AB 1234 requires officials to give reports on meetings attended at public expense at the next meeting of the governing body. This is my report.

On March 30, 2007, I attended an all day meeting of the Environmental Policy Committee of the League of California Cities, on which Tony Thurmond and I serve, in Ontario, CA.

The principal item of business was to review the draft Climate Change Policy and Guiding Principles developed by the League’s Climate Change Working Group. With the passage of AB 32 in 2006, the U.S. Conference of Mayors “U.S. Mayor’s Climate Change Protection Agreement” signed by 69 California mayors, and publication of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change “Climate Change 2007” this month, a flurry of proposed California legislation related to climate change is already in play, and the League of California Cities and its lobbyists need to be prepared to weigh in. The League remained neutral on AB 32.

Remarkably, several members of the Environmental Policy Committee argued that climate change and global warming are myths. However, the majority of the Committee adopted the draft report with minor changes. The biggest concern was with the prospect of unfunded mandates by the State that would impact cities.

The draft policy was also reviewed by the Housing, Community and Economic Development Policy Committee and the Transportation, Communication and Public Works Policy Committee, with mixed results. Ultimately, these differences will have to be worked out by the League’s directors.

In other business, the Committee reviewed the 25 X 25 initiative (25% biofuels by 2025) with some suspicion that it was a special interest effort by corporate agriculture to control the climate change initiative and did not address the potential impact on the food supply. No action was taken.

The Environmental Policy Committee will meet next in San Jose on June 29, 2007.