Monthly Archives: October 2017

Gun control, Mass shootings

Mass shooting in Las Vegas, NV

[Apologies for the belated posting of this October, 2017 page.  – RS]

This page is dedicated to those who have suffered gun violence in the United States.  Our guns are out of control.  Senseless, that we cry out only after mass shootings.  Below you will find most recent postings at top, followed by an archive going back several years.

By Roger Straw, October 8, 2017
UPDATE – following the mass shooting in Las Vegas, NV
rainbow flag candleBy Roger Straw, June 12, 2016
UPDATE – mass shooting in Orlando FL
This Michael Moore tweet says it all:

Here is the latest sad mass shooting statistic from The Guardian (6/14/2016):

Guardian_mass-shootings_2016-06-14

Previously (October 7, 2015): 
I will take a brief time out … again … from my reporting on crude by rail to raise the awful issue of gun control and the almost daily occurrence of mass shootings in the United States.  (Mass shooting is defined as four or more people shot in an event, or related series of events, likely without a cooling off period).   See below.

– Roger Straw, Editor, The Benicia Independent

IMPORTANT: The Guardian’s report, “994 mass shootings in 1,004 days: this is what America’s gun crisis looks like,” is a shocking visual representation of the almost daily mass shootings in the U.S.

The Guardian article is based on statistics gathered by Mass Shooting Tracker.  The current page on Mass Shooting Tracker shows three more mass shootings on the day after the college campus shooting in Roseburg, Oregon:

  • 10/2/2015 – 1 dead, 4 wounded in Baltimore, MD
  • 10/2/2015 – 3 dead, 1 wounded in Inglis, FL
  • 10/2/2015 – 1 dead, 4 wounded, again in Baltimore, MD

Your news media simply CAN’T KEEP UP with the flood of mass shootings.  So far in 2015, (on October 7, the 280th day of the year) 379 have been killed in mass shootings, and 1094 have been shot and survived.  Who knew, you might ask?  Well, survivors, for sure.  Their lives will never be the same.  Nor will those of families, friends and neighbors of those who are killed or injured in these mass shootings.

LOCAL:  Note this story from last week about the gunshot slaying of a local family: 16-year-old Benicia boy suspect in his family slaying.

FROM BENINDY ARCHIVES…
For a short time in May 2013, not long after the Sandyhook Elementary shooting in Newtown, Massachusetts, the Benicia Independent’s “single-issue focus” was on gun control.  At that time, I linked to a series of stories showing that the issue extends to our small town of Benicia.  (See archive copy below.)  

Gun Violence is a problem in Benicia

By Roger Straw
May 16, 2013, 2:30 PM

Gun violence is in fact a BENICIA problem … it is time to take action in EVERY city and town. Here are 21 links to Benicia Herald reports of gun violations in Benicia April, 2010 to May 16, 2013.

BREAKING: Armed Liberty High student accused of threatening classmate

By Donna Beth Weilenman
Staff Reporter
Benicia police arrested a 17-year-old Liberty High School student they said made threats Wednesday to kill a classmate, and Thursday brought a gun to campus, Lt. Frank Hartig said. The youth’s identity was not disclosed, but he was accused of felony counts of terrorist threats and possessing a firearm on school grounds, as well as misdemeanor accusations of possessing a firearm with an obliterated serial number; of being a minor in possession of ammunition; possession of an assault weapon; and being a minor in possession of a concealed firearm, Hartig said.
May 16, 2013

County youth homicide rate on the rise
Solano ranks 6th in California
By Donna Beth Weilenman
Staff Reporter

Solano County has been ranked sixth among California counties in youth and young adult homicides, said Marty Langley, policy analyst for the the Violence Policy Center, Washington, D.C. San Joaquin County topped the list that is based on 2011 statistics, and several counties reported no homicides among those 10 to 24, the age range that is the focus of the center’s report.
March 7, 2013 at 11:01 am

Police search reveals drugs, ‘suspected Molotov cocktail’
By Donna Beth Weilenman
Staff Reporter

Benicia police arrested a Benicia man early Monday in the Solano County Square parking lot after a police dog detected drugs in the vicinity of the man’s car. A search turned up drugs, weapons and a suspected incendiary device, Lt. Frank Hartig said Tuesday afternoon.
December 11, 2012 at 3:39 pm

Man sought in Benicia robbery dies in standoff Police: After chase to Treasure Island, Duncan Phillips shot himself
By Donna Beth Weilenman
Staff Reporter

A man sought by Benicia police in the Thanksgiving Day armed robbery of one woman and theft of another women’s car died early Tuesday of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot after a lengthy standoff on Treasure Island, San Francisco police said. Duncan Phillips, 29, had been the subject of a Benicia police search after he was suspected of attacking and robbing a 52-year-old woman at her apartment on the 900 block of Southampton Road, Lt. Frank Hartig said.
November 27, 2012 at 4:18 pm

Armed robbery at Fast and Easy Mart
Staff Report

Fast and Easy Mart, 1500 East Fifth Street, was held up Thursday night by armed robbers, police said. The lone clerk described the four assailants as African-American men in the 20s or 30s, wearing dark-colored bandanas over their mouths, police said.
August 17, 2012 at 10:57 am

Held in county lockup, suspect charged with attempted murder of police officer 
By Donna Beth Weilenman
Staff Reporter

The 22-year-old American Canyon man identified as the suspect who exchanged gunfire with a Benicia police officer Saturday afternoon remained in Solano County Jail, Fairfield, after his arrest Sunday morning in Vallejo, authorities said Monday. Robert Flores Folster was arrested by Benicia police with help from Vallejo police at 1324 Lincoln Road East in Vallejo on Sunday morning, according to Lt. Mike Greene and Solano County Jail records. Folster has been booked on charges of burglary, endangerment of a child that could result in injury or death, attempted murder, carjacking, receiving stolen property and vehicle theft, according to jail records. All are felony charges. While bail of $1,050,000 was set for the first three charges, Folster is being held without bail on the latter three.
July 17, 2012 at 8:08 am

Drug, gun charges for Benicia juvenile

By Donna Beth Weilenman
Staff Reporter
A 17-year-old Benicia driver who ran a stop sign late Thursday was arrested on weapons and drug charges and was taken to Solano County Juvenile Hall in Fairfield, Lt. Frank Hartig said Friday. Read the rest of this entry »
July 13, 2012 at 4:02 pm

BREAKING: Man robs 7-11 at gunpoint

with 2 comments
By Donna Beth Weilenman
Staff Reporter
A convenience store clerk was robbed at gunpoint early Tuesday, and the suspect not only demanded money from the register’ but the clerk’s wallet as well, Benicia police Lt. Frank Hartig said.
The robber escaped on foot, and the clerk was not harmed, he said. Read the rest of this entry »
June 5, 2012 at 5:19 pm

Police say Rio Vista man had 2 concealed guns

with 2 comments
By Donna Beth Weilenman
Staff Reporter
A Rio Vista man has been jailed after Benicia police accused him of two firearms violations following a traffic stop in a residential area. Read the rest of this entry »
May 25, 2012 at 5:54 am

Gunshots in Benicia lead to charge of endangerment

with one comment
By Donna Beth Weilenman
Staff Reporter
Benicia Police arrested a 20-year-old Napa man early Wednesday and accused him of endangering a child when he negligently fired a revolver from his car while he on the 1300 block of Southampton Road, Lt. Frank Hartig said. Read the rest of this entry »
May 10, 2012 at 1:37 pm

BREAKING: Armed gunman holds up Benicia business

with 43 comments
Staff Report
Benicia police said an armed robber entered a Southampton business Thursday afternoon and escaped with an undisclosed amount of cash.
No one was injured in the holdup at Check Into Cash, 806 Southampton Road, police said. Read the rest of this entry »

Police find 59 guns; resident arrested

with 5 comments

SOME of the 59 guns police confiscated from a Benicia resident Thursday, including a 9mm UZI.
Courtesy BPD
By Donna Beth Weilenman
Staff Reporter
A 49-year-old Benicia man has been arrested and a cache of guns, including an illegal 9 mm UZI assault weapon, were confiscated after Benicia police looked into reports Thursday that the man had been harassing a 20-year-old Martinez woman, Lt. Mike Daley said. Read the rest of this entry »
October 28, 2011 at 3:13 pm

Police arrest parolee on weapons charges
Staff Report

Benicia police on Friday arrested a Magalia, Calif., man after finding a handgun and tools commonly used for car theft in his possession. Police Sgt. John Daley stopped a 1994 Acura on the 900 block of Cambridge Drive at about 6:24 a.m. for an expired registration. After the stop police determined that the passenger, Brad Stancliff, 23, had a felony warrant for his arrest from the California Department of Corrections, according to a Benicia Police Department news release.
April 8, 2011 at 9:41 pm

Police: Man aimed gun at roommate

By Donna Beth Weilenman
Staff Reporter

A 28-year-old Benicia man who police said pointed a handgun at his roommate’s forehead Tuesday evening was arrested and charged with a felony.
Lt. Mike Daley said the 34-year-old roommate called police and said the man had pointed the gun at him about 6:46 p.m. after they had been arguing. Read the rest of this entry »
March 17, 2011 at 5:31 am

Absent plate leads to weapons, drug arrest
By Donna Beth Weilenman
Staff Reporter

The occupants of a Ford Thunderbird missing its rear license plate were arrested Tuesday night and charged with weapons and drug violations, Benicia police Lt. Mike Daley said Wednesday. Benicia K-9 Officer Damiean Sylvester noticed the Thunderbird was missing its plate and stopped the vehicle on East Fifth Street at the eastbound Interstate 780 on-ramp, Daley said. Sylvester spoke with the driver and passenger and discovered each had some prescription medicine but no prescriptions, Daley said. The passenger also had a substance police believe is methamphetamine, he said.
March 10, 2011 at 1:32 am

Lone gunman robs store in Southampton

By Marc Ethier
Editor
“Friday the 13th” it was not, but a lone gunman wearing a mask popularized by the horror film series was deadly serious Wednesday when he entered a Southampton Shopping Center store.
The gunman entered GameStop, 821 Southampton Road, at 9:54 p.m. wearing a white hockey mask, according to a Benicia police report. He brandished but did not point a black, semi-automatic-type handgun and demanded cash, then escaped with an undisclosed amount, police said. Read the rest of this entry »
December 30, 2010 at 10:20 pm

Police: Benicia man hospitalized with apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound

By Donna Beth Weilenman
Staff Reporter
A Benicia man was taken to an area hospital early Monday after police found him wounded by a gun he may have fired himself.
The man was listed in critical but stable condition at John Muir Medical Center in Walnut Creek later that day, Lt. Bob Oettinger said. Read the rest of this entry »
December 20, 2010 at 10:23 pm

Gunpoint robbery at Homecoming

with 3 comments
“One suspect pulled a black, semiautomatic gun and stuck it into the stomach of one of the victims.” — Benicia police Sgt. Scott Przekurat 
By Donna Beth Weilenman
Staff Reporter
Two 14-year-old Benicia High School students were robbed at gunpoint by four teenagers Friday night after the school’s homecoming game, Benicia police said Monday.
A school administrator appeared shortly after the four robbed the two boys of their wallets, cell phones and a small amount of money, prompting the robbers to scatter, said Sgt. Scott C. Przekurat of the department’s investigations unit.
The victims were walking through the campus after the game and had entered an outside hallway along the school’s A Wing at about 11 p.m. when they were approached by the four robbers, all described as wearing dark sweaters or jackets, dark pants, and flat-billed ball caps, Przekurat said. Read the rest of this entry »
October 18, 2010 at 11:26 pm

Gunshots spur school lockdown

❒ None hurt; police arrest 4 in drive-by 
By Donna Beth Weilenman
Staff Reporter
Robert Semple Elementary School was placed on lockdown about 2:30 p.m. Thursday while authorities searched the area for gunmen who apparently were stalking a Benicia man and his girlfriend.
Vincent Winnie, a 22-year-old Vallejo man, and three others were arrested by Benicia police at the Interstate 780-Interstate 80 interchange, Lt. Mike Daley said. They were still being processed by police at press time.
The incident started before 1 p.m. when police received multiple calls of a possible drive-by shooting at the first block of La Prenda Avenue, Daley said. Read the rest of this entry »
October 1, 2010 at 12:32 am

City police seek help on reports of gunshots

BENICIA POLICE Lt. Mike Daley.
Herald file photo
❒ None injured in 2 incidents last week
By Donna Beth Weilenman
Staff Reporter
Benicia police are asking residents to help them solve two incidents involving gunfire that occurred four days apart, Lt. Mike Daley said Wednesday.
The first report was of shots fired on the 400 block of East L Street about 8:10 p.m. on June 29, Daley said. Read the rest of this entry »
July 7, 2010 at 11:50 pm

Autopsy confirms Benicians’ deaths came by gunshot

By Donna Beth Weilenman
Staff Reporter

Autopsies performed Wednesday on the two Benicia residents who died in an apparent murder-suicide confirmed that Walter Little, 48, and his girlfriend, Julie Strack, 49, both died of gunshot wounds, Solano County Deputy Sheriff Corey McLean said.
Little, of 69 Vista Grande, died of an intraoral gunshot wound while Strack, of the same address, died of two wounds, one to the head and one to the neck, McLean said. Read the rest of this entry »
April 17, 2010 at 12:11 am

Gun control

GOP response to mass shootings…

Repost of an email from Barbara Boxer’s Resist & Replace – PAC for a Change

Sunday night’s mass shooting in Las Vegas – the deadliest in American history – has captured our attention and ignited a fire. We mourn the lives lost, we pray for the families, we honor the heroes — and we demand immediate action.

YES, we must support the ban on the sale and possession of bump-stock equipment, like that used by the Las Vegas shooter to turn semi-automatics into fully automatic weapons of war and fire up to 800 rounds a minute.

BUT, we also must stop any proposals to weaken existing gun laws, including the GOP’s planned effort to provide for conceal-and-carry reciprocity and make it easier for people to buy silencers without a background check.

We must follow our prayers with commonsense legislative action that prevents the gruesome deaths of even more Americans. Universal background checks and closing the internet and gun show loopholes are things up to 94% of Americans – including gun owners! – agree on.

>> ADD YOUR NAME TO MAKE AMERICA SAFER AND STOP THE SPREAD OF MILITARY-STYLE WEAPONS DESIGNED FOR MASS DESTRUCTION.

In friendship,

Barbara Boxer

Keeping Watch on Earth News

NY Times: CA Attorney General Becerra Stops Trump Effort to Turn Back Environmental “Flaring” Regulations

Repost from The New York Times
[Significant quote: “Xavier Becerra, the attorney general of California, who has been perhaps the most aggressive of the state officials suing to challenge Trump administration rollbacks, said he hopes the White House is getting the message.” – RS]

Courts Thwart Administration’s Effort to Rescind Obama-Era Environmental Regulations

By Eric Lipton, October. 6, 2017

WASHINGTON — The rapid-fire push by the Trump administration to wipe out significant chunks of the Obama environmental legacy is running into a not-so-minor complication: Judges keep ruling that the Trump team is violating federal law.

The latest such ruling came late Wednesday, when a federal magistrate judge in Northern California vacated a move by the Department of Interior to delay compliance with rules curbing so-called flaring, a technique oil and gas companies use to burn off leaking methane. Flaring is blamed for contributing to climate change as well as lost tax revenues because the drilling is being done on federal land.

It was the third time since July that the Environmental Protection Agency or the Interior Department has been found to have acted illegally in their rush to roll back environmental rules. And in three other environmental cases, the Trump administration reversed course on its own after lawsuits accusing it of illegal actions were filed by environmental groups and Democratic state attorneys general.

The legal reversals reflect how aggressively Mr. Trump’s critics are challenging the administration’s efforts to rescind regulations enacted during the Obama administration, not only related to the environment, but to immigration, to consumer protection and to other areas.

52 Environmental Rules on the Way Out Under Trump

The list shows dozens of environmental policies that the Trump administration has targeted, often in an effort to ease burdens on the fossil fuel industry.

Click to open graphic

Yet even as the list of failed or at least stalled rollbacks continues to grow, the Trump administration, in many other cases, continues to move ahead with its agenda, often trying a number of different approaches to killing the same rule, so that early setbacks do not necessarily mean anything has been settled.

“The Trump administration is confident in its legal positions and looks forward to arguing — and winning — before the federal judiciary,” Kelly Love, a White House spokeswoman, said in a statement. “This is in stark contrast to the previous administration, which may be the worst win rate before the Supreme Court since the Taylor administration in the early 1850s.”

Still, the string of court rulings and administrative reversals — even some conservative legal scholars agree — is a sign that the Trump administration has been in such a rush to undo the Obama legacy that it is almost inviting legal challenges.

“If I were in this administration, this should be seen as a warning sign,” said Jonathan H. Adler, the director of the Center for Business Law & Regulation at Case Western Reserve University School of Law. “The message is clear: Guys, we have a problem here. We are trying to do stuff that is hard and we are not crossing our i’s and t’s.”

Environmentalists see it as proof that Mr. Trump and his team care little about honoring federal law.

“It shows serial lawbreaking and sloppiness by a Trump administration bent on rollbacks,” said John Walke, the director of the clean air project at the Natural Resources Defense Council. “It is sad they have to have their comeuppance in courts rather than doing what was right.”

But this is hardly the first administration to have administrative decisions overturned as a result of court challenges. Environmentalists challenging the moves by George W. Bush to loosen air pollution rules won 27 court rulings during his eight-year tenure.

Trump-Era Environmental Rollbacks Hit a Roadblock: Successful Legal Challenges

As the Trump administration has moved to rollback dozens of Obama-era environmental rules, it has faced intense legal challenges from environmentalists, health advocates and Democratic state attorneys general

Click to open document

And the Obama administration itself was repeatedly challenged by environmentalists. In a recent decision related to two billion tons in coal leases on federal land in the Powder River Basin of Wyoming, for example, the United States Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit concluded that the Democratic administration’s decision to approve the leases was “arbitrary or capricious” because it did not adequately consider the effect mining all this coal would have on climate change.

But even within the White House, there is awareness that the agencies need to be more careful to avoid further stumbles.

“There are concerns,” Neomi Rao, the head of the Office of Management and Budget division that oversees major federal rules, said in an interview this summer, shortly after she assumed her post. “Agencies want to move quickly to get things done.”

Policy experts say the reversals also underscore the fact that crucial positions within the E.P.A. and the Interior Department remain unfilled, and that a lack of trust exists between political appointees and career staff members.

“The career people at E.P.A. and D.O.J. are top-notch lawyers,” said Richard J. Lazarus, an environmental law professor at Harvard University. “But you have political people come in, and they don’t trust them at all and try to do it without them.”

Xavier Becerra, the attorney general of California, who has been perhaps the most aggressive of the state officials suing to challenge Trump administration rollbacks, said he hopes the White House is getting the message.

“No man, no woman is above the law,” Mr. Becerra said in an interview, shortly after the California magistrate judge ruled that the Interior Department had illegally postponed the enforcement of the methane flaring rule. “You have to follow the rule of law. It makes no difference if you are in the White House or not.”

Each of the rules at the center of these legal challenges has major public implications.

The Department of Interior methane rule reinstated by a federal court on Wednesday will annually eliminate the equivalent of greenhouse gas emissions from about 950,000 vehicles, according to an Obama administration estimate, while also generating millions of dollars in extra federal revenues because oil and gas companies right now do not pay royalties on methane they flare off in giant torches that light the sky.

But the Interior Department, under new leadership, argued that these environmental benefits were not worth the costs.

“Small independent oil and gas producers in states like North Dakota, Colorado and New Mexico, which account for a substantial portion of our nation’s energy wealth, could be hit the hardest,” Katharine MacGregor, a senior Interior Department official, said in a statement this spring.

The federal court judges were not impressed by the legal arguments the Interior Department and E.P.A. made as they separately moved to repeal the Obama-era rules related to methane, which is considered a major factor in climate change.

Efforts by Scott Pruitt, the E.P.A. administrator, to postpone his agency’s methane rule were “unlawful,” “arbitrary” and “capricious,” a three-judge panel said in July.

Scott Pruitt, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, on Tuesday in San Juan, P.R.  |  Credit Doug Mills/The New York Times

“Agencies obviously have broad discretion to reconsider a regulation at any time,” the judges ruled. “To do so, however, they must comply with the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), including its requirements for notice and comment.”

There are signs that the Trump administration is hearing this message. As in three other recent cases, the administration has given up efforts to roll back rules after lawsuits were filed to challenge them even before any judges had ruled on the merits of the arguments.

Those reversals involve rules intended to reduce asthma-causing ozone pollution, toxic mercury contamination in water supplies and a requirement that state transportation departments monitor greenhouse gas emission levels on national highways and set targets for reducing them.

Kyle Danish, who represents oil and gas companies and electric utilities for the law firm Van Ness Feldman in Washington, said the administration is learning an important lesson: even rolling back regulations involves bureaucracy.

“There’s an irony here that an administration that is upset about the administrative state is going to need multiple rules just to change the rules. But that’s the reality,” he said.

Not everyone is concerned by the court setbacks. Matt Letourneau, a spokesman for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, called them “relatively minor blips in a much larger, longer-term effort,” and he noted that the Department of Energy has won recent cases against environmental groups related to the transport of liquefied natural gas.

Even with these setbacks, the list of environmental rules that have been delayed or reversed is considerable, including reversing freezes on new federal coal leases, offshore drilling in the Atlantic and Arctic Oceans and lifting mining restrictions in Bristol Bay, Alaska.

And just because courts are ruling against the Trump administration, it does not mean the fights are over.

On Thursday, for example, the day after the court overturned its effort to delay the flaring rule, the Interior Department posted a new notice in the Federal Register indicating its intent to delay the date again, until January 2019. This time, though, the agency is inviting public comments on the delay.

But there is no doubt the legal challenges are slowing down the march to roll back the Obama legacy. And it could complicate other even higher profile pushes to repeal rules, like the Clean Power Plan — intended to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from electric power plants, a move that will generate another wave of legal challenges that will build off arguments made in recent cases.

Mr. Lazarus said some problems might be alleviated once Mr. Trump nominates and the Senate confirms more high-level appointees, who have more experience in handing complicated legal steps needed to rollback rules.

But filling these jobs has been slow.

“There are a lot of fabulous Republican lawyers out there,” he said, “and a lot of them don’t want to be tainted by this administration.”

Lisa Friedman contributed reporting.

Bay Area Air Quality Management District (BAAQMD), California Air Resources Board (CARB), Cap-and-trade, Coalition for Clean Air, Communities For A Better Environment (CBE), Community Air Protection Program, Keeping Watch on Earth News

Sorting Out Air Quality Regulations After Cap-And-Trade’s Renewal

Repost from Bay Area Monitor – Bay Area League of Women Voters

Sorting Out Air Quality Regulations After Cap-And-Trade’s Renewal

By Leslie Stewart, October-November edition
Communities for a Better Environment’s Andrés Soto (in red shirt) speaks at the Bay Area Air Quality Management District’s board of directors meeting on September 20. A large number of stakeholders attended to participate in a lively discussion about emissions regulation. | Photo by Alec MacDonald.

Now that the dust is settling from the legislative tumult surrounding renewal of California’s cap-and-trade program, participants are taking stock of the changed landscape for air quality regulation, both statewide and regionally. Legislation passed this summer sets a more ambitious goal for greenhouse gas reductions through cap-and-trade, while also shifting some duties for regional air districts. Under the new laws, these local agencies will see a reduced role in greenhouse gas regulation, but an added responsibility for implementing a statewide community-focused air quality monitoring and enforcement program.

The cap-and-trade program is a complicated balancing act between protecting the environment — specifically by reducing greenhouse gas emissions — and retaining industries that contribute to the state’s economic base. As the limit on permitted greenhouse gas emissions decreases (the “cap”), businesses which exceed the limit must obtain allowances (the “trade”), either through state auctions or from other businesses which are under the cap and therefore have extra allowances. The state opted to give some allowances away for free, initially to ease adoption by industries and utilities, and now to reduce the financial burden on companies which may otherwise decide to relocate.

Passed in July, Assembly Bill 398 (E. Garcia) extended cap-and-trade to 2030 from the program’s original sunset year of 2020. This created more certainty for industry, which was increasingly reluctant to pay for allowances, fearing these might lose value if the program ended soon. The bill also raised the bar for the state’s Air Resources Board. The agency’s goal for 2020 has been to decrease greenhouse gas emissions down to 1990 levels; AB 398 adds a target for 2030, requiring a 40 percent reduction below 1990 levels. Stanley Young, ARB’s director of communications, noted that “the cap has decreased by two to three percent over the previous years of the program, and will drop by four percent by 2020, but then will need to drop exponentially to achieve this goal.”

Additionally, it is now up to ARB, rather than regional air districts, to regulate emissions of carbon dioxide from any source covered by cap-and-trade, whether in industry, agriculture, or elsewhere. Many environmental groups and agencies that were generally supportive of cap-and-trade renewal, including the Bay Area Air Quality Management District, opposed this aspect of AB 398. Following its passage, the Air District announced it expected to shelve a proposed regional cap on refinery emissions, Rule 12-16, which environmental groups had been working toward for five years.

“Victory snatched away at the last minute,” was Andrés Soto’s description of the regional air district restrictions in AB 398. Soto is a community organizer with Communities for a Better Environment, a strong proponent of Rule 12-16. However, his organization is refocusing. Soto noted that “local air districts can’t touch CO₂ reductions, but methane and other gases can still be regulated regionally.” CBE is planning a new campaign to pressure the Air District to cap non-CO₂ refinery emissions at current levels before permitting any new refinery infrastructure projects.

Meanwhile, Tom Addison of the Air District’s Legislative Affairs division commented, “Given passage of AB 398 and its restrictions on local air districts, we are considering how best to coordinate with ARB on actions on greenhouse gases moving forward. Our climate problems are so large and pressing that it makes sense for everyone to work together to address them.”

Greenhouse gases are not the only emissions from industry, and often the attempts to curb them get intertwined with grassroots efforts to limit the local impact of other categories of air pollution. However, not everyone agrees with this approach, since greenhouse gases harm the environment on a global level, not a local one. As ARB’s Young asserted, “We have an equally ambitious goal to address toxic air contaminants and criteria air pollutants, but the system works better when you do that separately [from greenhouse gases].”

That separation was the rationale for AB 398’s companion bill, AB 617 (C. Garcia). The bill requires the state to set up a uniform databank, where data gathered from emission monitoring throughout California will be publicly available. The databank will inform a new ARB strategy to reduce toxic air contaminants and criteria air pollutants, including identifying the most environmentally-burdened communities and locations where additional monitoring is needed.

When the state identifies those sites, local air districts will be required to set up new monitoring there, and also create community-specific pollution reduction plans. Districts may also require individual facilities to set up monitoring at their fencelines. As Young pointed out, “there has been a technical revolution in air monitoring, so that viable, accurate, and consistent monitoring can be done at the community level.”

Under AB 617, ARB will coordinate all these efforts through the newly formed Community Air Protection Program. Its director, Karen Magliano, sees the new program as “fundamentally transforming community-based planning, by bringing in the communities themselves at all levels.” She explained that “we want to look at the problem at a granular level — implementation will be a shared responsibility.”

According to Addison, the Air District is concerned about some aspects of that shared responsibility, especially the financial ones. “We are very supportive of the general philosophy behind AB 617, and some pieces we’re enthusiastic about,” he noted. “For example, AB 617 increases the penalties for strict liability violations. However, there is no additional funding [for districts], and a host of new requirements.” Air District staff subsequently noted that a budget trailer bill signed into law on September 17 contains some AB 617 implementation funding, yet it is unclear whether that funding will be adequate.

Not all of the responsibilities in AB 617 are brand-new to the Air District. Some fenceline and community monitors — measures which will be required by AB 617 in any state-identified communities — are already in place around several Bay Area facilities, because of industry-community agreements or as compliance with the Air District’s Rule 12-15, passed in 2015. Addison observed that better coordination of data reporting on emissions sources is already happening as well. “More data is always helpful, but we want to have that without being forced to divert resources from other programs,” he explained.

Designing community emission reduction plans will be a new task for the Air District, and Addison is concerned that the tool is limited. However, he was quick to add, “We are committed to trying to improve public health and working to implement the bill. Cutting emissions for disproportionately impacted communities is something we have long aimed at.”

Bill Magavern, policy director for the Coalition for Clean Air, is also focused on making the community plans work. “The community action plans rely a lot on implementation by air districts — it’s important that they yield strong measures to help the communities in the areas most impacted by pollution,” he observed. “The concern is not only identifying the problem, but moving quickly to implement solutions.”

Magavern added another area which may require community watchdogs. AB 617 mandates that regional air districts require facilities to use Best Available Retrofit Technology, starting with those which have gone longest since being permitted. “We need to be sure that districts are actually requiring that equipment be updated, and not just letting them use credits,” Magavern warned. Overall, however, he is “cautiously optimistic that AB 617 will yield significant improvements in air quality — but we need to be actively involved to be sure that actually happens.”

Leslie Stewart covers air quality and energy for the Monitor.