Welcome to my legislative website. It is an honor to have this opportunity to serve my community. Please do not hesitate to contact me with any comments, questions or concerns that you may have with the district—or with your state government.
Assessment looks at total loss to the General Fund as a result of tax expenditures allowed to taxpayers
California Globe, Chris Micheli
On February 10, Assemblyman Bill Quirk (D-Hayward) introduced Assembly Bill 545 to have the University of California conduct research on California’s tax expenditures. The bill would add Section 42 to the Revenue and Taxation Code.
AB 545 would request the Regents of the University of California to perform a comprehensive assessment of major tax expenditures. Because of the UC’s constitutional autonomy, the Legislature can only ask the UC Regents to do something, rather than mandate them.
Wildfires and smoke have ravaged large parts of California, sea level rise is threatening the golden coast’s viability and drought is looming in the future.
“We're in a race against the clock when it comes to climate change,” said state Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco. “This is not a problem that we can take our time and solve little step by little step. We are in a race against the clock, in terms of what the future of this planet is going to be.”
But for the first time in four years action on climate change is gaining momentum on the federal level — President Joe Biden signed multiple executive orders related to the crisis in his first week in office. Meanwhile California has held ground on climate policies as the Trump Administration rolled back environmental rules and regulations.
This year, California broke a sad record. We had the largest wildfire in modern history, burning more than 1 million acres over seven counties and sending choking smoke across the state. Recently, 90,000 people were evacuated from their homes in Southern California. The untold level of destruction has yet to be fully quantified or understood. One thing we do know is that the wildfires and COVID-19 have underscored the growing complexity of California’s disaster landscape.
Assemblymember Quirk and Fremont Councilmember Teresa Keng helped direct a donation of facemasks to Tiburcio Vasquez Health Center (TVHC), a safety-net community clinic, and pillar, in southern Alameda County. The facemask donation came from the Taiwanese Chamber of Commerce of San Francisco Bay Area who through fundraising efforts managed to acquire 5,000 facemasks, which makes for a generous donation.
"I want to thank the Taiwanese Chamber of Commerce of San Francisco Bay Area for their incredible donation to Tiburcio Vazquez," said Assemblymember Quirk, "our health clinics are at the frontlines of this pandemic and having these extra facemasks for their medical staff and patients will make all the difference."
SACRAMENTO — As California pushes to end the sale of gas-powered cars by 2035, a rivalry over which types of green vehicles will replace the internal combustion engine is playing out.
The dominant player is clearly battery-powered electric cars like Teslas and Chevy Bolts. That’s for obvious reasons: California already has about 450,000 plug-in electric cars on the road and more than 67,300 charging ports.
But some legislators and energy experts say the state must not forget to invest in another technology in its infancy, hydrogen fuel-cell cars, which could help serve drivers who cannot easily charge at home.
It’s a fuel that produces zero carbon emissions and can be stored for use during surges in electricity demand
BILL QUIRK, Mercury News
There is a lesson to be learned about California’s electrical power system from the record heat that scorched the Western United States in August – and it’s not the trumped-up assertions that the need for limited rolling blackouts was the result of this state’s commitment to renewable power.
The climate extremes we experienced – 130 degrees in Death Valley, the tinder-box condition of our wildlands – put an exclamation point on the imperative to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Acting on an order from Gov. Gavin Newsom, the California Independent System Operator, the California Energy Commission and the Public Utilities Commission last week released a preliminary root-cause analysis into the first rolling blackouts in California since 2001.
The heads of the three organizations overseeing the state’s energy issues appeared before sometimes skeptical lawmakers in Sacramento this week to discuss back-to-back days in August in which California experienced statewide blackouts — and a number of near-misses that have occurred since.
“We’re pulling on every lever we have,” said Marybel Batjer, president of the California Public Utilities Commission. “I can’t say that I will pledge to you, I guarantee you, this will not happen again. I’m going to do my damnedest to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
Jason Barbose, Western States Policy Manager: Union of Concerned Scientists (Blog)
With climate change here and getting worse, we must adapt our lives to live with it. One change we must make is how we account for climate change in infrastructure projects. When we fail to appropriately consider climate change in the design and maintenance of infrastructure the results are not pretty: dams break, the power goes out, roads and bridges flood, and groundwater wells dry up.
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