California will not be restricting chemicals that are linked to the death of bees and other pollinators anytime soon after Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed a bill to ban the use of certain pesticides.
Assembly Bill 2146, put forth by Assemblymember Rebecca Bauer-Kahan from Contra Costa County, would have limited the use of neonicotinoid pesticides in non-agricultural settings, such as lawns, gardens and other ornamental plants.
Bauer-Kahan said that these pesticides can have a devastating effect on pollinators that are critical to many of California’s leading crops such as almonds and strawberries, generating $11 billion annually.
Most sobering are statistics from the Bee Informed Partnership, a nonprofit that reports nearly 42 percent of the state’s beekeepers lost their colonies last year, the second-worst year on record. Nationally, the number is 45.5 percent from April 2020 to April 2021.
Just one square foot of grass treated with the chemicals can contain enough neonics to kill a million bees, Bauer-Kahan said.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture says that pollinators are “at a critical crossroads” due to multiple factors including climate change, pesticides, disease, and Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), a condition where the majority of worker bees in a colony disappear, leaving behind the queen. CCD is most likely caused by man-made factors, the USDA said.
Newsom said in his veto statement that the California Department of Pesticide Regulation is already taking “significant” steps to restrict neonicotinoid uses in the state.
“The department is finalizing regulations on the agricultural use of neonicotinoids and will begin the process of evaluating non-agricultural uses next year,” he said.
Laura Deehan, state director of Environmental California, said that she is disappointed in the bill being vetoed but that she sees a “silver lining.”
“In his veto message, the governor calls on his Department of Pesticide Regulation to issue rules in the coming year to address non-agricultural uses of neonics,” she said. “Of course that ‘lining’ assumes the rules will be well-crafted and have teeth.”
17 comments
Newsome is pure garbage.
Now now .. let’s not insult the garbage of the world.
TBH, a garbage governor would be an improvement for our state when compared to the current state leadership.
Brian Dahle will be my vote in ~5 weeks.
I couldn’t agree more with the veto of this bill there is already a department that handles this exact sort of stuff another bill is not needed!
@ LocalAntiLib ~
Can you please guide me to the department that handles this sort of stuff?
I just want to see the proof of what you are saying.
And they’ve done absolutely nothing to address this serious issue. So it will be may be another year before they even start addressing it? Meanwhile, millions more bees will die.
@Roz…..I was curious about that too, here’s a link for the agency mentioned in the article…
https://www.cdpr.ca.gov/
More insanity from Klaus Schwab’s Stooge.
The oil in his hair is killing bees.
Second time you have said this … how bout proving it? Several of us provided examples of his failures.
Flood this the country with illegals but kill the bees.Ecological disaster.Where do these morons come up with this stuff.
Ssouza did you just say good job.I can’t believe you said that.
Newsom is up to something! He is all over the board lately. He’s probably trying to pave his way for his presidential run and everything he’s done is gauged by a focus group. But unfortunately a California focus group. Because most of the nation thinks he’s nuts.
Politicians only care about votes, they have the computer power and algorithms to know how many people are going to vote a certain way depending on what he does on bills and signing things.
He’s an idiot but he’s not stupid he knows how to buy the votes.
Wow! just once the coke addict did something right. Otherwise we would have the next pandemic of west Nile virus or some other fear mongering situation that effects us all. Yes I believe if the bees die we all die (pollination) but there are actual professionals that monitor this and would simply stop sales of products if they posed a threat “no governor required”.
So this bill was Newsom’s bees wax! He knows a crock when he sees one and believe me he’s the crock expert..
Gruesome newsome has no business in politics he represents himself and his special interests he does not care about law abiding tax paying citizens of this state his political career needs to end immediately he has run our great state into the ground I strongly suggest a psychological evaluation on that weirdo
Some of those chemicals are excellent termiticides. I love our bees but LOATH the termites. There are legitimate non-agricultural applications.
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