CA DIR Contractor Workshop – The California Department of Industrial Relations invites the industry to participate in a “Public Works Workshop” scheduled for June 12 at 9:30 a.m. The webinar will provide guidance and updates regarding key public works compliance requirements for contractors and subcontractors. The topics include apprenticeship compliance, prevailing wage, public works contractor registration, certified payroll reporting requirements and a question and answer period. Register for the webinar by clicking this link. 

TC Releases Next Newsletter – Transportation California (TC) initiated an effort to educate and share information with the industry on the decline of transportation infrastructure funding in the spring. The next installment in the series reviews the analysis behind the proposal to look at replacing the gas tax with a road user charge. It was released last week. TC retained a research firm that analyzed different funding proposals through a variety of factors, including simplicity, equity, efficiency, sustainability, security and integration. You can read the report here.

AB 1777 (Garcia) Fails – There have been many different strategies that California has used to curb air emissions in the state. As anyone who has been around the state awhile knows, California’s air quality has massively improved over the decades. But for some environmentalists, it’s not enough. One effort is for the government to regulate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions as if they are pollutants. The Obama Administration did this in 2009 but the Trump Administration eliminated the effort earlier in the year. SCCA wrote that California, which has a strong tendency to always do things its own way, might try to pass a bill for the state to regulate GHGs as a pollutant. That effort, AB 1777, which could have regulated construction equipment emissions on project sites, did not pass the Assembly last week and is now effectively dead. This is a big win for the industry.

Senate Rejects SAF – As we previously mentioned, Governor Newsom proposed to redirect nearly $300 million in diesel tax funding to a refinery that produces sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). That $300 million would normally be sent to transportation infrastructure projects. Apparently, the market is not yet readily available to economically sustain SAF production and the refinery might close. This is a troubling way to redirect transportation funding away from transportation infrastructure projects, a cornerstone of the funding program. Late last week, one of the Senate Budget Subcommittees recommended the Governor’s proposal to be rejected without prejudice. While the proposal is currently dead in the Senate, it could still be added by the legislature after negotiations with the Governor. The legislature has until June 15 to pass the state budget. SCCA is opposed to the proposal.

CARB is at it Again – The California Air Resources Board's sole mission is to clean the air. Practically speaking, under this administration and under the leadership of its staff, it has pushed the envelope to pass draconian rules that sacrifice affordability for, sometimes, questionable environmental goals. Now CARB is looking to backdoor its Advanced Clean Fleet (ACF) rule after it backed off from it last year. Essentially, the rule attempts to accelerate the adoption of transition of medium- and heavy-duty fleets to zero-emission. But CARB, needing a waiver from the USEPA, rescinded its request to implement the ACF. Now, however, CARB is pursuing a proposal to require local agencies to only contract with companies that have ACF compliant fleets. It’s a stretch but they are moving forward. SCCA is working closely with the Construction Industry Air Quality Coalition (CIAQC) to defeat it. You can find CARB’s proposal here.

CA’s Super-commuters – It’s an unenviable designation. About one in eleven California commuters spend at least an hour driving to work. The Public Policy Institute of California released one of their “blog posts” that dives into the data it found when polling California commuters. It’s an insightful read and justifies the need for an efficient and safe highway system.