Twelve legislative victories that every Californian should know about

The California State Legislature recently passed twelve bills that will have a big impact on our health, safety, environment, and wellbeing.

Banning Plastic Bags 

Plastic pollution threatens our health and the environment. That’s why Californians voted to ban plastic grocery bags in 2016. But a loophole allows grocery stores to still provide thicker plastic bags at check out.  And now plastic bag waste is at an all-time high. 

To reduce plastic pollution, we need to get rid of unnecessary plastic items, and plastic grocery bags are one of the most obvious things we don’t need. Senate Bill 1053, championed by Senators Catherine Blakespear and Ben Allen and Assemblymember Rebecca Bauer-Kahan, will finally ban plastic grocery bags at checkout. Customers are encouraged to bring their own bag, but can still get a paper bag at checkout for a fee.  

Finally banning plastic bags will fulfill the original intent of the law passed ten years ago and set up the state to greatly reduce plastic pollution in our environment. 

Reducing fashion waste

Globally, the equivalent of one dump truck of clothing and textile waste is sent to a landfill or incinerator every second. And in California, the state throws out more than 1 million tons of clothing and other textiles.

Clothing waste clogs up our landfills and harms our environment. It also generates high carbon emissions. In fact, the fashion industry accounts for about 10% of total global emissions– more than aviation and shipping combined. 

The Responsible Textile Recovery Act (Senate Bill 707) by Senator Josh Newman aims to tackle this issue. This bill will require clothing companies to create and fund a clothing recycling program, ensuring less clothing is sent to a landfill and more clothing is repaired or recycled. The bill also shifts the costs of clothing waste management from state taxpayers to clothing companies, giving these companies the financial incentive to be more conscious of their output and decrease overproduction. 

Prohibiting medical debt on credit reports

Health care costs in California have been rising faster than the national average and inflation, and now more than 1 in 5 Californians have medical debt. This alone results in extreme financial distress for many.  But on top of that, when that medical debt ends up on credit reports, that can even further compromise a family’s long-term financial stability by blocking access to mainstream credit, housing, and even some employment. 

Medical debt doesn’t belong on credit reports. Unlike other types of debt, medical expenses are not something consumers can control. 

We have known for years that medical debt doesn’t predict credit defaults, and it doesn’t accurately predict a person’s desire and willingness to pay off loans. 

Senate Bill 1061 by Senator Monique Limon will prohibit medical debt on consumer credit reports, bringing California a fair credit system that doesn’t penalize people for life events they can’t control like getting sick. 

Warning labels on gas stoves

More than four decades of research shows that gas stoves are producing dangerous air pollution indoors, including harmful levels of nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide, methane, and benzene. Gas stove pollution increases the risk of childhood asthma and other respiratory problems.

Despite the growing body of evidence about the health risks of gas stoves, most of this isn’t common knowledge. When you go to the store to purchase a gas stove, there’s little to suggest the extent of the health issues involved with appliances. In fact, we found through a survey of gas stove retailers around the country, that 74% of store associates shared that they were not aware of any details about gas stove pollution and health risks.

Assembly Bill 2513 by Assemblymember Gail Pellerin will require gas stoves sold in California to come with a warning label on the health risks and recommend ventilation to reduce exposure. This legislation will give consumers important information to make educated purchasing decisions for their family.

Addressing rising health care costs

We’re spending more than ever on health care. And unfortunately, today’s health care system is ripe for abuse because of market consolidation and unchecked anti-competitive tactics used by large health care corporations. 

One growing threat in the health care industry is the emergence of private equity firms purchasing hospitals or other medical facilities, not necessarily because they want to own and operate a hospital, but rather as an investment strategy to seek maximum profits in the short term for the sake of their investors. That often means shutting down entire hospital departments and selling off health system real estate and then renting it back to the health system at increased rents. All of these tactics mean higher prices for our health care, and often result in loss of access to certain specialties and health care services because those departments were shuttered.  

The good news is that the State Legislature approved Assembly Bill 3129 by Assemblymember Jim Wood, which would give the California Attorney General more oversight when private equity firms want to purchase medical facilities, ensuring guardrails are put in place to protect patient pricing and quality of care. 

Holding utility companies accountable 

California utility rates are some of the highest in the nation.  PG&E customers, for example, pay rates two to three times higher than the national average. This is not only a problem for consumers, but high electricity rates also create a hurdle in the race to electrify our state and meet our climate goals.  

This year the State Legislature passed several pieces of legislation that aim to bring down electricity rates. Assembly Bill 3264 by Assemblymember Cottie Petrie-Norris will require the California Public Utilities Commission to develop plans to reduce energy costs, as well as require more transparency in what goes into energy bills. Assembly Bill 2847 by Assemblymember Dawn Addis will also increase transparency in utility spending, requiring electric and gas companies to disclose the full cost to ratepayers when they seek approval for long-term capital spending.

Increasing solar energy across the state 

California has significant potential to generate more clean electricity from rooftop solar panels. In fact, we’ve only taken advantage of about 10% of our state’s rooftop solar potential. We need to incentivize solar energy to expand renewable resources across the state. However, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) recently took away the ability of some customers, including schools, to use the solar energy they generate, instead requiring them to buy it back from utilities.  This prevents schools from making full use of their energy and results in higher utility bills. 

Senate Bill 1374 by Senator Josh Becker would allow schools and apartment buildings to use solar energy they generate on-site, expanding the benefits of solar to more Californians by treating schools and apartment buildings fairly. 

Cleaning up dirty air from idle oil wells

California has an idle oil and gas well crisis, with over 37,000 known idle wells in the state that have been unused for at least two years but are still polluting our air, water and land.  These wells also pose a potential financial burden on taxpayers. If their operators go out of business or financially insolvent, the wells could become orphaned and the responsibility to plug and clean them up then falls on the state.  Assembly Bill 1866 by Assemblymember Gregg Hart helps protect Californians and the environment from dangerous idle oil and gas wells by requiring companies to plug certain percentages of their idle wells each year, or to pay a higher annual fee for leaving them idle.

Reducing food waste 

It can be hard to tell when something in the back of your fridge is still safe to eat. Is something past its “sell by” date still safe? What about its “best by” date? What if it’s labeled that it’s “freshest on” a certain day?  Confusing or unclear date labels mean many of us end up throwing away food that’s still perfectly safe to eat — and it adds up. The U.S. throws away about 35% of its total food supply each year.

Wasted food means wasted resources, a source of avoidable global warming emissions, and wasted opportunities to feed those who don’t have enough to eat. Assembly Bill 660 by Assemblymember Jacqui Irwin will require uniform food labeling in California, reducing consumer confusion and food waste. 

Save the bees to maintain our food supply

Neonicotinoids — or neonics for short — are a common class of pesticides used in agriculture as well as on our parks, lawns and gardens, which are toxic to bees. It simply makes no sense to continue spraying a pesticide known to harm bees on our crops and gardens when we count on bees to make so many of our foods possible.  California already took action to ban the consumer use of these bee-killing pesticides, but a loophole still allows for seeds treated with the chemical. Assembly Bill 1042 by Assemblymember Rebecca Bauer-Kahan will label seeds treated with pesticides so Californains can avoid these toxic chemicals and help save the bees. 

Protecting children from toxic pesticides 

The chemicals used to grow our food and maintain our parks and playgrounds are putting our health at risk. Exposure to pesticides is linked to acute poisoning and chronic diseases, such as

cancer, respiratory disease and developmental disorders in children. However, pesticide use is happening dangerously close to schools, where they put our children at risk. Assembly Bill 1864 by Assemblymember Damon Connolly would strengthen existing protections for children from exposure to agricultural pesticides at school, including improving reporting requirements and expanding protections to children in private schools. 

These important bills now head to the governor’s desk, and he has until the end of September to sign them.