2020 California Environmental Assembly

WELCOME – Main Lecture Hall

Howard Penn, Executive Director, Planning & Conservation League
Graham Brownstein, Board Chair, Planning & Conservation League
Rachael Salcido, Professor of Law, McGeorge School of Law

OPENING PLENARY SESSION (Main Hall): Meeting California’s Climate Challenge
Climate change threatens California’s natural resources as never before. At the same time California needs to continue to demonstrate global leadership reducing greenhouse gas emissions and achieving climate neutrality in the coming decades. The Natural Resources Agency is on the frontlines of battling wildfires, navigating droughts and floods, conserving important natural resources, protecting biodiversity, and preparing for sea-level rise. Natural Resources Secretary Wade Crowfoot will address these unprecedented climate challenges and share how state leaders are working together to address them.

Speaker - Secretary Wade Crowfoot

Reaction to Governor Newsom's Water Resilience Portfolio

In April Governor Newsom directed his administration to recommend a suite of priorities and actions to build a climate-resilient water system and ensure healthy waterways. To develop this Water Resilience Portfolio, his agencies have identified a suite of complementary actions to ensure safe and dependable water supplies, flood protection, and healthy waterways for the state’s communities, economy, and environment.

Now that the Portfolio has been released you will have the chance to interact with some of the leaders in several sectors to discuss what people like, what they do not like and where we go from here.

Moderator - Jonas Minton, Senior Water Policy Advisor, Planning and Conservation League

Panelists
Marguerite Patil, Special Assistant to the General Manager, Contra Costa Water District
Alex Biering, Government Affairs and Communications Manager, Friant Water Authority
Eric Wesselman, Executive Director, Friends of the River
Jennifer Clary, Programs Manager, Clean Water Action

Land Use and Transportation: How to Achieve Our Housing and Climate Goals Together

California’s new Governor has put forth extremely ambitious housing goals for the state, 3.5 million homes by 2025. PCL believes it is imperative that the State’s housing goals are aligned with California’s goals for climate, health, and equity, and achieving all of these goals holistically in addressing our housing shortage demands consideration of where our housing is and who it will serve, not solely the sheer number of units we can produce.

PCL is actively working with cross-interest partners around the State with an aim to inform proposals for how to better align our housing and transportation investment with all of these goals. This panel will discuss the multiple recommendations that have emerged.

Moderator - Matthew Baker, Policy Director, Planning and Conservation League

Panelists
Chanell Fletcher, Executive Director, ClimatePlan
Darwin Masoovi, Deputy Secretary of Environmental Policy and Housing Coordination, California State Transportation Agency
Natalie Kuffel, Land Use Counsel, Governor's Office of Planning and Research
Craig Shields, Section Chief, California Department of Housing and Community Development

Click here for Panel Materials

Litigation Against Environmental Rollbacks Under The Trump Administration

The scope and content of the “deregulation” efforts of the Trump administration have been on-going, seemingly relentless and, in many respects, unprecedented in modern American history. Concurrently, states like California and a wide range of national environmental organizations have filed a wide range of lawsuits, with the California Attorney General’s office having approximately 60 lawsuits pending against the federal government, many of which are challenging specific environmental rollbacks.

In this context, Governor Gavin Newsom, recently vetoed Senate Bill 1, by Toni Atkins, which was designed to be a comprehensive “backfill” for protecting the environment. This assembly panel will discuss key, pending litigation against the federal government and explore evolving options for protecting our environment.

Moderator - Jan Chatten-Brown, Founder and Co-Owner, Chatten-Brown, Carstens & Minteer, LLP

Panelists
Michael Wall, Litigation Codirector, Natural Resouces Defense Council
David Zonana, Supervising Deputy Attorney, Office of the Attorney General
Kassie Siegel, Climate Law Institute Director, Center for Biological Diversity
Stacey Geis, Managing Attorney, EarthJustice

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Phasing Out Oil and Gas: Is it Legal to Keep it in the Ground?

As California works to achieve carbon neutrality and address concerns relating to health, safety, air quality, water quality, and environmental justice associated with oil and gas production, many are advocating for a "managed" decline in production, rather than allowing market forces alone to determine where drilling phases out first, and where it is allowed to continue longest. This panel will discuss how the state of California is currently studying this issue and the landscape of policy options for beginning a managed phaseout.

Moderator - David Weiskopf, Senior Policy Advisor, NextGen Policy

Panelists
Ingrid Brostrom, Assistant Director, The Center on Race, Poverty & the Environment
Seth Shonkoff, Executive Director, PSE Healthy Energy
Brady McCarthy, Consultant, California State Assembly

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LUNCH SESSION (Main Hall): Among the dragons: The spiritual path in the climate crisis.
Grief, rage, and despair are familiar, but we can also rely on uncertainty, sweetness, and be sustained by a kind of light that is in trees and birds and even in the darkest moments. We have the capacity and also an obligation to love the world as we work to change it. That love is also something to pass down. A crisis can last for centuries and during that time, it’s important that we care for ourselves. To do this we have to value forests and art and beauty and let our minds be free and natural like national parks. Join our lunch keynote speaker to learn how to stay opportunistic and hopeful in times of uncertainty.

Speaker - John Tarrant

The Impact of Climate Change on California Agriculture: What It Means to All of Us

Climate change is likely to have a profound impact on California agriculture. A shrinking Sierra snowpack would mean less irrigation water even as rising temperatures will necessitate more water to keep crops alive. Increased temperatures would also put additional stress on farmworkers and dairy cattle while limiting where mainstay fruit crops, including citrus and wine grapes, can be grown. The panelists in this workshop will elaborate on all these potential impacts as well as adaptation and mitigation measures.

Moderator - Jenny Lester Moffitt, Undersecretary, California Department of Food and Agriculture

Panelists
William R. Horwath, Chair, Department of Land, Air & Natural Resources

Tapan P. Pathak, Cooperative Extension Specialist, U.C. Merced

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Securing the Future of California's Living Diversity

In 2018, California launched the Biodiversity Initiative –a historic commitment to saving the web of life that underpins our health and prosperity. Already, this initiative is reshaping how we build a better future --500 California biodiversity scientists have signed “A Charter to Secure the Future of California’s Native Biodiversity,” agencies are urgently scoping how they can contribute to the change, and Governor Newsom’s administration recently budgeted $18.6M toward ambitious biodiversity projects such as the effort to seed bank all of California’s plants and end plant extinction in the Golden State. This panel will explore how we can ensure resilient biodiversity in the face of climate change.

Moderator - Kimberly Tenggardjaja, Biodiversity Coordinator, California Department of Fish and Wildlife

Panelists
Kim Delfino, Executive Director, Defenders of Wildlife
Charles Striplen, Environmental Scientist, North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board
Dan Gluesenkamp, Executive Director, California Native Plant Society

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CEQA 2.0: The Effort to Resolve Longstanding Controversies About CEQA

During the summer of 2018, PCL formed an advisory group of CEQA experts from around the State to begin developing legislation to streamline CEQA. The group consists of lawyers and one planner, whose daily professional work involves representing a broad range of interests in the State.

Over the course of 16+ months, the volunteer group met for 12 full-day meetings and addressed multiple proposed amendments which now make up a bill pending in the legislature. Today’s panel will discuss the rationale behind the proposed changes and will welcome the audience’s comments.

Moderator - Kevin Johnson, Attorney, Kevin Johnson APLC

Panelists
Jim Moose, Senior Partner, Remy Moose Manley LLP
Susan Brandt Hawley, Attorney, Brandt-Hawley Law Group
Douglas Carstens, Managing Partner, Chatten-Brown, Carstens & Minteer LLP

Health and Environmental Justice: Telling the Story of Climate Change’s Impacts on Our Communities

Join our lively panel bringing to life what the dry climate science has been telling us for decades. We will tell the stories of the health impacts of climate change and magnify the immediate health co-benefits our families and communities will enjoy as we transition to clean, renewable energy to fuel our societies.

Our panel discussion will illustrate how the universally shared value of human health-- particularly for the next generation--may be our most powerful tool for unlocking political gridlock in order to open the door to swift climate solutions. We hope you join us for this conversation telling the story of climate change’s health impacts as an important tool to build social will for health-protecting climate action.

Moderator - Sarah Schear, Co-Founder, California Climate Health Now, Medical Student, UCSF School of Medicine

Panelists
Martha Arguello, Executive Director, Physicians for Social Responsibility-Los Angeles
William Barrett, Director of Clean Air Advocacy, American Lung Association
Katie Valenzuela, Policy and Political Director, California Environmental Justice Alliance
Ashley McClure, MD, FACP

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EMERGING LEADERS PANEL
Hope for a Resilient Future: Young Leaders Share Their Vision
As the defining issue of this era, climate change will impact our communities for generations to come. Young people will soon inherit this colossal burden and will be asked to sustain, accelerate, and expand our efforts while grappling with the worsening impacts of climate change. We have seen young climate activists around the world mobilize to make their voices heard, demanding leaders to take urgent action to protect frontline communities and future generations. Despite the uphill battle they face, youth activists and young professionals continue to demonstrate the level of commitment, courage, and creativity necessary to conquer the challenges we face as a society. In short, we have a lot that we can learn from our youth.

Join us for a closing panel discussion with CivicSpark Fellows to hear their stories and vision for how we can rapidly decarbonize our economy and advance equitable climate solutions. We hope you will leave this session inspired and with a renewed sense of hope and commitment to creating a climate-resilient future for all.

Moderator - Julia Kim, Director of Climate and Energy Programs, Local Government Commission

Panelists
Ali Lehman, CivicSpark Fellow
Kiara Ryan, CivicSpark Fellow
Laura Emmons, CivicSpark Fellow