Latest news with #CatherineBlakespear
Los Angeles Times
2 days ago
- General
- Los Angeles Times
Opinion: California stores should ban all plastic bags
In 2016, California voters voted to uphold a ban on thin single-use plastic bags, which were what most stores offered. However, since this ban was passed, stores began passing out thicker plastic bags, which are supposed to be reusable and recyclable. This change has actually led to a substantial increase in plastic waste. This is because most recycling facilities don't recycle plastic bags, resulting in them being sent to landfills. A recent state study found that Californians' plastic bag waste has gone up from eight pounds per person per year in 2004 to 11 pounds per person per year in 2021 – at least in part due to the thicker plastic bags, which are substantially heavier. In order to prevent plastic bag waste from continuing to grow in California, we must ensure that all plastic shopping bags are banned in our state. In the state legislature, Democratic Senator Catherine Blakespear revealed a new bill that aims to ban all plastic shopping bags by 2026. Just as California was the first state to place any type of ban on plastic bags by banning the thin plastic bags, California should follow suit and get rid of plastic bags entirely. Instead of using plastic bags, people could switch to other reusable bags. While the thicker plastic bags can theoretically be reused, most people throw them away after a single use, as they don't look reusable. People should get bags that they are more likely to reuse, like cotton or canvas tote bags. In other states, plastic bag bans have worked. In Vermont, after a plastic bag ban, a survey estimated that the ban saves 191 million bags per year. California should use other states as an example and follow their lead in banning plastic bags. Another reason the new ban against plastic bags should be passed is that the original ban allowed for a loophole . The original law allowed stores to sell bags if they charged 10 cents, and they made the bags thicker and heavier. One of the reasons plastic bags are so harmful to the environment is that they never biodegrade, and while they can be recycled, they usually are not. Meanwhile, other types of bags, like cotton, could be more easily reused, while other options like paper bags are biodegradable and you can easily compost or recycle them. However, there are many advantages to plastic bags, which have helped them become so widespread. For example, it takes significantly less energy and solid waste to produce a plastic bag than to produce a paper bag. They are also much more convenient and cheaper, and after you use them, it is easy to just throw them away. Although plastic bags are cheaper and more convenient, due to their environmental impacts they should not be used. California should pass the bill to finally ban all plastic bags in stores in order to prevent more plastic waste in our world. Related
Yahoo
24-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Inside California Politics: June 21, 2025
(INSIDE CALIFORNIA POLITICS) — State Senator Catherine Blakespear (D-Encinitas) is speaking out about a lack of funding for Proposition 36 in Governor Gavin Newsom's proposed budget. Blakespear joined Inside California Politics this week as Gov. Newsom and the legislature work to reach a budget agreement before the July 1 deadline. Prop 36, which stiffens penalties for repeat drug and theft offenders, passed by an overwhelming majority in 2024. Despite the widespread support, Gov. Newsom did not allocate any funding for the law in his revised budget proposal, citing the state's $12 billion deficit. 'We just shouldn't be playing politics with the voters' will,' Blakespear said. 'The voters supported this at 68%. At the end of the day, we need to fund it. We need to implement this. We need to carry through on what the voters asked for, and that should be the bottom line.' Gov. Newsom, who openly campaigned against the proposition over concerns that it would drive up incarceration rates, argues it is up to local officials who supported the law to find the money. Host Nikki Laurenzo also sat down with political strategists Rob Stutzman (R) and Andrew Acosta (D) to discuss the funding battle. 'The petulance is playing out,' Stutzman said. 'This is a measure that passed in every county, 70% statewide, over [Newsom's] opposition. He famously said when polling came out before the election showing widespread support, 'Oh, I don't recognize my state anymore.' And then behind the scenes, his administration was telling business leaders, 'If you support this, we're just not going to fund it.' He's already lost on this.' The interview also touched on whether Gov. Newsom has emerged as the leader of the Democratic Party, immigration enforcement in Los Angeles and Arnold Schwarzenegger's recent call for unity among democrats and republicans. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
31-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Lawmakers ask Newsom and waste agency to follow the law on plastic legislation
California lawmakers are taking aim at proposed rules to implement a state law aimed at curbing plastic waste, saying the draft regulations proposed by CalRecycle undermine the letter and intent of the legislation. In a letter to Gov. Gavin Newsom and two of his top administrators, the lawmakers said CalRecycle exceeded its authority by drafting regulations that don't abide by the terms set out by the law, Senate Bill 54. "While we support many changes in the current draft regulations, we have identified several provisions that are inconsistent with the governing statute ... and where CalRecycle has exceeded its authority under the law," the lawmakers wrote in the letter to Newsom, California Environmental Protection agency chief Yana Garcia, and Zoe Heller, director of the state's Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery, or CalRecycle. The letter, which was written by Sen. Catherine Blakespear (D-Encinitas) and Sen. Benjamin Allen (D-Santa Monica), was signed by 21 other lawmakers, including Sen. John Laird (D-Santa Cruz) and Assemblymembers Al Muratsuchi (D-Rolling Hills Estates) and Monique Limón (D-Goleta). CalRecycle submitted informal draft regulations two weeks ago that are designed to implement the law, which was authored by Allen, and signed into law by Newsom in 2022. The lawmakers' concerns are directed at the draft regulations' potential approval of polluting recycling technologies — which the language of the law expressly prohibits — as well as the document's expansive exemption for products and packaging that fall under the purview of the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration. The inclusion of such blanket exemptions is "not only contrary to the statute but also risks significantly increasing the program's costs," the lawmakers wrote. They said the new regulations allow "producers to unilaterally determine which products are subject to the law, without a requirement or process to back up such a claim." Daniel Villaseñor, a spokesman for the governor, said in an email that Newsom "was clear when he asked CalRecycle to restart these regulations that they should work to minimize costs for small businesses and families, and these rules are a step in the right direction ..." At a workshop held at the agency's headquarters in Sacramento this week, CalRecycle staff responded to similar criticisms, and underscored that these are informal draft regulations, which means they can be changed. "I know from comments we've already been receiving that some of the provisions, as we have written them ... don't quite come across in the way that we intended," said Karen Kayfetz, chief of CalRecycle's Product Stewardship branch, adding that she was hopeful "a robust conversation" could help highlight areas where interpretations of the regulations' language differs from the agency's intent. "It was not our intent, of course, to ever go outside of the statute, and so to the extent that it may be interpreted in the language that we've provided, that there are provisions that extend beyond ... it's our wish to narrow that back down," she said. These new draft regulations are the expedited result of the agency's attempt to satisfy Newsom's concerns about the law, which he said could increase costs to California households if not properly implemented. Newsom rejected the agency's first attempt at drafting regulations — the result of nearly three years of negotiations by scores of stakeholders, including plastic producers, package developers, agricultural interests, environmental groups, municipalities, recycling companies and waste haulers — and ordered the waste agency to start the process over. Critics say the new draft regulations cater to industry and could result in even higher costs to both California households, which have seen large increases in their residential waste hauling fees, as well as to the state's various jurisdictions, which are taxed with cleaning up plastic waste and debris clogging the state's rivers, highways, beaches and parks. The law is molded on a series of legislative efforts described as Extended Producer Responsibility laws, which are designed to shift the cost of waste removal and disposal from the state's jurisdictions and taxpayers to the industries that produce the waste — theoretically incentivizing a circular economy, in which product and packaging producers develop materials that can be reused, recycled or composted. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
