The short story is this: Senator Bob Archuleta flipped his vote and supported AB 3233, handing industry a defeat, and handing California’s extremists a tool to attempt to shut down oil producers by passing ordinances in counties and cities that have oil production.
The top legislative priority for CIPA at the end of this year’s session was killing AB 3233 (Addis), which delegates regulatory authority to local governments to shut down or curb oil production. Despite CIPA’s best efforts, and coordination with our allies, the bill eventually passed.
On Thursday, August 29, the bill was brought up in the Senate and the bill failed on a 20-14 vote. Since bills need 21 votes to pass the 40-member Senate, AB 3233 was continually placed back on “call” nearly 10 times and the bill still could not attract one final vote to pass.
Oil producers did not celebrate because the bill was technically still alive. After the bill failed, it was placed on what is called “reconsideration.” Reconsideration is a big word for “think about it and maybe we’ll bring it up later if you get the votes.” Unfortunately, that gave way too much time for the supporters to turn one vote. CIPA was required to hold every single vote in place, but the extremists only had to flip one senator.
With less than two hours to go before the midnight deadline to adjourn session, the Senate took up AB 3233 for a Reconsideration vote. To CIPA’s surprise, and all the groups opposed to the bill, Senator Bob Archuleta flipped his vote to “aye,” and the bill passed with 21 votes. In a rush, the Senate ran the bill over to the State Assembly for a concurrence vote in Senate amendments.
At eleven minutes before midnight, the bill was taken up and passed and was transmitted to the governor. The governor will now review thousands of bills and determine whether or not he will sign each bill.
CIPA and others on the opposition team are preparing a letter to the governor appealing to him to veto the bill.