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For Immediate Release
September, 12 2011, 10:11am EDT
Contact:
Serena Ingre, singre@nrdc.org, 415-875-6155
Amid Budget and Jobs Concerns, Victories for Public Health, Sharks, Clean Water, Job Stimulus and Energy Efficiency in California's 2011 Legislative Session
Shark fin ban, drinking water & Native American sacred sites protection, children’s health protection, and enforcement of energy efficiency requirements approved by California Legislature
SACRAMENTO, CA
The 2011 California legislative session wrapped-up late Friday night with legislators handing victory to children's health, job stimulus and energy efficiency - all bills that will play a key role in the environmental health and economic recovery of the State, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council.
"In a legislative session that continued to be dominated by the state budget, jobs and the economy, California's Legislature made headway in moving forward policies to protect public health, sharks, drinking water supplies and to stimulate the clean energy economy," said Ann Notthoff, NRDC's director of California advocacy. "Collectively, these bills promote a healthy environment and a healthy economy that are vital for the State's recovery."
The good news: The California legislature passed legislation that prohibits the sale, trade or possession of shark fins in California; voted to protect drinking water and Native American sacred sites by stopping the approval and construction of a new landfill at Gregory Canyon in San Diego County; and banned the use of the chemical bisphenol A in baby bottles and sippy cups, making California the 11th state in the nation to ban BPA. The legislature also passed a bill to improve the enforcement of California's energy efficiency requirements for household appliances. The push to bring the NFL to Los Angeles resulted in a bill to expedite judicial review and retained full CEQA review with additional environmental requirements.
The bad news: The California legislature failed to pass a bill that would phase out Styrofoam food containers by 2016. Californians alone throw away 300,000 tons of Styrofoam annually - quite a sum for a product that is known for being super lightweight. Besides littering our communities and beaches, Styrofoam also releases toxic substances into the air and water during manufacturing and harms water quality when it makes its way to our waterways. The legislature also failed to pass the Infill Development & Sustainable Community Act, a bill that would have allowed builders more flexibility in the amount of parking spots needed for projects that are close to transit. Reducing the amount of parking that is required would have allowed for more affordable housing to be built in California, and jump start projects that are currently stalled. Reauthorization of the Public Goods Charge, which funds clean energy programs, also stalled.
NRDC's backgrounder below summarizes this year's California legislative session highlights. These bills now need only Governor Brown's signature to be enacted into law:
Sharks Protected
AB 376: Authored by Assemblymember Paul Fong (D-Mountain View) and Assemblymember Jared Huffman (D-San Rafael), AB 376 helps to end the cruel practice of shark finning by prohibiting the sale, possession or trade of shark fins in California. The bill was sponsored by the Monterey Bay Aquarium and the Asian Pacific American Ocean Harmony Alliance, and supported by thousands of individuals and a broad coalition of diverse groups, including NRDC. More on this here: https://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/lmonroe/
Gregory Canyon
SB 833: Authored by Senator Juan Vargas (D-San Diego) and co-author Assembly member Ben Hueso (D-San Diego), this bill would stop the approval of a new landfill at Gregory Canyon in San Diego County. The proposed landfill would threaten drinking water sources for tens of thousands of people and desecrate adjacent Native American sacred sites. In addition, increased recycling, new technologies and the expansion of existing landfills make the proposed landfill unnecessary.
Consumer and Business Protection
SB 454: Authored by Senator Fran Pavley (D-Santa Monica), this bill would improve enforcement of California's energy efficiency standards for appliances such as air conditioners, televisions, refrigerators and light bulbs. SB 454 helps level the playing field for builders, contractors and businesses who are complying with energy efficiency standards by improving enforcement against those who try to skirt the requirements. The bill also ensures that expected energy savings are more fully realized; thereby saving money and reducing pollution.
BPA Ban
AB 1319: Co-sponsored by Senator Fran Pavley (D-Santa Monica) and authored by Assemblywoman Betsy Butler (D-El Segundo), this bill would ban the use of the chemical bisphenol A in baby bottles and sippy cups, marking a victory for health and environmental advocates who've sought a similar measure since early 2009. If signed into law by Governor Brown, California would be the 11th state in the nation to ban BPA in baby bottles and sippy cups.
Farmers Field
SB 292: Authored by Senator Alex Padilla (D-San Fernandino Valley), the bill would require developer AEG to achieve national green building, transportation and greenhouse gas reduction standards and meet existing environmental review requirements in return for a speedier schedule for judicial review of legal challenges of its proposal to build a football stadium in downtown Los Angeles. The final bill requires AEG to implement "best in nation" mode shift transportation that's permanent, and authorizes the City of Los Angeles to enforce it so long as the stadium exists. More on this here: https://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/dpettit/
What's next?:
The 2011 California legislative session officially ended without an extension of the Public Goods Charge (PGC), which is set to expire in January 2012. Bills SB 870 and AB 724, sponsored by Senator Alex Padilla (D-San Fernandino Valley) and Assemblymember Steven Bradford (D-Inglewood), respectively, would have reauthorized collection of the existing Public Goods Charge from California utility customer bills that support a range of investments in RD&D, renewables, and energy efficiency. Legislative options include another effort during a still ongoing special legislative session and a push for action as soon as the legislature reconvenes in January 2012; meanwhile, NRDC and coalition partners will be working with utilities and their regulators to ensure no interruption in a strong collective commitment to clean energy progress.
Bills that were held to next year, the second year of the two-year legislative session:
- AB 591: Oil and Gas Production: Hydraulic Fracturing
- AB 685: Californians' Right to Clean Drinking Water
- SB 535: California Communities Healthy Air Revitalization Trust
- SB 568: The Sustainable Take-Out Food Packaging Bill (phase out Styrofoam food containers)
- SB 791: Empower regions to develop traffic reduction plans & improve public transit
NRDC works to safeguard the earth--its people, its plants and animals, and the natural systems on which all life depends. We combine the power of more than three million members and online activists with the expertise of some 700 scientists, lawyers, and policy advocates across the globe to ensure the rights of all people to the air, the water, and the wild.
(212) 727-2700LATEST NEWS
40+ Groups Urge Wikipedia to Oppose Co-Founders' 'Censorship on Gaza Genocide'
"Wales and Sanger must be stopped from trying to censor the Wikipedia ‘Gaza genocide’ entry that clearly documents Israel’s horrifying crime against humanity.”
Dec 15, 2025
More than 40 advocacy groups on Monday called on Wikipedia editors and the Wikimedia board of trustees to reject efforts by the web-based encyclopedia's co-founders to censor the site's entry on the Gaza genocide.
After months of internal debate, editors of the Wikipedia article titled “Allegations of genocide in the 2023 Israeli attack on Gaza” renamed the entry "Gaza genocide" in July 2024, reflecting experts' growing acknowledgement that Israel's annihilation and siege of the Palestinian exclave met the legal definition of the ultimate crime. The entry also notes that the Gaza genocide is not settled legal fact—an International Court of Justice case on the matter is ongoing—and that numerous experts refute the claim that Israel's war is genocidal.
The move, and the subsequent addition of Gaza to Wikipedia's article listing cases of genocide, sparked heated "edit wars" on the community-edited site—which has long been a target of pro-Israeli public relations efforts. In the United States, a pair of House Republicans launched an investigation to reveal the identities of the anonymous Wikipedia editors who posted negative facts about Israel.
"Israeli officials and pro-Israel organizations are attempting to hide the horrifying reality... by putting pressure on institutions like Wikipedia to engage in genocide denial."
Wikipedia co-founders Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger have intervened in the dispute, with Wales—a self-described "strong supporter of Israel"—publicly stating that the Gaza genocide entry lacked neutrality, failed to meet Wikipedia's "high standards," and required "immediate attention" after an editor blocked changes to the article.
"Wales and Sanger are using their roles as Wikipedia founders to bypass the normal editing and review process and introduce their
own ideological biases into an entry that has already undergone exhaustive vetting and review by Wikipedia editors, including thousands of edits and comments," the 42 advocacy groups said in a letter to Wikimedia's board and site editors.
"Their efforts deny the documented reality of Israel’s genocide in Gaza and contradict the broad consensus among genocide scholars, international human rights organizations, UN experts, and both Palestinian and Israeli human rights organizations," the groups continue. "In doing so, Wales and Sanger are engaging in attempted censorship and genocide denial."
The letters' signers include the American Friends Service Committee, Artists Against Apartheid, Brave New Films, CodePink, Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN), Doctors Against Genocide, MPower Change Action Fund, Peace Action, and United Methodists for Kairos Response.
Since the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 attack, Israel's retaliatory obliteration and siege on Gaza—for which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant are wanted by the International Criminal Court for alleged crimes against humanity and war crimes—have left more than 250,000 Palestinians dead, maimed, or missing. Around 2 million other Palestinians have been forcibly displaced, sickened, or starved in what hunger experts say is an entirely human-caused famine.
"The simple reality is that Israeli officials and pro-Israel organizations are attempting to hide the horrifying reality of Israel’s genocide in Gaza by pretending that there is a substantive debate and by putting pressure on institutions like Wikipedia to engage in genocide denial," the groups' letter asserts.
"Wales’ 'both sides' framework for denying the Gaza genocide," the groups warned, "could also be used to legitimize Holocaust denial, denial of the Armenian genocide, or to platform 'flat-earthers' who deny the Earth’s spherical shape."
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Championed by Graham Platner, Medicare for All Increasingly Popular in Maine and Nationwide
"Healthcare is a human right. That’s why we need Medicare for All," said one senator. "And the American people agree!"
Dec 15, 2025
In Maine, only one of the top two candidates in the Democratic US Senate primary has expressed support for the specific healthcare reform proposal that continues to be treated by the political establishment as radical—but which is supported by not only a sizable majority of Mainers but also most Americans surveyed in several recent polls.
Graham Platner, a veteran and oyster farmer who was a political novice when he launched his campaign in August and has polled well ahead of Gov. Janet Mills in several recent surveys, and a poll that asked Mainers about healthcare on Saturday showed he is in lockstep with many people in the state.
As the advocacy group Maine AllCare reported, the Pan Atlantic 67th Omnibus poll found that 63% of Mainers support Medicare for All, the proposal to transition the US to a system like that of other wealthy countries, with the government expanding the existing Medicare program and guaranteeing health coverage to all.
Those results bolster the findings of More Perfect Union in October, which found 72% of Mainers backing Medicare for All, and of Data for Progress, which found last month that 65% of all Americans—including 78% of Democratic voters—support a "national health insurance program... that would cover all Americans and replace most private health insurance plans.”
Even more recently, a Pew Research survey released last week found that 66% of respondents nationwide said the government should guarantee health coverage.
Platner has spoken out forcefully in support of Medicare for All, saying unequivocally last month that the proposal "is the answer" to numerous healthcare crises including the loss of primary care providers in many parts of the country and skyrocketing healthcare costs.
He made the comments soon after Mills said at a healthcare roundtable that "it is time" for a universal healthcare system, but did not explicitly endorse Medicare for All.
Maine AllCare noted that the latest polling on Medicare for All in the state comes as Maine "is on the verge of a multi-pronged healthcare crisis" due to Republican federal lawmakers' refusal to extend Affordable Care Act subsidies—which is projected to significantly raise monthly premiums for many Maine families as well as millions of people across the country. People in Maine and other states are also bracing for changes to Medicaid, including eligibility requirements.
Those changes "alongside long-standing affordability and access gaps, are projected to cost Maine billions and trigger deep operating losses in already strained hospitals," said Maine AllCare.
The group emphasized that that the Republican budget reconciliation law that President Donald Trump signed in July is projected to have a range of economic impacts on Maine, including a $450 million decline in statewide economic output, the loss of 4,300 state jobs, and the loss of $700 million in revenue at the state's hospitals due to Medicaid cuts.
“Maine needs a sustainable and universal healthcare system now. Poll after poll show people want Medicare for All. Our leaders can let the current health system continue collapsing—harming families, communities, and the economy of our state—or they can meet the moment and fight like hell to enact change that protects both the people and the future of the state," said David Jolly, a Maine AllCare board member. "That is the work Mainers elected them to do and that is what they must do now.”
Despite the broad popularity of the proposal to expand the Medicare program to everyone in the US—a system that would cost less than the current for-profit health insurance system does, according to numerous studies—supporters, including the 17 cosponsors of the Medicare for All bill in the US Senate and the 110 cosponsors in the US House, continue to face attacks from establishment politicians regarding the cost and feasibility of the proposal.
On Monday, Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) explained to Fox News anchor Maria Bartiromo how the Affordable Care Act that was passed by the Democratic Party is "not the solution" to the country's healthcare crisis, because it keeps in place the for-profit health insurance industry.
"The solution, as everyone knows, in my view, who has studied this, is Medicare for All," said Khanna. "People should have national health insurance. Healthcare is a human right. You should not be subject to these private insurance companies that have 18% admin costs, that are making billions of dollars in profits."
I made the case for Medicare for All on @MorningsMaria with @MariaBartiromo with facts and basic economics. https://t.co/ExZpCNQT7B pic.twitter.com/F226Kutv16
— Ro Khanna (@RoKhanna) December 15, 2025
Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) also spoke out in favor of the proposal, pointing to the recent Data for Progress poll that showed 65% of Americans and 78% of Democrats backing Medicare for All.
"Healthcare is a human right. That’s why we need Medicare for All," said Merkley. "We need to simplify our system and make sure folks can get the care they need, when they need it. And the American people agree!"
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'A Chilling Assertion': Trump Officials Falsely Claim Citizens Must Carry Immigration Docs to Prove Their Status
“There is no legal requirement that US citizens carry papers or have proof of their citizenship on them," said an attorney at the ACLU of Northern California.
Dec 15, 2025
Federal law enforcement agencies are detaining US citizens who do not carry proof of their citizenship in what civil rights advocates describe as a flagrant violation of constitutional rights—and a top Trump administration official is claiming the government has the authority to do so.
A Somali-born Minnesota man was alarmed by the practice last Tuesday when immigration agents tackled him, handcuffed him, and arrested him, refusing to accept his REAL ID as proof of his legal residence in a video that was widely circulated on social media.
The man, who identified only as Mubashir, was placed into a chokehold and forced to his knees in the snow on his way to get food in Minneapolis' Cedar-Riverside neighborhood, which has a large Somali population.
As the Sahan Journal describes:
Mubashir said he told officers multiple times that he is a US citizen and asked if he could show them his ID. Officers ignored him, dragged him in the snow, and pushed him into a car as witnesses yelled and blew whistles, according to the video of his arrest.
The arrest occurred as federal agents walked into nearby businesses in the Somali-heavy neighborhood, questioning people and asking them to show their passports. Mubashir said he was in the car with officers for about 20 minutes, asking them repeatedly if he could show them his ID. They refused, he said.
According to the report, officers asked if they could photograph Mubashir to check whether he's a US citizen—likely to run his information through a facial recognition application that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has acknowledged it uses during immigration stops, including on US citizens without their consent.
Mubashir declined to have his photo taken, asking: "How would a picture prove I’m a US citizen?”
He was later taken to a federal building that houses an immigration court and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) offices. Only after having his fingerprint taken was Mubashir allowed to present his ID and given permission to leave.
Officers refused to drop him back off at Cedar-Riverside, instead telling him to walk home more than seven miles in the midst of a snowstorm, which had led authorities to issue a weather advisory.
“I deserve to be here like anyone else—I’m a US citizen,” Mubashir said. “I can’t even step outside without being tackled—no question—because I’m Somali.”
"I apologize that this happened to you in my city, with people wearing vests that say 'police.' That's embarrassing," Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O'Hara said to Mubashir during a press conference on Wednesday.
According to legal experts, there is no requirement under US law that American citizens must be prepared to prove their citizenship at a moment's notice.
In comments to KQED, a public radio station in San Francisco, earlier this month, Richard Boswell, a law professor at the University of California Law School, called it “most troubling” that US citizens have felt the need to carry their ID to avoid harassment.
“There is no reason why government officers can or should be questioning people about their citizenship without any reason to suspect that they are noncitizens who are here unlawfully,” he explained.
Under the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), noncitizens must carry proof of their legal status, such as a green card or a foreign passport with stamps indicating a lawful visa.
About two dozen states require residents to identify themselves if stopped by law enforcement. But none require citizens to carry a physical ID at all times, except in specific cases, such as operating a motorized vehicle.
And, as Bree Bernwanger, a senior attorney at the ACLU of Northern California, explained, “there is no legal requirement that US citizens carry papers or have proof of their citizenship on them." Unless police have reasonable suspicion that a person is in the US unlawfully, she said, "there shouldn’t be a reason to have to carry your papers, because immigration agents aren’t supposed to stop people or detain them."
But as backlash rolled in from the video of Mubashir's arrest, the man leading Trump's mass deportation crusade, US Border Patrol Commander-at-Large Gregory Bovino, seemed to falsely suggest via social media that citizens are required to carry proof of their citizenship.
"One must carry immigration documents as per the INA. A REAL ID is not an immigration document," he wrote in response to a post about Mubashir's arrest, which noted his citizenship.
Jeremy Konyndyk, the president of Refugees International, responded that "in no way does the INA require citizens to carry immigration documents" and that Bovino is "just letting his jackboot thugs presumptively detain whomever they like."
Add to this that HSI just filed a declaration in our case challenging these policies saying they can’t trust REAL IDs as proof of status.So showing your papers isn’t even enough to end the stop.
[image or embed]
— Jared (@jaredmcclain.bsky.social) December 12, 2025 at 1:54 PM
Immigration lawyer Jared McClain later noted on social media that, in response to a class-action suit arguing against indiscriminate workplace raids, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) argued that an Alabama construction worker, who was kept in handcuffs even after presenting multiple REAL IDs to agents, had still not done enough to prove his citizenship, according to the federal officers.
"This is the official policy—not a one-off," McClain said.
Aaron Reichlin Melnick, a senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, said the filing was "official confirmation that ICE HSI believes that it can, in fact, detain US citizens for immigration checks, and keep them handcuffed while they have their biometrics run."
"That is a chilling assertion," he said.
ProPublica found in October that at least 170 Americans have been detained by immigration agents, sometimes for days, with some having been "dragged, tackled, beaten, tased, and shot."
But months after the report was published, top administration officials—including Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem—continue to emphatically deny that any US citizens have been detained during the second Trump administration.
At a House Homeland Security Committee hearing on Thursday, Noem abruptly left before Democrats could grill her on reports that citizens had been arrested, claiming she had to speak at a different committee hearing. Reports later found that the hearing had already been cancelled, leading to accusations that Noem misled Congress.
In response to Bovino's assertion that REAL IDs are not immigration documents, Nicole Foy, a reporter at ProPublica, told the Border Patrol commander: "We've been trying to request an interview with you for months now about the enforcement operations you're leading and the detention of US citizens."
"Why does a US citizen need to carry immigration documents?" she asked. At press time, Bovino had not publicly responded to Foy's question.
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