SACRAMENTO, California — State Sen. Bill Dodd, a Democrat from fire-ravaged Napa County, proposed legislation Wednesday on a cause pushed by Republicans for years without any luck: streamlining brush-clearing in the name of wildfire prevention.
Dodd’s bill, S.B. 1159, would require the California Natural Resources Agency secretary to consider exempting from the California Environmental Quality Act projects to cut back vegetation within 30 feet of a road to prevent a spark from catching fire.
Wildfire prevention and preparedness is gaining momentum in the Legislature as the risk of a climate change fueled wildfire — and the associated rise in insurance costs — increasingly hits progressive, urbanized areas in addition to conservative-leaning rural communities.
Dodd is a centrist Democrat in his last term who has made wildfire a priority.
