26-06-2025
Labor and enviros take it to the parking lot
With help from Camille von Kaenel
THIS WAY OR THE HIGHWAY: The fight over California's highway expansion efforts is entering the affordability arena.
Environmental groups and labor unions plan to fill the Sacramento Convention Center tomorrow in a face-off over roughly $600 million in funding for six highway projects ranging from the Bay Area to Los Angeles County.
The California Transportation Commission is expected to approve the slate of projects, which have been in the pipeline for years and already have sign-off from Caltrans. But environmental groups say they plan to use the moment to unveil a change in strategy: talk less about pollution, and more about keeping dollars in people's pockets.
'Driving is the most expensive way to get around,' said Jeanie Ward-Waller, director of ClimatePlan and a former Caltrans official who sued the agency after saying she was demoted for objecting to highway expansion plans. 'Owning a car, maintaining a car, putting gas in your car. There's so much focus right now on gas prices, and we're not doing anything to give people affordable options.'
It's the next chapter of a fight at the typically sleepy California Transportation Commission that started playing out last year over $200 million to widen I-15 in the Inland Empire, which ended with former commissioner Joe Lyou, president and CEO at Coalition for Clean Air, blasting his colleagues from the dais.
Greens are hoping to keep the agency in the spotlight by arguing that road-widening is part of the affordability agenda that's taken Sacramento by storm. They're tying it to the same angst around high gas prices, housing costs and food prices that's shifted the political discourse around climate from an emphasis on reducing emissions to helping Californians afford living in the state. (Look no further than the bill introduced Tuesday that takes aim at the state's emissions market for transportation fuels.)
The construction labor unions that build and maintain California's expansive highway system aren't buying it.
Michael Quigley, executive director of the California Alliance for Jobs, which represents carpenters, laborers, contractors and other construction unions, called enviros' opposition to highway projects a political ideology that's not rooted in concerns about costs.
'Historically, infrastructure has not been such a politicized issue,' Quigley said. 'I think it goes back to the philosophical disconnect between the people who have postgraduate degrees in environmentalism seeking to impose policies and programs that make it harder to live for working Californians.'
While environmental groups are leaning hard into the affordability rhetoric, they're less worried about the threat of federal funding linked to pollution standards being held up.
That's because if President Donald Trump has his way, California officials could be forced to think about their transportation infrastructure strategy sooner rather than later.
EPA could soon attempt to sanction California for failing to meet federal air quality standards under the Clean Air Act — something that's all but assured after Republicans revoked California's authority to enforce its vehicle emissions rules. That would put billions of federal highway dollars at risk, and CARB Chair Liane Randolph told lawmakers last month that the loss of the waivers would mean they'd have to think hard about spending more on public transit and things like electric vehicle incentives to reduce pollution.
From Ward-Waller's perspective, that's a potential win.
'For the funds that are being used to expand highways, good riddance,' she said. — AN
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FIRE ON THE MOUNTAIN: Could $9 million in fuel breaks have slowed the Eaton Fire enough for firefighters to evacuate Altadena residents and prevent damage to homes? It's hard to know for sure, but that's the case made by new research from analytics firm Vibrant Planet, shared exclusively with California Climate.
The findings use Vibrant Planet's wildfire behavior model to highlight how preventative landscape-scale treatments can avoid losses in the case of a fire. For example, the model determined that $15.3 million spent around Boulder, Colorado, in prescribed fire and both commercial and non-commercial vegetation trimming could reduce structure losses by 62.9 percent in case of a fire sparking in the forest, avoiding $123 million in losses.
The data is part of a pitch for more investment in wildfire prevention and fewer limits on the treatments. On Thursday, Vibrant Planet CEO Allison Wolff is scheduled to testify to Congress on wildfire technology and her support of the Fix our Forests Act, a bipartisan bill that passed the House and is pending in the Senate. — CvK
TURN ON THE POWER: Over a dozen blue states are about to have their federal electric vehicle charging taps turned back on.
A Washington federal judge late Tuesday blocked the Trump administration from freezing funding approved under President Joe Biden through the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure program, POLITICO's James Bikales reports.
That funding won't restart immediately, as Judge Tana Lin issued a seven-day stay pending an appeal by the government.
Trump's Department of Transportation suspended all new spending through the $5 billion program in February, arguing that it was reviewing the funding criteria. That pushed some states, like Michigan and Vermont, to pause their NEVI programs, though California did not cancel its first round of nearly $33 million in awards.
California charger operators say that while the $352 million in NEVI funds the state is slated to receive is dwarfed by in-state and private resources, the program incentivizes building in less profitable rural areas. — AN
DRAMA IN THE FAST LANE: Senate Republicans' budget wonk is raising a red flag over a plan to use gas tax dollars to create temporary priority lanes for athletes and officials during the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.
Sen. Roger Niello, vice chair of the Senate Budget and Fiscal Review Committee, said in an interview that he's not opposed to spending in support of the Olympics, but pushed back on the budget item being included late in the cycle without debate in prior committees.
Democrats' budget would tap $17 million from the State Highway Account, which is funded by gas taxes, to help Caltrans design a transportation network for the Olympics. (The agency could request up to $20 million more as needed.) That would include temporarily converting carpool and toll lanes for use only by approved vehicles, and new digital signage alerting residents to the changes.
Niello contended that gas taxes are for new construction and repairs, and suggested that the state could instead offer Los Angeles a loan to be repaid if the games prove profitable.
'I can certainly see the need for lane repurposing to help traffic move more smoothly,' Niello said. 'But the problem is it will be exactly the same transportation infrastructure once they're done.' — AN
IT'S NOT ALL BAD: The death of California's electric vehicle waiver and potential loss of federal tax credits have EV makers in a bind, but Cox Automotive analysts say it's not all doom and gloom for the market.
Stephanie Valdez Streaty, director of industry insights at Cox Automotive, said during the company's mid-year review of the auto industry Wednesday that rapid expansion of EV options on the market offers 'a bright spot that signals long-term strength.'
Streaty cautioned, however, that while more market maturity is a 'win for consumers', it does pose challenges for companies that now have to deal with more supply chain constraints in trying to build out so many different models.
But she said the tradeoff is that more car buyers can now find an EV model that fits their 'lifestyle, budget and brand preference.'
Streaty's assessment of the EV market comes amid concerns about the overall health of the auto industry. That has largely been driven by Trump's 25 percent tariff on imported cars and parts, which automakers warn will drive down supply and raise prices. — AN
— A Los Angeles County Superior Court judge ruled that California's insurer of last resort is violating state law by mishandling smoke damage claims after the Los Angeles fires.
— Tech companies have put nearly half of their data centers in water-scarce regions.
— A Houston-based startup is testing oil-eating microbes in a retired California oilfield.
