California
California’s Rash Plastic Lawsuit Is Anti-Growth And Anti-Environment
Mobius loop or recycling symbol with arrows.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta’s plastics lawsuit against ExxonMobil may be astute politics but it is terrible policy. This lawsuit is rife with contradictions. Frivolous lawsuits are also a large and growing pall hanging over the economy.
Many studies have documented the high costs frivolous lawsuits impose on Americans. According to the Institute for Legal Reform, frivolous lawsuits cost the U.S. economy $443 billion in 2020. These costs ultimately raise the prices of the goods and services we purchase every day, which means that tort abuse imposes a $3,621 annual tax on every household.
Attorney General Bonta’s lawsuit, along with the lawsuit filed by environmental groups making similar accusations, is no different. As I noted in a previous Forbes column, the lawsuit accuses ExxonMobil of fraudulently promoting plastic recycling as a solution to the problem of plastic waste while, at the same time, state and local governments in California have promoted, and continue to promote, the exact same solution – plastic recycling.
There are many instances of these contradictions.
When California Governor Gavin Newsom was mayor of San Francisco he promoted the practice as an essential part of his efforts to establish the “toughest recycling law” in the nation. Through CalRecycle, California state and local governments continue their long-standing promotion of plastic recycling.
According to CalRecycle, “on June 30, 2022, Governor Gavin Newsom signed SB 54 (Allen, 2022) into law to address the impacts of single-use packaging and plastic food service ware.” The law requires that by 2032, the use of single-use plastic is reduced by 25%, 65% of single-use plastic is recycled, and 100% of single-use plastic is recyclable.
If promoting plastic recycling is deceptive when ExxonMobil does it, why is it not deceptive when the Governor promotes the same activity? Isn’t CalRecycle being deceptive when it continues to promote plastic recycling today? These differences in treatment raise serious concerns regarding the AG’s lawsuit.
Also noteworthy, AG Bonta’s own constituents are supportive of expanding plastics recycling. According to a January 27th poll, “63% [of Californians]
want the state to expand and improve its recycling infrastructure to find ways to give a new life to plastics. That compares to only 27% who prefer the state eliminate single-use plastic and stop manufacturing new plastics.”
Moreover, whether plastic recycling is an economically viable option is not the relevant question. Some analyses are pessimistic about the value of plastic recycling. For instance, a commentary for the New Jersey Institute of Technology noted that “today, recycled plastic generally costs more to refine and buy than new plastic.”
There are other analyses that, while noting obstacles remain, assert that there are reasons for optimism. As a 2020 McKinsey analysis concluded,
Our recent research has shown substantial value-creation potential in capturing plastic waste and using existing technologies to process it to make new plastics and other chemicals. To date, however, investments to translate this potential into reality have been relatively small. Globally, only around 15 percent of plastics produced each year get recycled.
It follows from the McKinsey report that investments to translate this potential into reality are needed to support more efficient plastic waste management.
There are sound reasons to believe that investing in advanced recycling technology can provide great value. For example, Exxon’s advanced recycling facility in Baytown, Texas has processed more than 70 million pounds of plastic waste into new products to date.
There are fewer reasons to believe that Governors, Attorneys General, or other state leaders can be effective arbiters of which innovative technologies have the potential to add value, and which do not. Instead, innovation is best fostered when millions of private businesses and budding entrepreneurs guide capital allocation and assess risk.
In practice, preemptive judgements on novel technology by experts and political leaders often age poorly – after all, Henry Morton (a contemporary of Thomas Edison and president of the Stevens Institute of Technology) called Edison’s light bulb “a conspicuous failure.”
Ultimately, it is the private sector that drives innovation forward. The AG’s legal action is another demonstration of California’s growing hostility toward businesses and innovators. Beyond the lawsuit’s strong anti-growth and anti-consumer impacts, it obstructs the very creative processes necessary to more effectively manage the plastic waste problem.
Rapper was stabbed 16 times by fellow inmate in May 2025 while 10-year sentence in Megan Thee Stallion shooting case
Tory Lanez has filed a $100 million lawsuit against the California Department of Corrections stemming from a May 2025 incident where the rapper was stabbed in prison.
Lanez — born Daystar Peterson and currently serving a 10-year sentence after being found guilty in the Megan Thee Stallion shooting case — also sued the warden and guards at the California Correctional Institute in Tehachapi, where the rapper was stabbed 16 times in an “unprovoked life-threatening attack” by another inmate, the lawsuit states.
Peterson was hospitalized following the May 2025 incident, suffering a collapsed lung among stab wounds to his back, torso, and head.
According to the Associated Press, the lawsuit criticized the Department of Corrections for housing Peterson with fellow inmate and alleged attacker Santino Casio, who was serving a life sentence for second-degree murder. “The choice to house Casio with Peterson was known or should have been a known danger,” the lawsuit said, adding that Tory Lanez’ “high-profile celebrity status” made him a target.
The lawsuit also said that prison guards were slow to respond to the shanking, and didn’t employ flash grenades or other measures to halt Casio’s attack.; Casio was not charged for stabbing Peterson, the Associated Press notes.
Lanez, who following his hospitalization was transferred to San Luis Obispo County’s California Men’s Colony, also alleges in the lawsuit that he never received his possessions from the California Correctional Institute in Tehachapi, including songbooks filled with lyrics to his unreleased music.
Lanez is serving a 10-year prison sentence for shooting Megan Thee Stallion in the foot during a confrontation in the summer of 2020. He was eventually convicted on several firearms charges, including assault with a firearm, in December 2022. In November 2025, his appeal was denied by a three-judge panel, and the 10-year sentence was upheld.
From one crackdown on hospice fraud to another.
A few weeks ago, the FBI arrested multiple people in Southern California that were accused of defrauding the government for millions of dollars.
In a more recent announcement last Thursday, California’s State Attorney General Rob Bonta held a press conference to announce a fraud bust of their own.
“Operation Skip Trace uncovered and ended a hospice fraud scheme that defrauded Medi-Cal of $267 million,” Bonta said. “So just to be clear, a quarter billion dollars over funds that are paid for by California taxpayers, funds that are meant to provide care to Californians in need. It is unacceptable. It is illegal and we will not stand for it.”
The operation saw a total of 21 suspects charged as a result and dismantled a major hospice fraud scheme, with two handguns and over $750 thousand in cash seized as well.
According to the state’s attorney general, this is just one of the many cases over the years the state has cracked down on.
“This is just the latest example of the California DOJ’s longstanding ongoing and successful efforts to combat hospice and medical fraud,” Bonta said. “We have been doing this work for years. We’ve been doing it successfully before certain people in this country decided to think about it for the first time. We will continue to do this work. Heads down, sleeves rolled up, important investigative work, prosecutorial work.”
He added to that by taking a shot at the Trump Administration’s latest fraud operations.
“While healthcare fraud might be President Trump’s shiny new political talking point, the California DOJ has been going after healthcare fraud since 1979,” Bonta said. “For decades, Trump is late to the party. Protecting taxpayer dollars and protecting programs sick and vulnerable Californians rely on have been our priority for nearly five decades.”
Governor Gavin Newsom also spoke out about this latest crackdown while taking a shot of his own at President Trump.
In a post to “X” the Governor’s Press Office wrote in part quote…
“California has been cracking down on hospice fraud long before Trump gutted oversight and pardoned the architect of the biggest health care fraud scheme in U.S. history.”
State Republicans have responded to this latest announcement from Attorney General Bonta, calling for a special session to demand accountability from the Governor on widespread fraud.
California
Xavier Becerra surges in poll after Eric Swalwell drops out of California governor’s race
A new poll shows a major shift in the California governor’s race after former Rep. Eric Swalwell, who was once a frontrunner, dropped out of the election following several allegations of sexual misconduct.
“This definitely throws this race into even more volatility, creates a huge vacuum,” Pomona College politics professor Sara Sadhwani said.
According to the new numbers, Xavier Becerra, the former state attorney general and Health and Human Services Secretary under President Biden, is surging in popularity.
In Emerson College’s Inside California Politics poll, Becerra is now polling at 10%, a seven-point jump since March.
Republican Steve Hilton remains in the lead with 17%, followed by Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco at 14%.
Among Democrats, billionaire Tom Steyer leads the pack with 14%, followed by Becerra and former Rep. Katie Porter at 10% each. San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan sits at 5%.
The poll showed that 23% of voters remain undecided.
“Xavier Becerra should be the happiest of them all because he’s the biggest move in this survey,” said Zev Yaroslavsky, director at UCLA’s Luskin School of Public Affairs.
Emerson College conducted the poll right after Swalwell dropped out of the race and President Trump endorsed Hilton.
“I believe over time, because Trump has endorsed Hilton for the governorship, that Hilton will continue to edge up and Bianco by definition will have to go down,” Yaroslavsky said.
Last weekend, the California GOP held its convention, and, similar to the Democrats, the party did not make an endorsement. However, Bianco received the most votes from the GOP delegates.
“We’re extremely happy with how it came out,” Bianco said. “There was a lot of effort put in by my opponent. Hundreds of thousands of dollars to try and win this election.
With the large number of undecided voters, Yaroslavky believes that the race is still in the air.
“It’s still early,” Yaroslavsky said. “It’s a little less than seven weeks before the election. The ballots go out at the beginning of next month. People, at least 30%, still haven’t made up their mind.”
In the state’s primary system, only the top two vote-getters in the June primary will advance to the November general election.
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