Capitol Alert

Jerry Brown's administration says it will support a Canadian company's effort to vaporize garbage and turn it into electricity in Monterey County, despite concerns raised by environmentalists.

Plasco Energy Group's $175 million project is at the center of a regulatory dispute over gasification, an emerging technology in which garbage, under intense heat, is converted into a synthetic fuel used to generate electricity.

At issue is whether the Plasco project qualifies as a renewable energy project under state law. The designation is critical to the project's financing, Plasco says, because it will allow it to sell electricity at a premium to utilities that must buy one-third of their electricity from renewable sources by 2020.

The Department of Resources, Recycling and Recovery said under Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2010 that the Plasco facility could be considered a renewable energy project. But the department reversed its decision last month, rescinding its original opinion while planning an overall review of how it evaluates so-called "waste-to-energy" projects.

Environmentalists had protested the state's original interpretation of the law. They called the gasification technology unproven and said it would release toxic contaminants into the air.

On June 1, the Brown administration suggested it will step in on Plasco's behalf.

In a letter to the company, Nancy McFadden, a senior adviser to Gov. Jerry Brown, said Brown's office "will be supportive of legislation during the current session to allow Plasco's project to proceed on a pilot basis and be considered an eligible renewable energy resource under state law."

She added a hand-printed note: "We can make this work."

U.S. Surgeon General Regina Benjamin was in Sacramento on Wednesday to talk up wellness.

About 70 California health advocates and others were on hand at the California Museum as Benjamin unveiled the National Prevention Council's new action plan aimed at helping all Americans stay healthy at all stages of life.

"Health does not occur in the doctor's office or hospitals alone," Benjamin told them. "It also occurs where we work, where we learn, where we play."

All 17 federal departments and agencies on the council will be combining efforts for the first time to reach goals such as increasing tobacco-free environments as well as access to healthy, affordable foods. Benjamin also pointed to the Environmental Protection Agency's work on enforcing the Clear Air Act and preventing asthma.

The plan, which complements efforts already under way, is meant to tackle obesity, tobacco use, health disparities among population groups, chronic disease and other issues. It stresses empowering people themselves, encouraging healthy and safe community environments, increasing preventive services and eliminating health disparities among population groups.

Some examples include businesses running carpool programs to cut air pollution, communities setting up diabetes prevention programs, health care professionals using social media to encourage healthy living, and health care providers hiring more qualified staff from minority groups.

After Benjamin spoke, panelists discussed the importance of getting healthy lunches in schools and eliminating health disparities so people of color are not more likely to be obese or have chronic conditions than the population as a whole.

Others stressed the importance of youth in any health movement.

"We see young people not as a problem," said Olis Simmons, the founder of the Oakland's Youth UpRising. "We see young people as our partners in changing the community."

The California State Association of Counties, whose support Gov. Jerry Brown has relied upon since taking office last year, immediately slammed a Democratic plan Wednesday to take $250 million that had gone to local governments under deals with now-defunct redevelopment agencies.

Counties had long-standing "pass-through" agreements with redevelopment agencies to receive a share of property tax dollars each year. CSAC Executive Director Paul McIntosh said Wednesday that past agreements are still legally valid and should still be upheld.

"I'm not sure how they can suspend legally binding agreements on contracts," McIntosh said Wednesday of Democratic lawmakers. CSAC sent a letter (PDF) this afternoon to the Legislature expressing its opposition.

Brown did not include the $250 million in his budget. President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, said he believes the money should be divided up like any other property tax dollars among schools and local governments. He said counties have benefited generally by the elimination of redevelopment agencies, suggesting they should not complain about this loss of funds.

California's budget benefits by any additional dollars that go to schools because it reduces the state's burden. Lawmakers will not pass a bill stating that this money is theirs, but just assume it as one revenue source that helps erase the $15.7 billion deficit.

"This occurs by operation of law," said Steinberg, an attorney. "We don't take an affirmative act to appropriate the money. That's what occurs."

McIntosh said counties have already included this money in their budgets for the next fiscal year. He said Yolo County, for instance, had an agreement for $5.5 million, equal to nearly one-tenth of its $56 million general fund.

Forty-three Capitol demonstrators were arrested Wednesday after they and hundreds of others crowded around the rotunda chanting protests against proposed cuts to homecare services for those with disabilities or special needs.

A small cadre of California Highway Patrol officers escorted the protesters from the scene, ending a loud demonstration organized by the Service Employees International Union, which represents workers who provide in-home support services.

During the lengthy union protest, demonstrators shouted chants loud enough to be heard through much of the Capitol, including, "Jerry Brown -- shame on you!" and "hey, hey, ho, ho -- budget cuts have got to go!"

Violators were cited and released on two misdemeanors -- demonstrating without a permit and obstructing or interfering with the use of state property, CHP Officer Sean Kennedy said.

Officers removed the offenders without incident, escorting them to a nearby committee room, where they were detained briefly. Those who came to the Capitol planning to be arrested for civil disobedience wore red armbands.

As CHP warned protesters to disperse, Bonita Munoz, a 56-year-old Sacramento caregiver, told the crowd that she was willing to be arrested for the cause - "to save the cuts from our clients, so our clients won't be homeless."

Charles Myers, a 49-year-old Sacramentan who suffers from cerebral palsy and chronic arthritis, said that "I need my homecare. If I don't have homecare, what would I do?"

The Legislature is expected to close a multibillion-dollar shortfall by adopting a new state budget Friday.

Photo caption: California Highway Patrol officers arrest Arminda Sanchez, of Napa, at the state Capitol as she and a group of IHSS workers and clients where arrested while protesting in the Capitol Rotunda on Wednesday, June 13, 2012. Photo and video by Hector Amezcua

* Updated at 4:25 p.m. with a firm count of arrestees, 43, and confirmation that they were cited for two misdemeanors.

Two new political reforms - a "top-two" primary election and redistricting by an independent commission - "disrupted established incumbents" in June 5 balloting, the Public Policy Institute of California concludes, and "the political establishment suffered some defeats" but the impacts were not dramatic.

The PPIC study contrasts what happened in the 2012 primary, using various measures of political patterns, with what happened in the five previous election cycles.

While outcomes in 153 congressional and legislative districts were markedly different in many respects, PPIC researchers Eric McGhee and Daniel Krimm write, "All incumbents who ran this year advanced to the fall campaign, and all but four of them finished in first place."

Some of those incumbents, however, will either face each other in November, thanks to the redrawn districts, or must overcome challenges from within their own parties. Most notably, Southern California Congressmen Brad Sherman and Howard Berman spent millions in their duel and by finishing 1-2 in the top-two primary, will duke it out again in the fall.

In a freshly updated budget plan, legislative Democrats showed Wednesday how they replace more than $1 billion in Gov. Jerry Brown's cuts to programs for the poor with a lower reserve and accounting changes.

Democrats now want a $544 million reserve, just over half of Brown's proposed $1.05 billion rainy-day fund and on par with last year's amount. They believe the state can gain $330 million through different accounting for K-14 education funds, as well as $250 million more than Brown projected from tax dollars that once flowed to defunct redevelopment agencies.

They also capture $50 million more than Brown did from a multi-state settlement with banks over mortgage abuses.

In a Capitol press conference, Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg and Assembly Speaker John A. Pérez stressed that their budget meets Brown's requirements of being balanced over the next three fiscal years and then produces a surplus in 2015-16. They emphasized how close their proposal is to Brown's, but said they did not want to cut as deeply into the safety net.

"I strongly believe that the differences between the governor's proposal and our proposal are bridgeable," Pérez said. "Frankly, we're not only on the same page as the governor, we're in the same paragraph."

One tiny word can make all the difference.

And one slip of a finger might remain in print for years without correction.

Buried deep in 55 pages of California Senate rules, for example, is a big smile for writing perfectionists.

Here it is, a sentence that expands upon a rule that each Senate select committee terminates upon adjournment of the regular session in which it was created:

"In deciding whether to re-establish a select committee established in a previous regular session, the Committee on Rules shall consider the extent to which the select committee successfully achieved its assigned objections."

Surely, it meant "objectives."

Objections, anyone?

Dan Walters says the increasing number of Latinos in California could change the political landscape.

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See other Dan Walters Daily clips here.

VIDEO: Dan Walters, in today's video report, says that California's growing number of Latinos could change the state's political landscape.

There's nothing like a budget deadline to bring political theater to the Capitol.

Recipients of In-Home Supportive Services and their caregivers are gearing up for a rally, assembling early to make signs and hang banners before gathering on the south steps at 10:30 a.m. to urge lawmakers to pass "a better alternative" to program cuts, as a news release puts it.

IHSS organizers also anticipate an attempt around noon to take over the rotunda. Ten demonstrators were arrested Tuesday after an officer warned that they would be arrested if they remained in a Capitol hallway, Torey Van Oot reports in this post.

At the same time as the rotunda action, organizers say 5,000 protesters will link arms around the exterior of the Capitol building in what they're calling a "circle of care."

Home-care advocates aren't the only protesters today. Members of the California Federation of Teachers join students to decry what they're calling "the death of education" via budget cuts, complete with a hearse and a coffin carrying grievance cards signed by Los Angeles Community College District students. That event starts at 11 a.m. over by the fish pond.

As Friday's deadline approaches, here's a provision in Gov. Jerry Brown's budget that hasn't drawn much notice: A proposal to cut off thousands of retirees who return to work for the state. Jon Ortiz and Phillip Reese have details in today's Bee.

While protesters rally at the Capitol, U.S. Surgeon General Regina M. Benjamin will be a few blocks away at the California Museum announcing a new national initiative that aims to keep Americans healthy. State schools chief Tom Torlakson will join Benjamin at a roundtable discussion about the plan. The event starts at 10:30 a.m. at 1020 O St. Learn more at this link.