State Senator Michael Rubio invited residents and Kern County business leaders on Wednesday to talk about improving California's business climate.
Senator Rubio is the chair of the Senate Select Committee on Economic Development and the state permitting process.
Critics argue California is notorious for not being business friendly.
And, Senator Rubio wanted to hear from Kern County about ways to improve the business climate in California.
California has been the leader in environmental standards and regulation for decades.
But many, including Senator Rubio think the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) needs reform to allow more business and fair business.
"Here is an ongoing effort to listen to the folks in the private sector and the public to know how we can streamline and bring more common sense to government. So the private sector can produce the jobs that we desperately need in the Central Valley and the state of California," said Sen. Rubio.
Senator Rubio says CEQA is the only law in the country where you can comply with the law and still get sued. And, that is on the minds of anyone trying to start up a business, including Recurrent Energy.
Some businesses say Kern County is actually one of the easier counties to work with on permitting projects, but say other state agency red tape is hurting their business growth.
"The most frustrating part of this project for us has been the fact that we are tying to do the right thing by installing clean energy, but we are being limited by utility companies and the CPUC," said Eric Johnson with Paramount Farms.
But, one big kudos from the governor himself for our area, as Senator Rubio brought up doing business in our state.
"They said we need to go around and review the best practices throughout the state. What are the top three counties we should go to? And, the governor said oh yeah, I know those top three counties, Kern, Kern, and Kern," said Sen. Rubio.
Senator Rubio has held three of these hearings already and we are told more are in the works as this topic is being called the meat and potatoes of job creation here in California.
