Utilities Would Pay 50% To Underground, Rat Poison Would Be Banned Under 2 Bills
Written by 991KBU on March 18, 2019
A pair of proposed bills that could dramatically affect Malibu are being considered by state legislators in Sacramento.
First … an Orange County state senator proposes a law that would require public electric utilities to put up half of the money necessary to underground powerlines in the states most hazardous fire risk areas.
Local governments would have to put up the other half.
Malibu would be an obvious candidate for that … but the problem would be that Malibu is frequently a victim of fires that start in other political jurisdictions.
Senate Bill 584 would also require that power lines burned down in high fire risk districts be replaced with underground powerlines.
The proposed law was authored by State Sen. John Moorlach … a Republican from Orange County.
And state representative Richard Bloom of Malibu.. a Democrat … proposes to ban rat poison statewide.
His bill would ban rat poison that uses anti-coagulates … which prevent blood from clotting and eventually chokes rodents to death with their own blood.
As Malibu residents well know … , those poisons travel up the food chain and kill cougars and other predators … such as hawks and condors.
Bloom’s bill … Assembly Bill 1877 … would allow exemptions to allow rat poison to be used if the Department of Public Health determines there is a public health emergency … or if the California Environmental Protection Agency determines there is an environmental emergency.
Both the power line undergrounding bill and the entire rat poison measure can fairly be said to be facing uphill battles in Sacramento.
