opposed the bills,<\/a> arguing that it could drive up prices for companies and, ultimately, consumers.<\/p>\nA June 17 fire at cold storage operator Lineage\u2019s 500,000-square-foot food warehouse left neighbors dealing with noxious smoke and an influx of rats and flies. <\/p>\n
Senate Bill 716 by Sen. Mar\u00eda Elena Durazo (D-Los Angeles) raises the amount of fines local agencies can levy against companies that pose a threat to health and safety. Operators could now face fines of up to $50,000 per violation.<\/p>\n
Durazo said current rules limit the fines to just a few hundred or thousand dollars.<\/p>\n
The law includes several exemptions, including for institutional and educational firms.<\/p>\n
Another bill, Assembly Bill 817 by Assemblymember Mark Gonz\u00e1lez (D-Los Angeles), prohibits the approval of a building permit for a cold storage facility unless the owner or operator of the facility creates a contingency fund, or has insurance, that can be used for emergency needs for locals. <\/p>\n
Both laws apply locally in the short term, but don\u2019t go into effect statewide until July 1, 2028.<\/p>\n
Lineage hasn\u2019t responded to requests for comment about the bills. <\/p>\n
Greg Lehmkuhl, president and chief executive of Lineage, said in an earnings call last month that the company has committed $3.3 million to the community in the aftermath of the fire.<\/p>\n
Newsom, in a statement Sunday, said that the fire showed \u201cthe lasting impact a major facility emergency can have on a community.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThese laws strengthen the tools, resources and accountability needed to protect residents and help communities respond when emergencies happen,\u201d Newsom said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gov. Gavin Newsom on Sunday signed bills that create new rules for the state\u2019s industrial companies following a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":477700,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[187459,3653,22336,7,9,8,6282,179,187458,15692,187457,2624,721,154419,63,3290,9244,776],"class_list":["post-477699","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-500000-square-foot-food-warehouse","tag-bill","tag-boyle-heights","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-cold-storage-facility","tag-community","tag-d-los-angeles","tag-fine","tag-industrial-company","tag-june","tag-law","tag-lineage-fire","tag-los-angeles-times","tag-newsom","tag-operator","tag-sunday"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/477699","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=477699"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/477699\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/477700"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=477699"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=477699"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=477699"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}