SB 375 On Global Warming and Land Use is the Bill to Watch in the California Legislature

Last week Senator Darrell Steinberg spoke before CLCV and our friends at the latest Environmental Leadership Forum. Steinberg is one of just a handful of legislators who can boast a 100% CLCV score after six years in the Assembly and one year in the Senate. It’s probably no surprise then why the environmental community was overjoyed when we heard he was picked by his colleagues to succeed Don Perata as the next Senate President pro Tem.

But instead of talking about assuming the mantle of leadership, Steinberg chose to focus his discussion on his landmark bill SB 375 on Global Warming and Land Use. This bill, if passed, will be the very first bill in the United States that combines transportation and land-use issues with the climate crisis. “It is also the first legislation to link transportation funding with climate policy,” said CLCV’s Board President Tom Adams.

Though many legislators are working hard to help California meet its pledge to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 25% in twelve years (as mandated by AB 32) Steinberg took on the task of handling the single largest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions: sprawl. The problem is that people drive too much because they have to. If you live 25 miles from work you can buy a more fuel-efficient vehicle, carpool more, and maintain your car in order to pollute less, but in the end you still have to drive 25 miles -and you will pollute. As Tom Adams said, the bottom line is that “emissions from cars and light trucks are the largest single source of greenhouse gas in California [and] we will never be able to achieve our climate goals unless we locate housing closer to jobs. The number of miles that people drive is increasing almost twice as fast as the population growth.”

SB 375 has been one of the two top CLCV priority bills since before its introduction to the Senate last year. As a leading expert in the state on the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and land-use issues, Tom Adams was and has been instrumental in helping Steinberg compose the bill from day one. The staff at CLCV have also been advocating for the bill in a number of ways from lobbying legislators in Sacramento, building grassroots support for the bill by going door-to-door to activating our membership to tell their legislators to vote for the bill’s passage. Meanwhile, Senator Steinberg has spent the last two years working with a variety of stakeholders including environmental groups, the builders, and even local government groups like the League of Cities who had been reluctant to support the bill until recently. His efforts have created one of the most impressive coalitions of rival groups to ever back a single legislative bill. As George Skelton remarked in his column, “it’s an unusual coalition: environmentalists and home-builders.”

As noted in a separate LA Times story, SB 375 is expected to come up for a vote on the Assembly floor before the end of this week and now has enough votes to pass. Considering that the bill was still several votes shy of passage just three weeks ago, it goes to show you how important this piece of legislation is and how hard Senator Steinberg and CLCV have been working on this bill.

As always, Governor Schwarzenegger has not been vocal about his position on the bill, but if he’s sincere about his commitment to fight the climate crisis, this bill should be at the top of his list of bills he’s eager to sign. No other bill that hit his desk last year or will hit his desk this year will go as far into ensuring California will reach its AB 32 goals like Steinberg’s SB 375 will.

Mike Young graduated from Pepperdine University with a B.A. in Political Science and Philosophy in 2005. Today, Mike is a staff member of the California League of Conservation Voter’s Los Angeles office and a board member of the Los Angeles League of Conservation Voters.