why this coalition has been so intentional about working with workers and communities to make sure we reflect both
Sara Shor, Fossil Free Media (00:57:46):
And just, yeah, thank you Fatima. And just to get into the nitty gritty, just a little bit on that also, the reason that gas prices won’t rise because of this bill is that gas prices are set on a global market, and this would only impact some of the biggest companies. So there’s actually a fair number of smaller oil and gas companies that operate in California that wouldn’t be subject to these fines and fees. And so in order for those bigger ones, if they just raised prices, they would no longer be competitive with their competitors in California. So there’s actually a ton of economists sort of testimony that backs up why this won’t raise gas prices in California. Of course, the industry will say that, of course they’re going to price gouge no matter what, but the economic argument on this is actually pretty solid. Okay. Yeah. Red shirt. Yep. Okay.
(00:58:59):
(00:58:59):
Can you introduce yourself, supporter?
(00:59:03):
I’d like a brief explanation so I can explain it to my people why it has to have two thirds. Also talking about compensation for people who cannot work, that needs to be got to them quickly, not a six month apply for whatever kind of mechanism that they need that money to pay the rent by the groceries. So I’m not quite sure how that will work. I also wanted to mention that CBD has forms for sign up for organizations, public officials and businesses. And those help because those represent more people, more voters than just individuals. So if you can do that with your local church organization or whatever, that all helps.
(00:59:56):
Thank you.
Jason Pfeifle, Center for Biological Diversity (01:00:02):
Let’s see. So the first question was why two thirds? So the bill is an urgency measure. All urgency measures require two thirds vote to be passed. And then it was also the interpretation of alleged counsel that keyed it for two thirds vote, so it deemed it a non-tax levy and required two thirds vote for that reason too.
Speaker 13 (01:00:37):
I have a couple questions. I was also wondering if there might be time for me to plug the youth mass call real quick. Yeah. Okay. Lemme do that real quick. I’ll stand up. Okay. Hi everyone. My name is Anishka Kion. I went through 50 Sacramento and I’m also a high school senior from Sacramento as well. Thank you. So as fat, I think said earlier, we have a lot of youth mobilization for polluters pay going on as well. We had a big lobby day yesterday. And yeah, we’re just really excited to continue that momentum. And today, actually at 6:00 PM we have a youth mass call from youth all over California. We have signed up for that Zoom call. And so if you are a young person or you have a young person in your life, maybe it’s like yourself, your kids, your grandkids, people in your organization, whoever it is, if you could just send them a text right now, honestly, because a youth mass call is, I dunno what time it is, but it’s done in just a few hours and we’re really trying to drive a few more signups before 6:00 PM today.
(01:01:32):
So if you’re able to do that, we would really appreciate it and just really get that momentum going. We have a couple of pipelines from the youth mass call to general organizing and building up that campaign like everyone talked about here. So yeah, if you’re able to do that, that would be amazing. And then if you’re able to do that, please let me know and I’ll be happy to get you the information and the registration for that. We have a QR code sign up, so if we can maybe figure out a way to put that on the thing up there, we can try to figure that out if we have the technical capacity. If not, that’s totally fine. I have the registration info. So again, if you’re a young person, if there is a young person in your life, they don’t even have to be involved in climate, but you’d think they would be interested in supporting something like this or you want them to be supporting something like this, that would be amazing.
(01:02:14):
So yeah, please just let me know. But yeah, thank you. And yeah, let me know if you have any questions, but I also do have a question here. So yeah, yesterday we were doing a whole lobby day for polluters pay, as I’m sure we saw a lot of you there. But one of the offices we hit, they had a big question about labor, and I know you articulated all the labor support here, but they were saying, oh, we don’t have enough labor support and there really isn’t enough time to get that yet. And we were just kind of like, Hey, there’s already labor support. But I was just wondering where that argument came from and if that’s a growing argument that some people are using right now.
(01:03:13):
We do have a lot of labor support. So first of all, that’s a fact. You’re right. Thanks for saying that. And we have some of the most influential unions in Sacramento. We have the nurses, we have the California Federation of Teachers. I mean, they’re really impactful. I think obviously when he was saying that he was referring to the trades, right? The state trades, and I’ll just say it. I mean, this is a safe room to say it in. I’m just going to say it. So you guys, a lot of you are activists for climate and unfortunately in the state, right, whenever we see some of the biggest climate policies that we need passed, we see the state trades opposing it.
(01:03:57):
Unfortunately, and this happened with our previously sponsored bill, SB 2 53 happened with AB 32, 33. It happens all the time. You all see this pattern. And I can’t speak, Sarah, maybe actually you can speak to this a little bit because I’m going to talk about other states. This typically doesn’t happen in a lot of other states and please add on. But California has a really, I guess it’s not, we do a lot of oil producing necessarily, but the market, right? So they can profit a lot from doing business here, and they sort of made somewhat of a deal. Again, don’t quote me on this, but there’s something did happen where there was an agreement between Hi, Alicia. Alicia can speak a lot to this too, between the trades and the company where they always sighed, unfortunately with Wispa, which is Western States Petroleum. And anyway, but all that to say is Kylie and Jason both mentioned that we are very intentional about even making the language even stronger. And because it’s in progress, we can’t really speak specifically. But all that to say is we are having conversations with Thebus office in detail. We are taking his input in, and it’s really important to our coalition to make sure that our bill already uplifts a lot of the labor concerns, but even more, right? And so I’ll just say that. Do you want to add anything?
Sara Shor, Fossil Free Media (01:05:17):
Yeah, just there’s one more minute left. So you’re going to have the closing words on this
Jason Pfeifle, Center for Biological Diversity (01:05:23):
20 seconds. I mean, we’re in conversation with 15 to 20 more unions and are pretty far down the line who are deciding whether or not they’re going to endorse. So just to say that we are far along where we expect that support to continue to grow.
Speaker 3 (01:05:39):
When you say trades, what do you mean? Are we talking steel workers? Are we talking manufacturing?
Jason Pfeifle, Center for Biological Diversity (01:05:48):
FIMA was referring to the State Building Trades Council.
Sara Shor, Fossil Free Media (01:05:53):
Yeah, I will say that in New York, the trades stayed neutral on the bill, so we could go deep into reasons for that. But yeah,
Jason Pfeifle, Center for Biological Diversity (01:06:09):
To state the obvious oil extraction happens in California, it doesn’t happen in New York or Vermont. So they’re just very different political context that we’re operating in.
Sara Shor, Fossil Free Media (01:06:16):
Totally. So we don’t have any more time for questions we have to end, but please feel free to come up and ask folks questions at the end. And I guess I’ll just end by saying this is, we’re going hard against one of the most powerful industries in the world here, and we’re seeing a ton of momentum, a ton of popular support. Like I said before, this campaign has more momentum than almost any I’ve seen in my 15 years in the climate movement. And it appeals to everyone from grassroots people to politicians and everything in between, which is why our coalition is so broad. And so just invite you to get involved in this campaign, get involved with this bill. We want to invite more people in, and we’re going to be a fight, and we’re in it for the long term. So thank you all for coming to this panel and thank you to our panelists coalition call if people want to join it. Oh yeah. Do you want to say,
Jason Pfeifle, Center for Biological Diversity (01:07:20):
Yeah, every other Thursday at 2:00 PM there is a coalition call, and that is for people who represent an organization. So the kind of expectation is folks who are invited, their organization has endorsed the bill and they’re representing their organization. There’s also a grassroots supporter call every other Monday at 5:00 PM that anyone, we
Fatima Iqbal-Zubair, California EnviroVoters (01:07:45):
Can send that out, right? Yeah. That
Woody Hastings, The Climate Center (01:07:50):
Legislation so much. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I shift over to the next
Sara Shor, Fossil Free Media (01:07:56):
Oh yeah, sure. Let me get out of your way. Hold on, California.
Woody Hastings, The Climate Center (01:08:32):
Thank you so much, folks. Thank you Sarah and panelists, fantastic job. I just want to let you know that the final session in this track will take place at four o’clock and it’ll be on the Transportation Fuels transition plan. So please join us for that. Thank you very much.