Turning up the volume on extreme heat

With help from Blanca Begert, Wes Venteicher and David Ferris

THIS IS FINE: We get why President Joe Biden might want to call attention to extreme heat. But so is Gov. Gavin Newsom, who issued a warning to residents today ahead of the 110-degree conditions that are expected to last from Tuesday through the weekend.

“We’re used to hot temperatures in California, but this will be several days with little relief overnight,” Newsom said in his message. “Don’t let this heat catch you by surprise.”

It shouldn’t be catching anyone by surprise — NOAA scientists say 2024 is likely to be the hottest year ever recorded. Extreme heat is by far the deadliest weather event in California, killing more people than wildfires and flooding combined, yet it’s largely been an afterthought as a policy issue.

That could be changing.

A report released today by California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara found that heat waves have cost Californians at least $7.7 billion over the last decade and killed nearly 460 people. (That’s likely an undercount, according to a 2021 Los Angeles Times investigation that found high temperatures killed nearly 4,000 people between 2010 and 2019.)

The seven heat waves studied in the report affected nearly the entire population of California, around 12 times more people than the seven most-recent deadly wildfires. And, the report notes, heat is life-threatening to all Californians, but especially the elderly, young children and people of color who are more likely to have underlying health problems and lack access to air conditioning.

The analysis represents the first time the state’s Insurance Department has attempted to quantify the impacts of extreme heat and comes at a time when Lara is grappling with how to stop insurers from fleeing the state over wildfire risks. That’s a major shift and likely a welcome development for public health experts who say California needs to take the issue more seriously.

“The challenges presented by extreme heat are no longer a distant concern,” Lara said in the report. “They are an immediate and escalating threat to our health, infrastructure, economy, and overall well-being.”

Extreme heat is also a live issue for Newsom and lawmakers, though their policy maneuvers in recent days have been mixed.

Newsom today highlighted “cooling centers” in each of the state’s 58 counties — often in libraries, community centers and other existing air-conditioned gathering spaces. Yet the budget he signed on Saturday eliminated millions of dollars previously planned to pay for more cooling centers, as well as a yet-to-be-launched program to track heat-related hospital visits.

Environmental justice advocates who’ve led the charge on extreme heat could get some of that funding back after lawmakers over the weekend released proposed language for a $10 billion climate bond that would raise $450 million for extreme heat programs — including $100 million for resilience centers — if approved by voters in November.

That’s far less, however, than the $1 billion for extreme heat a coalition of around 180 environmental and social justice groups had advocated for. A spokesperson for one of the main negotiators, the Leadership Counsel for Justice and Accountability, said the organization is “still digesting“ the bond language. — AN

Did someone forward you this newsletter? Sign up here!

ON FIRE: We just said heat is more impactful than fire, but fire is also still top of mind.

Senate President Pro Tem Mike McGuire told guests at a Sacramento Press Club event today to expect wildfire insurance legislation either this year or next year. It’s his strongest commitment yet to some sort of insurance package under his tenure as increasingly more home and business owners in fire-prone areas get dropped by insurers.

“It is an absolute crisis now in rural and urban parts of the state, and it’s only going to get worse,” said McGuire.

The North Coast Democrat said he’s in favor of “common-sense” rate increases, an approach Lara is pursuing with his reform proposals, but said he also wanted more.

His ideas include an app to let people look up their homes’ risk factors and a version of his 2016 proposal for a group of fire marshals, insurance experts and building inspectors to establish home-hardening standards. He also wants home and business owners who get dropped by their insurers to “have a path to traditional insurance” — something he’s charged a new Senate working group with developing, he said.

“I’m very clear about where I think we need to be able to go,” McGuire said. “We have seen this on the North Coast for years, and we got to move with speed.”

Moving with speed is about the only thing most of his colleagues can really agree on, though. An insurance deal negotiated last year fell through after the Assembly’s concerns about costs to customers. And this year, the Senate Appropriations Committee forced Sen. Josh Becker to turn his proposal requiring underwriters to recognize wildfire mitigation into a study bill amid opposition from the insurance industry. — CvK

DELAY OF GAME: We were waiting for the other shoe to drop on SB 253 and SB 261 — it did on Friday. Newsom’s Department of Finance proposed a 2-year delay to both the state’s nation-leading corporate emissions reporting and climate risk reporting laws.

The budget trailer bill language would give the California Air Resources Board until 2027 to write rules for businesses to start reporting their emissions and their climate-related financial risks. Companies would have until 2028 to comply.

Sens. Scott Wiener and Henry Stern, the laws’ respective authors, aren’t having it.

“The language posted by the Department of Finance does not represent an agreement with the Legislature,” Wiener and Stern said in a joint statement. “The Legislature has *not* agreed to the Administration’s proposed delay to SB 253 and SB 261’s implementation.”

CalChamber executive vice president Ben Golombek said he wants to go further: “It’s been a top priority for us and our members, and while the amendments proposed in the trailer bill address a handful of the issues we’ve raised on the implementation of SB 253, we think there’s still a lot more that needs to be done to make it workable.” — DK, WV

OFF THE TABLE: In other Friday evening news, Sen. Monique Limón pulled her bill to set enforceable standards for the voluntary offsets market.

She cited resistance from market players, who included project developers, registries and credit buyers as well as environmental groups like Conservation International and Environmental Defense Fund.

“Despite the deep deficiencies within voluntary carbon markets, it became clear that market participants are unwilling to accept legally enforceable standards to address the magnitude of junk offsets being marketed and sold in California,” she said in a statement. — BB, DK

KEEP RIDING: A segment of California’s transportation goals is riding on the Biden administration. The public comment period on the administration’s move to end hundreds of industry exemptions from Trump-era tariffs on Chinese goods closed last week, and the bike industry is hoping its pleas for relief will sway U.S. trade officials to quickly reconsider this month.

PeopleForBikes, the bike industry’s lobbying arm, asked in a Friday letter that the administration reinstate exemptions for e-bikes and children’s bikes that expired June 14, saying the 25 percent tariff “is causing dramatic price increases.”

Major bike manufacturers like Kent International say their inventory could start running out this month, forcing them to start importing pricier components, which are overwhelmingly made in China. Higher manufacturing costs will lead to increased prices for buyers, especially of already-expensive e-bikes. That’s a problem in a state that wants to incentivize more drivers to ditch their cars. CARB is aiming to finish designing its e-bike incentives program sometime this year. — AN

CHARGING DOWN: Public chargers are disappearing from some rural counties, even as the Biden administration is pouring billions of dollars into building an electric vehicle charging network, but public chargers are disappearing from some rural counties.

A Harvard University study found that 34 U.S. counties that used to have public charging stations no longer have any active ones, becoming “charging deserts.“ Another 36 counties lost most of their stations, writes David Ferris for POLITICO’s E&E News.

The study didn’t specifically call out California counties, but four — Alpine, Lake, Plumas and Sierra — have no public chargers, according to the California Energy Commission. — AN

DTSC TO CEJA: Diana Vazquez Ballesteros is leaving her post as deputy director for legislation and regulatory review at the Department of Toxic Substances Control to become co-executive director of the California Environmental Justice Alliance. She previously served as a policy manager and advocate at CEJA. Vazquez Ballesteros starts Aug. 5. — DK

— New York just acknowledged it’s on track to miss its renewable electricity goals by 3 years.

— Here’s how San Diego boiled its proposed 22 percent water rate hike down to 4 percent.

— If heat pumps are too confusing for energy economists to navigate, what hope do the rest of us have?

CALIFORNIA POLICY IS ALWAYS CHANGING: Know your next move. From Sacramento to Silicon Valley, POLITICO California Pro provides policy professionals with the in-depth reporting and tools they need to get ahead of policy trends and political developments shaping the Golden State. To learn more about the exclusive insight and analysis this subscriber-only service offers, click here.

Want to make an impact? POLITICO California has a variety of solutions available for partners looking to reach and activate the most influential people in the Golden State. Have a petition you want signed? A cause you’re promoting? Seeking to increase brand awareness amongst this key audience? Share your message with our influential readers to foster engagement and drive action. Contact Rebecca Haase to find out how: [email protected].