State Senate weighing in on Assembly member Mark Stone’s sea level rise adaptation bill

SACRAMENTO—A California State Senate committee is mulling over tweaks to Assembly Bill 552, which proposes to create a Coastal Adaptation, Access and Resilience Program as a response to sea level rise and climate change. Assembly member Mark Stone, D-Monterey Bay, introduced AB 552 in March; the bill made it out of the Assembly on May 22, thanks to a 63-12 vote in favor of the proposal. Stone’s bill would, if passed and signed into law, allocate at least 30 percent of California’s annual Tidelands Oil Reserves to adaptation and resilience to sea level rise and climate change, according to the Assembly member’s staff. “Coastal communities are already starting to experience the effects of climate change and we know that this is just the beginning of what we’ll be seeing in the coming years,” Stone said. “Investing in adaptation measures represents a commonsense way for the state to protect vulnerable habitat, property, and infrastructure.” Revenues for gas, mineral and oil extraction activities from Tidelands oil averaged $87.2 million annually for the past three years, according to Stone’s staff. “Since there is a clear nexus between the revenue source and the climate-related impacts that California’s coastal communities need to start preparing for,” a statement released by...