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TOM WHEELER:

Welcome to the Econews Report. I'm your host this week, Tom Wheeler, executive director of EPIC, the Environmental Protection Information Center. And joining me, we have a very special guest, Assembly Member Damon Connolly. Welcome to the show.

DAMON CONNOLLY:

Thank you, Tom. Thanks for having me.

WHEELER:

So, Damon, you represent the district south of us, south of Assemblymember Rogers' district, San Rafael, that neighborhood.

CONNOLLY:

It's Assembly District 12, and it covers Marin and Sonoma County. So picture Golden Gate Bridge up to about Santa Rosa. And my colleague, Chris Rogers, takes it from there going north.

WHEELER:

So you are, besides Chris Rogers, physically our closest next assemblyman and you've taken a great interest in the North Coast and there have been a number of North Coast bills and actions that you've worked on recently. So I wanted to just touch on that relationship that you have with this area. So first, let's talk about some great news, which is the governor on California Native American Day signed one of your bills, which you coauthored with Assemblymember Rogers, AB 263 into law. So tell us what 263 is going to do and why it was a priority for you as an assemblymember to fight for this.

CONNOLLY:

Yeah, fantastic bill and really a great result getting that sign this week. What AB 263 does is maintains flow levels in the Scott and Shasta Rivers, which as your listeners probably know, are tributaries of the Klamath River. We felt it was crucial to maintain those flow levels and those are put in on an emergency basis during drought times, but we know that the threat level exists still to habitat protection and of course our fish species, which are so critical to our communities in the north coast communities. So we thought it was important to maintain those flows. It got a tremendous amount of support from tribes, environmental groups, communities and we were able to get that across the finish line.

WHEELER:

It's fantastic. So every year prior to this, we would always have to be in a fight to make sure that we would have adequate minimum flows, they might not be set at the right time, or it was just this administrative headache to get it done. Now, because of this legislation, we will have the breathing room to craft longer term minimum flow regulations and not always have to rely on these emergency minimum flows. That's, it's fantastic. And it's also coming at the advice and direction of the Iraq and Caribbean tribes. Um, and so, so talk to me about, about kind of the thoughts of, of an assemblyman in working with these sovereign governments and, and the relationship and the responsibility you might feel to, to represent Indian country here in Northern California.

CONNOLLY:

It's treasured relationships and have really enjoyed working closely with both the Yurok and Karuk. And in fact, the bill we just mentioned ties into a broader effort led by those tribes in going on for many years successfully now in removal of dams on the Klamath. I will tell you, I was gratified recently to take a trip with Assemblymember Rogers up to Karuk territory and got to actually, one, tour a site where they will be building a new regional fire training center. And we were able to secure $10 million for that through Proposition 4 funding. So thank you voters for passing the climate bond last November, the historic $10 billion bond. We can talk about that maybe a little bit more in the conversation, but one of the highlights for us this year was being able to shepherd through $10 million. That training center is going to be amazing in really opening up knowledge and experience around beneficial use of fire. When we say wildfire prevention, tribal culture has so much to teach us and this is going to really institutionalize that.

Well, as part of that trip, we also took a rafting trip down the Klamath and this was fairly recent and your listeners probably know up until the recent past, this time of year, you would most likely encounter a river that didn't smell too good or there were flow issues or certainly habitat degradation. We swam in the river. The river was amazing. It was clear by all accounts, fish populations are coming back. There's a lot of strategies around how we improve habitat.

I will say as a quick aside, Tom, one of my favorite bills I've done in the assembly is the beaver build where we actually were able to codify beaver habitat standards and just the ability for areas to relocate beavers and really reintroduce them in a beneficial way into our natural environments. There's a lot of potential for that, I think, in connection with what we're talking about as well. Going back to your initial question, the tribes are such a great partner and so instrumental in all these conversations and policies.

WHEELER:

It is really a privilege to be able to live where we do and still have very vibrant tribes that are practicing their culture, that are, that are renewing the world as, as they do through their ceremony. I'm so honored to be able to live in this place. So one other piece of good news, I'm not sure if you saw this, but we have our first Chinook salmon up past Keno Dam in Southern Oregon now as a result of this dam removal. So yeah, the dam removal is producing beneficial effects I think faster basically than anyone kind of contemplated. The river is healing itself. Yeah. Yes, it is.

CONNOLLY:

It sure is. And I can't wait to get back up there again. It's a success story that's only going to continue to get better. And I think it's a model for a lot of other work we can be looking to do.

WHEELER:

Oh, assembly member, you have a reputation now in, in the assembly as, as a fairly strong force for the environment. Where did that come from? What was it that caused you to want to be a champion for the environment? What was the like environmental education that you had that got you to this place?

CONNOLLY:

It goes way back. I mean, I think I've just always had just a profound appreciation for the environment. I'm an attorney by trade as well, and I also come from a local government background. Didn't necessarily plan on it this way, but you know, started on the school board when my two daughters were younger. City council, then I was a county supervisor, and now serving the community at the state level. If you go even back to my school days, I was an editor on the Ecology Law Quarterly, right? Like a longtime active Sierra Club member.

And then kind of a breakthrough, interestingly, was one of my assignments as a lawyer was working for the California Attorney General's office. Back in the day, some of your listeners may remember like the Enron debacle. I was one of the folks going after all the power companies from out of state that ripped us off. Well, part of that education was, what should California's energy future look like? And to me, it really became evident. It was local. It was renewable. And so, I actually had the good fortune as a new city council member of being a founding board member of the first community choice aggregation program in the whole state. It was called Marin Clean Energy. And we were at the bleeding edge, shall we say? A lot of pushback by PG&E and others. Not surprisingly, it was pretty cutting edge. Giving local communities the ability to source their own energy and make it a heavy duty focus on renewable energy. I became passionate about that.

And if you fast forward a number of years now, that is a force to be reckoned with statewide. Of course, Redwood Coast Energy is doing amazing. I recall coming up to Humboldt back in the day and talking about the virtues of the idea. And it was embraced by Arcata and other communities right away. Sonoma Clean Power as well. So, throughout my career, one of the driving reasons I've even pursued public office, and that certainly applies at the state level, was to protect the environment. To look after public health from an environmental standpoint. For example, right now, I'm actually chair of a committee called the Environmental Safety and Toxic Materials Committee. So, picture all the issues dealing with water quality, pesticide regulation, harmful chemicals in our foods, things like PFAS. My work is kind of front and center in addressing all those issues on behalf of our communities. I'm also on natural resources, on the budget committee allocating monies toward renewable energy and toward fire prevention and other resources issues as well.

WHEELER:

So one thing I wanted to make a point of, you have a lot of local government connection. We have a great tradition of that here on the North Coast with our representatives, right? That is the genesis of Mike McGuire and Chris Rogers and Jared Huffman, right? So folks out there who might be interested in politics, get on the ground, get involved in your local school board, run for the water board, do whatever it is, and get those training wheels. It is a useful and productive thing and you feel good. As somebody who is now an elected official myself on the Humboldt Bay Municipal Water District Board of Directors, I can say it feels good to give back and it is an act of service in many ways.

Okay, so you have had an interesting legislative session or we have had an interesting legislative session and this has been kind of a transformational one in regards to CEQA, the California Environmental Quality Act, one of the landmark California environmental laws. We have seen significant proposals for changes to that law and some of these have actually gotten to the governor's desk and have been signed. So in particular, I am thinking of SB 131 and a lot of Senator Wiener's work who is just across the bridge from you in trying to reform CEQA to be, I'm gonna try to steel man this, to reform CEQA to be more responsive to the threats to housing and to other things that CEQA might get in the way of sometimes. How did you see this legislative session and how do you view CEQA and the need if there is one for reform?

CONNOLLY:

So I would say right up front, Tom, I'm a strong defender of CEQA, and that's the California Environmental Protection Act, Environmental Quality Act, CEQA. If you look back when California passed this landmark law many decades ago, there was a context, right? I mean, you could, you know, the air in Los Angeles was brown, and many of our waterways were polluted, and development was not making much sense in terms of from a community planning process. So CEQA has played a crucial role, and frankly, has been a beacon for the environment in California. As with any law, it's important to review it over time and make some reforms.

My concern this year, and certainly there have been issues in terms of over the last several years, whether it's citing infill housing, or renewable energy projects, that sort of thing. This year was noteworthy because I think we risked going well beyond that. And if you look in particular at Senate Bill 131, there are now kind of wholesale CEQA exemptions. And the purpose CEQA, just for those of your listeners who don't know, it really is a law designed to make sure there is transparency, rigorous review, and also community input around major projects that will potentially have an impact on the environment. So transparency, accountability, information, and community input are kind of the watchwords. In SB 131, and keep in mind, this was a what's called a budget trailer bill that was introduced right at the last moment of the budget process. Legislators had about 72 hours to review this bill. And in effect, what it does is exempt from CEQA analysis and review, something called advanced manufacturing.

WHEELER:

And hopefully you can, you can tell us what advanced manufacturing is. Cause we've been struggling to figure it out over here. You are listening to the Econ News Report. Joining me, we have a very special guest assembly member, Damon Connolly.

CONNOLLY:

Let's talk it through, because one of the issues is it's very vaguely defined by SB131, and that is the problem. But if you kind of take it and extrapolate at face value, it could include projects like battery recycling plants, energy storage facilities, heavy metals manufacturing, and who knows what else, and effectively exempt it from meaningful seeker review. That is very problematic to me, and I'm not alone.

I think the understanding at the time SB131 went through, and I did not vote on that, is that there would be what's called cleanup language, and about 35 of us indicated that's the direction we want to go. It seemed like there was consensus around that. There were a couple other issues in addition to the advanced manufacturing, lack of clarity and definition. But end of session kind of came and went, and there was no effort by the author to do that. So what I did is right before session ended is Elyse got a bill in, it's Assembly Bill 1083, and immediately got 23 principal co-authors from both the Senate and the Assembly. Oh, I should add, there was a, shall we say, an inadequate attempt, a cleanup by Senator Wiener as the author, it was Senate Bill 145, kind of rejected out of hand by the Senate.

So that led me to do 1083, and that bill will be heard in January. We are getting a ton of environmental support, labor support, because it includes some labor standards, community support, colleague support, and really it will be a vehicle for continued discussions throughout this fall to correct some of the shortcomings everyone seemingly sees with SB131.

WHEELER:

So from my outsider perspective, it appeared that Senator Wiener took advantage of the moment. That there was a lot of discussion, the YIMBYs have gotten a lot of power in Sacramento, and they are pointing to some rightful issues with CEQA. And that we saw the introduction of SB 131 and a lot of the kind of environmental community was aghast. We were surprised and then there was the pushback from the environmental community after seeing what was in this bill. And we had a more refined bill in the passage of 131 than what was originally introduced.

But it feels now that maybe the fever is broken on CEQA reform. Do I read that right? Or do you think that the legislature is going to come back and there's going to be additional efforts in the next legislative session?

CONNOLLY:

I will tell, and everything's cyclical, I think you did a great job in summarizing where we are. I will even add one other piece anecdotally, and that is all the rage in Sacramento this year in many quarters was the book Abundance by Ezra Klein, right, kind of going toward the point you're making. The principal critique, because the book raises a number of good points, my principal critique would be the level to which it lays blame for, let's say, lack of housing development or lack of manufacturing is at the foot of CEQA.

I don't think CEQA deserves that level of blame, number one, and number two, given the importance of thorough environmental review, I think we have to be very careful about kind of wholesale abandonment of the principles. So getting to your point, I suspect given the level of public concern at how far things went and certainly very respected environmental voices and other community voices, we need to now go to work and kind of right the ship a little bit.

WHEELER:

And that was I think the point Senator Blakesphere made after its passage was now we expect to see the pendulum swing the other direction and we'll start to see refinement of yes 131 and you know you're the intro legislation you introduced 1083 is is that kind of pendulum swinging back it's the refinement that we expect that we expected when the the bill passed so I look forward to seeing how it's received come January hopefully my friends in the democratic party will rally around it

CONNOLLY:

So far so good, it's getting a lot of note and that includes even in my travels up to Mendo and Humboldt and Del Norte and elsewhere and certainly around the state for the reasons you stated. Yeah, and I think the response so far indicates that yeah, there's a desire to have this conversation and take action. And then the larger issue of just kind of where we are in the swing of the pendulum, so to speak. I always come back to, I think California can proudly hold itself up as an environmental leader and that's nationwide, worldwide. I think we kind of moved off that this year for some of the reasons you and I have discussed that are at least perceived out there. But I think we need to really live up to that mantle.

And I know particularly in our communities in the North Bay and North Coast, we are the environmental leaders in terms of you, other community members. That's one of the great things about representing this area is thought leaders are my constituents and being able to tap into that as we go forward on 1083 and other issues.

WHEELER:

So I, I want to do two things before we go. One is talk about what else you have on your radar for this upcoming legislative session. And the other is to talk a little bit about bringing the bacon home because we have Prop 4 money now coming back to the district.

CONNOLLY:

We sure do, yeah.

WHEELER:

Let's talk about that one first.

CONNOLLY:

Absolutely. Let's start with that, because as things always play out, there was no guarantee Prop 4 money was going to even be allocated.

WHEELER:

And then POP4 again was the climate bond that voters passed.

CONNOLLY:

Again, thank you voters and obviously huge passage in the North Coast. So again, it's $10 billion. I was proud to be one of the main assembly authors of it, particularly worked on wildfire prevention and nature-based solutions, which are so important to our climate strategies, using our wetlands and natural lands to do so. So a big push this year, not surprisingly, was on wildfire prevention. We got $185 million allocated statewide and about $33 million of that is going to be through our coastal conservancy, which covers the North Bay and North Coast. So the key with this money is making sure it gets on the ground to our local communities. I talked about one example, $10 million to the Kuduk Training Center. That's about one example.

State Senator Mike McGuire has done a great job this year of bringing home some of the bacon, so to speak, on that. I'm going to leave it to him to get in touch with community and talk more about that. But things like the Great Redwood Trail, which also seems like a great opportunity there.

One of the issues I'm working closely on right here from residents all the time related to wildfire prevention is the insurance crisis. The fact that people are losing coverage, they're being priced out of the market. So I was able to carry AB1, Assembly Bill Number One. There's a whole story on how you get it to be number one for another time, but that would actually enable folks who are hardening their homes, doing everything that we're asking them to do in their own lives will result in discounts. It's part of our affordability strategies because we know insurance is so expensive now, and folks should not be losing their coverage. So much more on that to come as well.

Another biggie, and this will continue to play out next year and years after, is this year we reauthorized a program called Cap and Trade. I'm at the state level. This is California's primary strategy to mitigate climate change. It's market-based. It ratchets down emissions levels from our largest polluters. It actually creates billions of dollars that are then plugged back into climate mitigation programs around the state. So there will be more coming on that as well. I was on that working group. It's been renamed Cap and Invest. It's going to focus on prioritizing trying to reduce people's energy bills, particularly in high-use months, as well as prioritizing things like nature-based solutions. So a lot of exciting things there as well.

WHEELER:

Well, fantastic. I hadn't, you know, I think we've talked about this in a previous show, there's money coming back for offshore wind, which is going to be really critical now that the Trump administration has canceled over $426 million in grant funding for Humboldt Bay. So I

CONNOLLY:

Quickly on that, Chris Rogers and I are prioritizing, because we have lots of federal money, let's keep port development going. And we were able to allocate about $228 million toward ports. Love taking a tour recently of Humboldt Bay with the Harbor District. Lot of exciting stuff going on there. So count me in on continuing to work with the community and Assemblymember Rogers on that project as well.

WHEELER:

Fantastic. All right. So we have about a minute left. let's talk about what this next session holds or the, when the session comes back. What, what, what, what is it technically?

CONNOLLY:

January, we'll be in year two. Yes, let's talk about that. The next session is going to be all about, if I had to predict, and it's not a hard prediction, making sure that California is braced against all the challenges coming from this federal administration and Trump. Frankly, it is outrageous right now. If you look at wildfire prevention monies being improperly withheld, demonization of our immigrant neighbors, our LGBTQ community, particularly trans youth. If you look at Medicaid, which is being decimated as we speak, and that translates into Medi-Cal here in our state, our rural healthcare system and hospitals are already at code red. This is only going to exacerbate that. So we need to fight tooth and nail. As your California representatives, we're on the front lines of that. We are funding lawsuits. We are fighting politically. We are looking at alternative sources of revenue and readjusting our own budget to fill in gaps. And the environment is front and center on that. Offshore wind is just about one example of many where it just seems like literally every day bad surprises are coming out of Washington. Next year, we will be spending a lot of our time, I anticipate, fighting back on that.

WHEELER:

Well, Assemblymember, it's been fantastic to have you on the show and we'll have to have you back again in the spring to talk about how the session's going. But until then, enjoy this well-deserved little break and we'll be back in touch.

CONNOLLY:

Thank you so much. All right.

WHEELER:

Well, join us again next week on this time and channel for more environmental news from the North Coast of California.