Californians don’t like secrecy in government. That’s why every
time a question of opening official records to the public goes
before the voters, it wins handily. That’s why the Ralph M. Brown
Act, a 1950s-era law banning most closed meetings of public boards,
remains one of this state’s most popular and respected restrictions
on elected officials and their appointees.
Californians don’t like secrecy in government. That’s why every time a question of opening official records to the public goes before the voters, it wins handily. That’s why the Ralph M. Brown Act, a 1950s-era law banning most closed meetings of public boards, remains one of this state’s most popular and respected restrictions on elected officials and their appointees.
Which leads to one major question in the growing controversy over an early July deal between the state’s leading smog-fighting agency and the two biggest railroads operating here: Why did they think a deal negotiated strictly in private with absolutely no public input would fly?
The agreement between the California Air Resources Board and the Union Pacific and Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad companies essentially guarantees no public benefits at all, while relieving most of the pressure on the railroad firms to clean up emissions from their many engines.
That pollution is no insignificant thing. Now that automotive emissions are considerably reduced, idling locomotives and other equipment at railroad yards are one of the leading remaining sources of smog in Southern California, the San Francisco Bay area and the Central Valley.
The new statewide deal calls for the railroads to eliminate “nonessential” idling and convert engines to cleaner-burning low-sulfur diesel fuel in 2007 – five years earlier than federal rules require. Sounds good, until you get to the next part of the agreement:
If the railroads don’t perform, they can get off with nothing more than fines – up to $400 for the first day of excessive idling in an urban railyard and $1,200 per day after the third day. There are also penalties of up to $40,000 per month for any railroad that doesn’t make required changes.
Essentially, that means railroads can’t be forced to clean up, but can buy their way out of any improvements for what amounts to pocket change for these multi-billion dollar corporations.
Most smog regulators have no trust for the railroads. They are “lousy corporate citizens,” Chino Mayor Dennis Yates, who represents San Bernardino County cities on the board of the South Coast Air Quality Management District, told one public meeting. The South Coast board regulates smog in Los Angeles, Orange and most of Riverside and San Bernardino counties. Yates added that the agreement allows the rail firms to back out of any commitments they’ve made.
At the same time, the deal keeps regional anti-smog agencies from passing new restrictions on railroad smog. If any one smog control district passes even one rule, the entire deal is cancelled.
“CARB’s agreement, reached in secret without input from the public or other air quality agencies, does not adequately protect public health,” reacted South Coast board chairman William Burke. “It will undermine a host of ongoing efforts to reduce locomotive emissions.”
This deal, in short, guarantees nothing to anyone but the railroads. It was approved just days after Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger nominated a longtime electricity industry lobbyist to chair the state air board.
Not exactly the kind of moves the governor or his appointees should be making if he wants to be known as the “environmental governor,” a tag he’s sometimes applies to himself.
Meanwhile, ARB officials offered only lame explanations for why they made the railroad deal in complete secrecy, not involving any of the local or regional anti-smog officials who deal with locomotive emissions daily.
Because federal law protects railroads from most state and local rule-making in the interest of promoting interstate commerce, they said, they had to make the best deal they could. They added their deal will avoid legal battles in which the railroads could have delayed any improvements for years.
“We don’t see how we could have done much better,” Michael Scheible, the board executive officer, told one reporter.
But others plainly think the deal was nowhere near good enough. And the explanation that it had to be worked out in private won’t fly with most residents of smoggy areas.
“They cut a backroom deal,” Barry Wallerstein, executive officer of the South Coast board, told a reporter. “That’s something we would never do.”
The officials who made this deal are all appointees of a governor who promised his administration would be the most open in history. Which means this agreement should be reopened immediately and subjected to the public scrutiny it ought to have gotten from the start.
