Sit-Down Strike For Pollution

Gas station owners in California have had FOUR YEARS to change over their pumps to comply with a new state law controlling toxic vapor emissions that leak from car fueling. They waited and waited and found themselves, at the last minute, staring into a deep recession without the ability to get credit to pay for the new capital expense. So they've done the sensible move by engaging in civil disobedience.

James Hosmanek, an ex-Marine, has operated his San Bernardino Chevron station for 21 years, patiently installing equipment to control gasoline emissions, even as the region's air grew smoggier.

Now he says he can't, and won't, obey the latest mandate: a state order to buy sophisticated nozzles and hoses to capture more of the vapors that cause respiratory disease and cancer. "It may be necessary to protect public health," he says. "But it's unaffordable."

I find it hard to weep for these owners who knew exactly when this deadline was coming for years and failed to make the necessary investment. But Arnold Schwarzenegger, of course, feels their pain. The so-called "green governor" wants the legislature to delay implementation of the rules.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger wants California's air-pollution fighters to delay a new rule that requires thousands of gas stations to beef up their pump nozzles so that less fuel vapor escapes into the atmosphere when drivers fill their tanks. The governor also asked the Legislature for a "one-year enforcement holiday" for the stations.

The new rule, scheduled to take effect Wednesday, requires the nozzles to block 98 percent of fuel vapor, up from the current regulation of 95 percent.

But the Republican governor late Friday asked Air Resources Board Chairwoman Mary Nichols - an appointee of the governor -- to postpone the regulation by six months or a year because "significantly more time is needed before it can be successfully enforced without significant negative effects on our state economy."

Contrary to what the article says, the Governor has engaged in slow-walking and blocking environmental legislation for years, as long as the Chamber of Commerce calls for it. He forced the last Air Resources Board Chairman to resign due to meddling in the agency's affairs. And in February, he rammed into the budget a provision allowing construction firms to delay a changeover from diesel bulldozers into more energy-efficient equipment. He has always been terrible on the environment, and nobody should let the greenwashing fool them.

Meanwhile, Dave Cox (Yacht Party - Fair Oaks) seems to be taking the sober tack:

In the Legislature, Assemblyman Martin Garrick (R-Solana Beach) and Sen. Dave Cox (R-Fair Oaks) are leading the charge to delay enforcement. On Monday, Cox called for the resignation of state Air Resources Board Chairwoman Mary D. Nichols for being "recalcitrant" in refusing Schwarzenegger's request for a delay.

Mary Nichols should definitely resign for having the temerity to schedule a deadline four years in advance when she knew full well there would be a recession, thanks to her time machine.

Asm. Ira Ruskin (D-Redwood City) is carrying a bill that would offer $8 million dollars in grants to gas station owners who have not ordered the new equipment. That's kind of pitiful, but Californians could at least breathe a sigh of relief. And when I say that, I mean they could breathe.

KQED Radio has more.

Archaeologists Dig Up Woolly Mammoth Fossil In Los Angeles, Republicans Make It Minority Leader

Apparently that elephant is anti-tax too, and he remembers the good old days!

Among their finds, to be formally announced today, is the nearly intact skeleton of a Columbian mammoth -- named Zed by researchers -- a prize discovery because only bits and pieces of mammoths had previously been found in the tar pits.

OK, Dennis Hollingsworth's new name is Zed.

I was just on KPFA's Morning Show with former Assemblyman John Laird, and we'll have audio of that in a bit. But as we see the Yacht Party spiral ever more into neanderthalism, I want to make a couple points. First, Zed Hollingsworth is crazy but that's a matter of degree. Dave Cogdill wasn't exactly reasonable prior to becoming Minority Leader - I don't think he had ever voted for a budget before. In the world of the Yacht Party, actually doing something to move the state forward is the highest treason.

Second, it's truly amazing to witness the utter irrelevance of Arnold Schwarzenegger. Asm. Laird had the money quote today - "I never thought I'd be wishing for Pete Wilson again, but I am." Pete Wilson was a lawmaker. He actually cultivated relationships with Republicans, and through carrots and sticks actually persuaded them. The Yacht Party has grown more entrenched over the years, but Arnold governs by magazine cover and doesn't even really know who any of them are. He's not even in the Capitol today - he went home to Brentwood last night. The failure of the chief executive to have any power within his own party is a major driver in this crisis. We don't need an action hero, just someone who knows the least bit about government.

Short-term, we're still in the same place. Darrell Steinberg is "making them filibuster," keeping the Senate in the building overnight. The perpetual answer is that something will break in the next 24 hours. It's a dispiriting choice between a bad deal and insolvency, but the latter is unthinkable. Your list of calls is short.

Senator Abel Maldanado (R-Monterey County, 916-651-4015)
Senator Dave Cox (R-Fair Oaks, 916-651-4001)

Update From Lockdown

President Pro Tem Steinberg has brought the Senate into session but there's no breakthrough to report. Steinberg had a conversation with Dave Cox, who is seeing lots of his constituents in Sacramento County get pink slips today, and he is encouraged that something will get done today:

"We're going to get there today," Steinberg predicted. "I can't tell you exactly who (will vote for the budget package). We all know who the candidates are. ...Today has to be the day." [...]

Steinberg did not elaborate on his meeting with Cox, who was once thought to be the deciding vote but has since said he could not in good conscience vote for the tax increases.

"Dave and I have known each other for almost 20 years, and we have always had a good relationship," Steinberg said.

On Monday, Steinberg first said he would put up the tax bill at 10 a.m. this morning and keep the roll open -- for hours, if necessary -- to pressure the final vote.

"There are caucuses and conversations that led me to hold off until noon," he said.

Anthony Wright and John Myers at Capitol Notes are still Twittering from the chamber. Myers reports on a talk with the Governor's press secretary about Abel Maldonado's ransom note wish list:

McLear: guv willing to look at ways to "augment" budget deal if it gets the 2/3 vote... But won't comment on specifically adding Sen. Maldonado's requests... Guv does support, though, both proposals: open primary, legis pay.

I'm more and more convinced that Maldonado is the Governor's sock puppet. Arnold has been talking about the same "good government" reforms for quite a while, in particular open primaries. It's not that these reforms are completely nutty - no pay for lawmakers without a budget and no legislative pay or per diem raises in bad economic times is fine, I guess - but they are pointless compared to what is needed. Clearly making Yacht Party lawmakers feel bad or hitting their salaries isn't going to upend the anti-tax jihad. And the only definitive outcome of open primaries to this point is a confusingly long ballot and decreased participation, not automatic moderate candidates. These aren't germane, and they are just a way to hold up the process to extract more concessions.

You can read the letter that 20,000 state employees got today here. These are real lives that the Yacht Party is messing with. And they're wasting taxpayer dollars by delaying the process in about 10 different ways.

Thanks to everyone around the blogosphere linking to Calitics in the past couple days as we report this out. In addition, I'll be on the Bay Area's KPFA morning show with Aimee Allison tomorrow at 7:00am to discuss the latest.

Budget Follies: By the Skin Of Its Teeth

A day after Calitics called the roll of the Yacht Party on the budget deal to be voted upon tomorrow in the State Senate, Shane Goldmacher does the same and comes up with just three Republicans who haven't signaled a no vote:

The field of potential Republican votes for the budget compromise in the Senate -- widely viewed as the most challenging caucus to corral support -- has narrowed so significantly that only three members have yet to throw cold water on the tentative deal.

That happens to be the bare minimum of Republican votes needed to pass the $40 billion-plus budget plan.

Those three are Senate Republican leader Dave Cogdill, Sen. Dave Cox of Fair Oaks and Sen. Roy Ashburn of Bakersfield.

Neither Ashburn, Cox OR Cogdill said they would actually vote for the budget, by the way. You can read all of the statements at the link. It should be noted that normally, the Senate would need only two Republican votes to pass, but since Mark Ridley-Thomas' seat is vacant (he was elected to the LA County Board of Supervisors in November) until the March special election, it takes three.

That basically means that full caucus unity is needed from the Democrats, and these three votes would have to come through, for the budget to pass. And we know that Lou Correa is wavering.

And the outside pressure is on. Opportunists like Steve Poizner are slamming the deal, and advocacy groups on both sides are urging a no vote.

GOP conservatives were incensed at the notion of a colleague supporting tax hikes, while labor and environmental groups were mad at what they consider Democratic concessions.

"If we're going to win elections in 2010, we have to say that we're the other party – that we're going to stop tax increases," said Jon Fleischman, a conservative blogger and a vice chairman in the state Republican Party.

Jeanine Meyer Rodriguez, spokeswoman for the state council of Service Employees International Union, representing 750,000 workers statewide, was upset by spending restraints and billions in budget cuts in the proposal.

"We're making it clear to all the legislators that if they vote for this, they're not representing our members," she said.

This morning's Republican press release painted the budget as a necessary evil, so the skids are being greased for passage. Still, with nobody owning the bill and lots of variables, it's entirely possible that it goes down tomorrow. Given some of the details, I'm not convinced that's a bad thing. But clearly, tomorrow should be... interesting.