California Editorial Roundup

Jan. 2

Sacramento Bee on driverless cars:

For all of President-elect Donald Trump’s campaign promises about bringing back millions of jobs to middle America starting in 2017, this year is shaping up to be one of the machine, not the human.

Artificial intelligence is almost ready for prime time - and the impact will be felt a lot sooner than many people think. For proof, look no further than the burgeoning industry for driverless cars.

Merrill Lynch is projecting that fully autonomous taxis could account for more than 40 percent of all new vehicle sales within the next two decades, potentially putting millions of cab drivers and truck drivers out of work. And that’s to say nothing of the highly automated factories where these vehicles will likely be built. Car ownership will begin to move from something personal to something people think of as an Uber-like service, a notion that’s generally shared by old-line automakers such as Ford and upstarts such as Tesla.

Google is shooting for 2020 to start selling its autonomous vehicles. Ford says it’s rolling out driverless cars for a ride-sharing service by 2021. Tesla has similar plans. The industry is expected to balloon to a $42 billion global market by 2025 and only grow from there.

So far, 20 companies have jumped at the chance to test some 130 driverless cars on California’s roads. They all agreed to apply for a special permit from the Department of Motor Vehicles, and to abide by rules that require a driver with a clean record to be present at all times and for malfunctions to be reported to the state.

But the question now is, can California, with its regulations, keep this going in 2017 and beyond?

Normally, this wouldn’t even be concern for this state, with its long track record of fostering innovation. But with Uber’s abrupt departure for Arizona in December, the result of a silly feud with regulators over filing for a permit to operate its driverless Volvos in San Francisco, it’s a question that must be asked and answered.

Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey, of course, sees Uber’s pending road tests near Phoenix as a sign his state is “paving the way” to successfully pilfer more tech businesses from California. Ducey unfairly claims California “puts the brakes on innovation and change with more bureaucracy and more regulation.”

California’s regulations for autonomous vehicles aren’t exactly onerous, with a $150 fee and 72-hour wait for a permit. The rules are designed to ensure public safety, while also allowing for innovation. The rules though seemingly not onerous, might as well be an encyclopedia compared to the two-page executive order Ducey signed last year authorizing the technology on Arizona’s roads.

And California rules certainly are more prescriptive than those of Pennsylvania, where Uber has been letting customers hail driverless cars, or Florida, where autonomous vehicles can operate on public roads without a driver behind the wheel.

Michigan went a step further when Gov. Rick Snyder signed bills that will let companies test vehicles without steering wheels or pedals. Dearborn-based Ford, with its fleet of reconfigured Fusion Hybrids, is ready to do just that.

The truth is Uber pulling its Volvos from California isn’t a huge deal. It’s only 16 cars, after all, and Uber’s argument about why it didn’t need a permit is shaky at best.

But the dust-up should serve as a reminder to regulators and the Legislature to tread carefully on innovation. California needs to maintain its commanding presence in what’s sure to be one of the biggest industries of the coming decades. Uber has responsibility here, too. Even in the new world Uber envisions and despite its image as an innovator that breaks the rules, protecting public safety is a must.

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Dec. 28

East Bay Times on improving energy efficiency:

Improving energy efficiency is a smart move by almost any measure. It undeniably saves money over the long haul by making use of what had previously been going to waste. But, besides that, it can cut the need for expensive energy-generation projects and it fuels a lot of jobs in California.

A new report from the group Environmental Entrepreneurs (E2) says 321,177 Californians work in energy-efficiency jobs - half of them for companies with one to five employees.

The Bay Area is second on the list with more than 25,600 energy-efficiency-related jobs. The Los Angeles metro area is, of course, No. 1 with more than 46,600 such jobs while the San Diego area boasts nearly 18,000. In just those three areas there are more than 90,000 such jobs.

Across the United States, there are about 1.9 million workers employed in energy efficiency, which means that those three California areas alone represent nearly 28 percent of such jobs in the state and nearly 5 percent of the entire nation. Just as important, the E2 study found there was a 13 percent increase over the previous year and that roughly 70 percent of the workers are employed in companies with 10 employees or fewer.

With those kinds of numbers, it is difficult to even refer to this as an “industry.” It is more accurate to term it an amalgam of small businesses operating in a single, focused sector.

In California, roughly 30 percent of these workers focus on improving the efficiency of tradition heating, ventilating and air conditioning systems. The other 70 percent are spread more or less evenly among efficient lighting, high-efficiency appliances, high-efficiency HVAC and advanced materials and insulation.

Fifty-seven percent of the companies are installers or distributors, 16 percent are manufacturers and another 16 percent are in professional services, the report states.

But those operations have had demonstrable impact on California.

Clearly, such energy efficiency saves money for consumers. The report tells us that Californians’ monthly electric bills have gone up just $4.25 since 1990, adjusted for inflation; meanwhile, in Wyoming, for example, where little investment is made in energy efficiency, the increase has been more than $16.

Our state’s consumption of electricity has grown just 1 percent annually, while natural gas consumption has remained flat, according to the California Energy Commission.

Efficiency upgrades are particularly beneficial for low-income households, not only because they spend a larger proportion of their income on energy, but because those households often live in places with poor insulation and old, inefficient appliances, the E2 report points out.

Long-term savings for residents and businesses and 320,000-plus jobs and growing make energy efficiency a valuable part of California.

However, it would not be a viable market without widespread customer participation. We are pleased that Golden State customers have been so willing to embrace the concept.

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Dec. 31

San Francisco Chronicle on changes to the state utilities commission:

California’s powerful utilities regulator is getting fresh blood at the top level very much on Gov. Jerry Brown’s terms. He’s replacing two commissioners whose terms had run out with a pair of environmental advisers from his inner circle.

It’s a move that puts the governor’s stamp on an agency that ranges across energy and telecommunications issues all the way down to limousine rates and safety rules for self-driving cars. Most notably, the commission had failed to adequately oversee gas pipelines and storage facilities, as shown by the deadly San Bruno explosion that killed eight people in 2010 and the huge natural gas leaks that emptied a Los Angeles community in 2015.

These disasters spawned executive level changes including the exit of President Michael Peevey, who was far too cozy with utility firms he was charged with regulating.

The mix of negligent oversight and administrative malfeasance led to a wave of lawmaking intended to improve matters and restore the commission’s image. Though Brown accepted some fixes, he fought off others to change its operations, and lessen his own role. Last year, a second dose of reforms won his signature with the governor favoring the idea of handing transportation issues to another agency. That change, as yet incomplete, would let the San Francisco-based commission narrow its focus.

Now he’s sending in two experienced aides, Cliff Rechtschaffen and Martha Guzman Aceves, in a political two-fer. Both appointees have ample backgrounds in environmental and energy policy, the heart of the PUC’s workload. Because they’re Brown insiders, the governor also can count on them to further his climate-change goals, especially as he warms up his new role as a prime-time critic of President-elect Donald Trump.

The two nominees replace Mike Florio, a consumer advocate who stumbled badly by swapping private communications with utility executives, and Catherine Sandoval, who drew praise for her consumer outlook on phone regulations.

If the two appointees win state Senate confirmation, it should give the governor a stronger hand and greater responsibility in mending the regulatory agency. Both consumers and businesses need to have confidence in state oversight of the utility world.

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Jan. 3

The Orange County Register on tracking police guns:

While the California Legislature has intervened too often in many areas, particularly with regard to gun laws, there is one area in which it is rightly directing increased attention and scrutiny: lost and stolen police guns.

At least 944 guns were lost or stolen from local police in the Bay Area and state and federal law enforcement agents across the state since 2010, the Bay Area News Group, the Northern California sister newspapers to our Southern California News Group, reported in June. The Orange County Register conducted a similar investigation of Southern California police agencies, and in September reported that at least 329 police firearms had been lost or stolen in the past five years.

The BANG investigation revealed “an alarming disregard for the way many officers - from police chiefs to cadets to FBI agents - safeguard their weapons,” the news group found. “Their guns have been stolen from behind car seats and glove boxes, swiped from gym bags, dresser drawers and under beds. They have been left on tailgates, car roofs and even atop a toilet paper dispenser in a car dealership’s bathroom. One officer forgot a high-powered assault rifle in the trunk of a taxi.”

“Stolen police guns have ended up in the hands of members and associates of notorious gangs like the Bloods, the Aryan Brotherhood and Nortenos,” the report noted. “One fell into the hands of a Reno pimp after a prostitute took a Kensington police officer’s Glock pistol and badge from his hotel room when he fell asleep.” Some stolen guns have been used in murders.

To address the problem, state Sen. Jerry Hill, D-San Mateo, introduced Senate Bill 869, which requires police to abide by the same laws as other citizens to secure firearms in their vehicles by storing them in the trunk or a locked container out of sight. Gov. Jerry Brown signed the law in September, and Sen. Hill credited the Register for highlighting the issue, saying, “The exposure that you gave the problem made it very evident this was a loophole that we needed to fill.”

But this was only the first step to improving accountability. As the Register report noted, “There are no state or federal laws requiring police agencies to account for their firearms.” Many agencies do not even keep track of their weapons inventories. That will change when provisions of Proposition 63, passed by voters in November, requiring police and other citizens alike to report lost or stolen guns, go into effect July 1, 2017.

In addition, Sen. Hill has now introduced another measure, SB22, which would require state and local law enforcement agencies to conduct an annual audit of their firearms, report lost or stolen weapons to the U.S. Justice Department’s Automated Firearms System database and discipline officers who fail to report lost or stolen guns. Officers would also have to register personal firearms that are carried while on duty.

The number of police weapons stolen may not be a large percentage of their total stock of firearms, but law enforcement agencies should be held to the same standards as gun stores and private citizens, and these seem like common-sense measures that may help to prevent future tragedies.

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Jan. 1

The Press Democrat on new 2017 laws:

Welcome to 2017.

For many people, this is a day for reflections and resolutions and maybe a little football. New Year’s Day also is the effective date for nearly 900 new state laws.

Don’t worry, you don’t need to memorize them all. In fact, it isn’t much of a stretch to say that many of these laws will be forgotten as soon as they’re added to the state code books.

Others, however, will affect people’s work, their homes, their health, even their driving habits.

Anyone working a minimum-wage job for a company with more than 25 employees gets a small pay raise - 50 cents an hour - effective Jan. 1. The state’s minimum wage is now $10.50 an hour, and it will gradually increase to $15 an hour over the next five years.

Nearly 7 million workers whose employment benefits don’t include retirement plans will be automatically enrolled in Secure Choice, a payroll deduction program that directs money into a 401(k)-style saving plan. Employees can opt out, but they probably shouldn’t.

California continues to tighten its cellphone laws as drivers discover new distractions. Hands-free phones are mandatory for chatting and texting, but a loophole in the law allowed other uses, such as taking photos, shooting video and searching for directions. Drivers are now limited to one-touch and voice-activated features. They also can simply drive. It’s safer, and no law is required.

Community colleges must open their shower facilities to homeless students who are properly enrolled and in good standing.

California now has a “right-to-try law,” which allows terminally ill residents to obtain and use experimental drugs even if they aren’t accepted into a clinical trial - and so long as they have exhausted treatments sanctioned by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

A new law intended to deter opioid abuse and “doctor shopping” requires physicians and other health care providers to check a state database before prescribing opioid painkillers.

The new restrictions that produced a run on assault rifles in the final weeks of 2016 go into effect today, along with a common-sense law requiring that anyone who leaves a firearm in an unattended vehicle must ensure that the vehicle is locked.

The next time you get your hair cut, your barber or stylist can serve you a complimentary glass of wine or beer without a state alcohol license. However, it’s now illegal for anyone to make, sell or possess powdered alcohol. Who knew there was such a thing?

When the next election rolls around, you will be free to take a selfie of your ballot and post it online. You also may allow someone else to drop off your ballot.

Uber drivers must now pass a background check, and registered sex offenders and violent felons are no longer eligible to drive for ride-sharing services.

Motorcycle lane-splitting, an accepted practice on busy California freeways and surface streets for many years, is now officially sanctioned by the state.

And finally, your favorite old blue jeans have been conscripted. North Bay Assemblyman Marc Levine’s AB 501 made denim the “official fabric” of California. Will casual day ever be the same?