California’s finally getting ready for the heat

With help from Camille von Kaenel, Will McCarthy and Alex Nieves

GETTING HOT IN HERE: California regulators passed rules Thursday to protect workers from rising indoor temperatures — and not a moment too soon.

CalOSHA’s rules require indoor industrial spaces like warehouses, restaurants and canneries to provide cooling areas and breaks at 82 degrees Fahrenheit. At 87 degrees (or 82 degrees for work that requires heat-trapping clothing or being near a radiant heat source), they have to cool the actual working area or take other steps like increasing breaks, changing worker schedules or slowing down production.

The rules have been a long time coming. California was a pioneer when it passed outdoor heat rules in 2005, but it’s the third state after Minnesota and Oregon to tackle indoor conditions.

They’ve been in the works since 2016, when a bill responding to Inland Empire warehouse worker heat illnesses set a 2019 deadline. Things got going again last year, post-Covid.

Not everyone is covered. A version that was up for a vote in March would have also included prisons, but CalOSHA had to delay the vote after Gov. Gavin Newsom‘s Department of Finance expressed last-minute concerns that it would cost state prisons billions of dollars more than initial estimates.

After the board expressed dismay at the March hearing and took a symbolic vote to approve the rule, the Newsom administration moved around some of the most outspoken board members, demoting the board chair and removing workplace safety expert Laura Stock, as CalMatters reported.

“I was never given a reason and have subsequently not been given reasons,” Stock said in an interview with POLITICO. (Newsom’s office didn’t respond to a request for comment on Stock but said that CalOSHA is in the process of developing specific regulations for correctional facilities.)

Union representatives and workers rights advocates including Jobs with Justice San Francisco, WorkSafe, educators union CFT and California Labor for Climate Jobs urged a “yes” vote despite concerns about leaving out prison workers and the temperature thresholds being set too high.

“It beats what we have now, and we can always work to improve,” said Norman Rogers of United Steelworkers Local 675 in Southern California.

Construction industry representatives said they might be asking for exemptions. “If that does come to pass, we just ask that you listen to our concerns,” said Brian Miller, a safety director at construction company Rudolph Sletten.

Other sectors are clamoring for the rules.

“We are in much need of indoor guidance for extreme heat for school buses,” Norma Wallace, executive director of the joint power authority that handles workers’ compensation insurance programs for school districts in Alpine, Amador, Calaveras and Tuolumne counties, wrote in public comments.

CalOSHA is still trying to speed it up. Board Chair Joseph Alioto asked the state’s Office of Administrative Law, which does a final review of rules before they go into effect, “in light of the pending summer season, which started today, June 21, to please do what they can to expedite finalization of this regulation.” — DK, BB

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TAKING HEAT: California was in the lead back in 2022 when it passed a first-in-the-nation bill to create a ranking and warning system for heat waves. But the program — nicknamed CalHeatScore — isn’t in action just yet. (Spain’s Seville is getting the points for being the first in the world to pilot such a system, giving its extreme heat waves names like Yago.)

California’s Environmental Protection Agency, Insurance Department and Office of Planning and Research are planning on launching the extreme heat warning prototype by Jan. 1, 2025, which is the deadline required by Assemblymember Luz Rivas’ AB 2238. The Insurance Department is also due to finalize a report on past extreme heat events and related insurance options by July 1.

“Our analysis shows that extreme heat is not just a weather event, it’s a silent disaster wreaking havoc on Californians’ health, economy, and infrastructure,” said department spokesperson Michael Soller. “Because traditional insurance fails to cover the full spectrum of extreme heat-related losses, there’s a growing urgency to develop innovative insurance mechanisms to protect communities, workers, and businesses.”

We’ll be looking for it.

In the meantime, we’re also keeping an eye on Assemblymember Isaac Bryan’s AB 2684, which would require local governments to include extreme heat safety in their general plan updates. The California Apartment Association is opposed, saying a typical government response is requiring air conditioning, which is expensive and almost impossible in old buildings. The bill has been flying through the Legislature, though, and could be up for a final vote on the Senate floor any day, according to Bryan’s office. — CvK

JANE’S PREDICTION: Enviros are trotting out Jane Fonda in a last-minute ad blitz against the oil industry-funded ballot initiative to remove restrictions on oil well siting.

The new $1 million ad campaign, shared exclusively today with POLITICO and running in Sacramento markets ahead of the June 27 deadline to remove initiatives from the November ballot, features Fonda as well as Los Angeles County Supervisor Holly Mitchell, philanthropist Wendy Schmidt and activist Nalleli Cobo, our Will McCarthy reports.

Schmidt said the ad is intended in part to illustrate that their coalition has the star power and resources to run a formidable campaign.

“We’d like to win any way we can, let me put it that way,” she said in an interview.

The California Independent Petroleum Association, which is backing the measure, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. — DK

FISH TALES: California wildlife officials have granted temporary protections to white sturgeon, the largest freshwater fish in North America, because of its declining numbers from drought and habitat destruction.

The decision bans the fishing of white sturgeon. It also means that the state will need to outline how it will limit harm to the fish from the pumps and pipes it uses to move water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta to Southern California.

More permanent protections could come if wildlife officials decide to officially declare white sturgeon threatened or endangered under the California Endangered Species Act after a yearlong review.

The agency’s move Wednesday followed a petition by environmental and fishing groups who said they wanted to protect the fish — which can live over 100 years — from becoming extinct because of further climate change and habitat disruption. — CvK

— The Biden administration is expected to release a plan tomorrow to restrict logging in old-growth forests, like California’s giant sequoias, with exceptions for wildfire-related thinning.

— Former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who’s hosting an environmental summit in Austria, warned on MSNBC that traditional “climate change dialogue” isn’t working in countries like China and India. He said climate activists should instead frame the issue around on reducing pollution.

— A television meteorologist who was hired to educate Iowa residents about climate change left only two years later after threats and pushback from angry viewers.

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