Monday, August 09, 2004
Here we go again
Bond measure for air cleanup starts through the meat grinder.
Fresno Bee
June 16, 2004
When state Sen. Dean Florez took a package of groundbreaking clean-air legislation to Sacramento last year, the complaints from Valley agriculture interests were loud and long that they were being singled out among all the contributors to the region's polluted air.
Now Florez is back with a bill for a $5.2 billion bond measure to help pay for cleaning the air, and his colleagues in the Legislature are complaining that it is too heavily weighted in favor of agricultural interests.
Sigh.
Now Florez will begin the process of tweaking and twisting the bill to meet the needs and objections of a whole host of different interests, just as he did with last year's legislation. The process is long, cumbersome and frustrating -- as the saying goes, people who like law and sausage should never watch either being made.
But it is a process that can work, just as it worked last year. Major
breakthroughs on air pollution were achieved, including the lifting of ag's
historic exemption from the permit process that all other polluting industries must follow and the phasing out of open-field burning by 2010.Florez acknowledges the bond's tilt toward ag, and believes it is justified because of the great expense farmers must endure to comply. We agree generally, though the measure has some problematic elements.
The funds from the bond measure would pay for, among other things:
$400 million for the Carl Moyer program, which helps farmers replace and retrofit older diesel engines used to power irrigation pumps. Diesel pollution is one of the deadliest of our air quality problems.
$1.2 billion for new technology to reduce the production of pollution-causing chemicals by other farm equipment.
$300 million would be used to to renovate or replace old buses. California's school buses, for instance, are among the oldest and dirtiest in the nation-- and there are a lot of them.
$300 million would be used to support woodchipping and biomass industries. That may provide useful alternatives to open-field burning by farmers.
$500 million would be set aside for asthma screening and prevention.
That last one is among the problem areas cited by members of the Assembly Natural Resources Committee on Monday. It runs against the principle of limiting bond expenditures to capital investments.
But on balance the bond would be very welcome, especially in the Valley. Its progress bears close scrutiny.
Fresno Bee
June 16, 2004
When state Sen. Dean Florez took a package of groundbreaking clean-air legislation to Sacramento last year, the complaints from Valley agriculture interests were loud and long that they were being singled out among all the contributors to the region's polluted air.
Now Florez is back with a bill for a $5.2 billion bond measure to help pay for cleaning the air, and his colleagues in the Legislature are complaining that it is too heavily weighted in favor of agricultural interests.
Sigh.
Now Florez will begin the process of tweaking and twisting the bill to meet the needs and objections of a whole host of different interests, just as he did with last year's legislation. The process is long, cumbersome and frustrating -- as the saying goes, people who like law and sausage should never watch either being made.
But it is a process that can work, just as it worked last year. Major
breakthroughs on air pollution were achieved, including the lifting of ag's
historic exemption from the permit process that all other polluting industries must follow and the phasing out of open-field burning by 2010.Florez acknowledges the bond's tilt toward ag, and believes it is justified because of the great expense farmers must endure to comply. We agree generally, though the measure has some problematic elements.
The funds from the bond measure would pay for, among other things:
$400 million for the Carl Moyer program, which helps farmers replace and retrofit older diesel engines used to power irrigation pumps. Diesel pollution is one of the deadliest of our air quality problems.
$1.2 billion for new technology to reduce the production of pollution-causing chemicals by other farm equipment.
$300 million would be used to to renovate or replace old buses. California's school buses, for instance, are among the oldest and dirtiest in the nation-- and there are a lot of them.
$300 million would be used to support woodchipping and biomass industries. That may provide useful alternatives to open-field burning by farmers.
$500 million would be set aside for asthma screening and prevention.
That last one is among the problem areas cited by members of the Assembly Natural Resources Committee on Monday. It runs against the principle of limiting bond expenditures to capital investments.
But on balance the bond would be very welcome, especially in the Valley. Its progress bears close scrutiny.
# posted by Senator Dean Florez @ 3:15 PM 
