With Key Leadership Posts, Stern to Push Resilience Agenda to Combat Wildfires and the Broader Climate Emergency
For Immediate Release: December 15th, 2020
Contact: Faith Colburn at faith.colburn@sen.ca.gov
SACRAMENTO – Today, Senator Henry Stern (D-Los Angeles), was appointed by the Senate President pro Tempore to chair the Joint Legislative Emergency Management Committee and the Senate Natural Resources & Water Committee. These powerful committees cover many live issue areas for the upcoming session, including public safety power shutoffs and wildfires, oil fracking and gas storage, and protections for species and open spaces that are under threat from unsustainable development and climate change.
“There is so much work to do—the gravity of it all is humbling. We have a major climate and infrastructure resilience bond to make the case for, while the wildfires keep raging, the flood risks mount, the water crisis looms, and our first responders are more overstretched and overstressed than ever before,” said Stern.
“I sincerely appreciate the pro Tem offering me a chance to chair these critical committees, and look at how to offer frontline communities resilience solutions to the mounting costs of the climate emergency—right now these disasters are hurting those who can least afford it, and we’re subsidizing the risk of those who have the most. Our ability to tackle the climate emergency is not just a matter of what science demands, it’s a matter of justice and equity.”
Stern lost his home in the 2018 Woolsey Fire and has seen many fires roll through his district over his first term in office. He also represents the Aliso Canyon community impacted by the 2015 gas blowout, and he also plans to tackle some of these neighborhood oil and gas safety issues in his upcoming term as well. Moreover, he has been championing to 101 Freeway wildlife corridor to save the nearly extinct Southern California mountain lion.
“This work is personal. It is where I’m from. And I hope my firsthand experiences here will help drive this work.”
Among the bills Stern plans to introduce in the coming two-year session, he has already introduced a $5.5 climate change resilience bond, SB 45 as well as SB 63, an omnibus fire prevention and protection measure to create local fire resiliency corps, grants and other tools to help communities harden themselves against wildfires. In the wildfire arena, Stern has also introduced SB 55 to halt new developments in the highest fire hazard zones in California.
“Anyone who doesn’t think climate change is real just needs to look out the window,” continued Stern. “The combination of extreme heat, wind, and drought-like conditions was a ticking time bomb waiting to be ignited. This year alone, we have had more than 9,000 wildfires, including the largest in state history, destroying over four million acres of California. We need to empower our communities to protect themselves and we desperately need to invest in prevention to help people deal with California’s seemingly endless fire season.”
In addition to the chairmanships announced today, it was also announced that Stern will serve as a member of the following Senate committees:
-Budget Subcommittee on Resources, Environmental Protection, Energy & Transportation
-Energy, Utilities and Communications
-Environmental Quality
-Judiciary
The Legislature will reconvene on January 4, 2021.
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