Dropping a mass veto threat, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed hundreds of bills over the weekend, including ones that make solar panels more attractive for homeowners, require sex offenders to report their status when applying for jobs that involve children and empower airports to take measures to prevent bird strikes from taking down jets.
The governor vetoed legislation that would have nearly doubled the annual $333 fee lobster fishermen pay when they renew commercial lobster fishing permits, as well as a pair of bills that would have made it difficult to build public works projects such as power lines and highways in state parks.
"The governor had an unprecedented opportunity to prevent our state park system from becoming a path of least resistance for development," said Elizabeth Goldstein, president of the California State Parks Foundation. "Instead, he has encouraged those who would seek these parks for potential development schemes."
Schwarzenegger had threatened to veto the 700 or so bills on his desk en masse unless lawmakers came up with a comprehensive solution to the state's water shortage, triggered by three years of drought and court-ordered restrictions on pumping from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.
But late Sunday, the governor said lawmakers had made significant progress toward addressing the water problem and announced a flurry of last-minute bill approvals.
One of those was Assembly Bill 920, authored by Assemblyman Jared Huffman, D-San Rafael, which removes a barrier many conservationists contended was holding back a tidal-wave shift from fossil-fuel power to green energy.
Homeowners who install solar panels have been able to claim credits against their utility bills if, in some months, they generate more power on their roofs than they use.
But, if at the end of a year, their rooftop panels generated more power than they used, the local utility claimed that surplus electricity free of charge.
Under Assembly Bill 920, that will change next year.
The local utility ---- Southern California Edison in Riverside County and San Diego Gas & Electric Co. in San Diego County ---- will have to pay homeowners for extra power.
The legislation requires the California Public Utilities Commission to establish rates for reimbursement.
"Instead of writing a check to your utility company, you'll be getting a check back," said Bernadette Del Chiaro, a clean energy advocate with Environment California.
Mike McGrady of Carlsbad, who installed a 7-kilowatt solar unit on his south-facing roof a few years ago, applauded the move.
"That's exciting," McGrady said. "That, with the additional federal tax rebates, is really going to help spur this on."
Had the law been in place a few years ago, he would have built a bigger system.
"I would have covered my entire roof with it," McGrady said.
But, like many homeowners, he scaled the project to provide less than his total electricity requirements ---- about 77 percent ---- to purposely avoid giving free electricity to the utility.
The governor moved California another step toward widespread green power on Monday, when he inked an agreement with U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar that aims to smooth the way for designating zones on federal land in California where commercial solar and wind power projects can locate.
Some of the world's biggest solar plants are proposed for Imperial County east of San Diego and the desert of eastern Riverside County.
Also over the weekend, Schwarzenegger signed:
-- Assembly Bill 307, by Assemblyman Paul Cook, R-Yucca Valley, which requires sex offenders to disclose their registration status to prospective employees when they apply for jobs in which they work alone and provide goods or services to children.
-- Senate Bill 481, by Sen. Dave Cox, R-Fair Oaks, which permits killing birds around airports to prevent some from being sucked into jet engines and taking down commercial aircraft. The legislation was inspired by the miraculous landing of U.S. Airways Flight 1542 in the Hudson River in January after striking birds on takeoff from New York.
-- Assembly Bill 242, by Assemblyman Pedro Nava, D-Santa Barbara, in another piece of legislation inspired by a national headline ---- in this case, pro football player Michael Vick's dogfighting conviction. Under the law, people can be sentenced to a year in jail and ordered to pay a $5,000 fine just for attending a dog fight.
-- Senate Bill 19, by Sen. Joe Simitian, D-Palo Alto, which eliminates the state prohibition against grading teachers in part by the performance of their students. The legislation was one of several bills aimed at putting California in position to compete for $4.35 billion in Race to the Top school grant money through the federal stimulus package.
As for the bird control bill, it garnered the support of Los Angeles World Airports, owner of Ontario International Airport, and the San Diego County Regional Airport Authority, operator of San Diego International Airport, or Lindbergh Field.
"While bird strikes resulting in damage to aircraft ... are extremely rare at San Diego International Airport, we supported SB 481," authority spokeswoman Diana Lucero wrote in an e-mail. "It will resolve a conflict between federal regulations and state law and potentially increase safety at California airports."
Call staff writer Dave Downey at 951-676-4315, ext. 2623.
