Senator Shannon Grove (R-Bakersfield) announced the passage of two bills to encourage the ethical use of energy in California.
Senate Bill 1087 which passed the Senate Energy Committee by a 17-0 vote will encourage the production of environmentally responsible oil which is produced in California.
Senate Bill 1239 passed the Senate Governmental Organization Committee by a 15-0 vote. This important bill would require that suppliers of electric vehicles to the State of California must certify that the raw materials, including cobalt and lithium, in zero-emission vehicles purchased by the state come from child-labor free mining enterprises.
“Most of the cobalt used in electric vehicle batteries is mined by children in the Congo, some as young as 6 years old,” said Senator Grove. “At a bare minimum, I think we can all agree forced child labor is wrong. California cannot continue to put their green energy goals ahead of the health and safety of children in foreign nations. My bill would ensure that we are ethically sourcing the cobalt that goes into the production of vehicles purchased by the state.”
On oil, California consumes 1.45 million barrels per day, only produces about 340,000 barrels of oil per day and imports the rest. About 45 percent of California’s oil imports come directly from the Amazon Rainforest in Ecuador, Brazil, Guyana, and Colombia. California should not be paying for the destruction of the Amazon Rainforest when all that oil could instead come from inside California, produced by responsible, accountable, and highly regulated California oil companies.
SB 1087 would implore the Legislature to realize that much of the crude oil imported into California comes from foreign nations with demonstrated human rights abuses, or foreign nations that have environmental standards lower than those in California. The measure would also require the Air Resources Board to report on its website the amount of particulate matter released into the air from the 600 tanker ships that import oil into the state in an effort to highlight the air quality impact from the state’s dependence on foreign oil.
“Much of the oil we import could be replaced by California’s in-state producers, providing California jobs, if we were allowed to expand production,” said Senator Grove. “Why would we import millions of barrels of oil from countries hostile to our values when we can produce oil right here under the world’s most stringent environmental regulations, while creating good paying jobs and improving our energy supply?”
In California, state government agencies are required to increase the number of zero emission vehicles (ZEV) within the state fleet to fifty percent of new purchases by 2024/25. Many of these new purchases will be electric vehicles with lithium-ion batteries that contain cobalt.
The cobalt needed for electric car batteries is currently mined primarily in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) where an estimated 200,000 people, including young children, endure terrible environmental and working conditions, including slave labor. Recognizing the prevalence of child labor in the mining of this mineral, in 2009 the U.S. Department of Labor placed cobalt ore from the DRC on its list of goods produced by child labor or forced labor. More than a decade later, child labor persists in cobalt production, raising risks for the entire lithium-ion battery supply chain.
SB 1239 simply requires that suppliers of electric vehicles to the State of California must certify that the raw materials, including cobalt and lithium, in zero-emission vehicles purchased by the state come from child-labor free mining enterprises.
Both bills will next be heard in the Senate Appropriations Committee in May.