Events are catching up to me.
Some of the items that I first listed on my campaign's goals section on my website in February are being addressed. One of the first events happened last March. I wanted to see battery chargers put on our highways to assist electric cars. In March, California reached a legal settlement with NRG Energy Company for $120 million to be paid over a four-year period. $100 million of this money is earmarked to put about 10,200 electric chargers on California roads.
I liked our local plastic bag ban so much, I proposed that the entire state try again to create such a ban. Soon afterwards, I learned that such a ban, now AB298, was starting to work its way through the Assembly. It passed (my opponent, Katcho Achadjian, voted against it), and it is now (August) in the Senate.
I wanted California to put an excise tax on soda at the same rate as wine. In July, the city of El Monte joined Richmond to propose a 1-cent an ounce tax on soda. A week later, Baldwin Park joined in. I also learned just recently that Bill Monning tried to pass a similar bill in the Assembly last year, but it failed. But perhaps the tide is turning on this issue.
I wished for more regulation of fracking. Now that is addressed in the new state budget.
I regretted the failure of the California Disclosure Act to pass last year in the Assembly and wanted to see it brought back. It is back as AB1648.
But there will still be plenty of things left for me to do.
