Yee Bill on Pipeline Safety Moves to Senate Floor

A bill by state Sen. Leland Yee that would on their pipelines will go to the Senate floor for a full vote next week, along with several other pieces of legislation.

His bills on pipeline safety, curbing life sentences without parole for youths, school curriculum, corporate tax accountability, online voter registration and open government passed the Senate Appropriations Committee today.

The most hotly contested is a proposal to terminate life sentences for minors. Yee, D-San Francisco, says the bill, if enacted, “would bring California in line with the rest of the world.”

It would enable courts to review such cases after 10 years, potentially allowing some youthful offenders to receive a new minimum sentence of 25 years to life. The bill would require the offender to be working towards rehabilitation in order to submit a petition for consideration of the new sentence.

Law enforcements and victim rights groups have lobbied against its passage.

Other measures authored by Yee include:

• A bill, SB 216, that would require utility companies to install automatic shutoff valves on California gas pipelines. It is expected to pass easily, a Yee aide said. 
• A bill that would maintain the quality and content of social studies textbooks, a response to a Texas Board of Education vote to allow sweeping changes to school books by eliminating references to slavery in lieu of “the Atlantic triangular trade,” elevating the role of Sen. Joseph McCarthy, and minimizing the role of Thomas Jefferson, who had argued for a separation of church and state.
• A bill that would hold corporations accountable for job creation promises in exchange for tax breaks—expected to pass despite opposition by the chamber of commerce.
• A bill that would allow citizens throughout California to . 
• A bill that would require public agencies to post meeting agendas and report actions.

If the last bill is approved by two-thirds of the Legislature, it will go before voters during the next statewide ballot. Yee’s office says he drafted the measure after “years in which fundamentally important provisions of the Ralph M. Brown Act—the state’s main open government law—have been suspended or threatened during state fiscal crisis.”

The Senate will vote on the bills beginning Tuesday and concluding Friday.