Public resources: greenhouse gases: recycling: California Environmental Quality Act.

(1) The California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 designates the State Air Resources Board as the state agency charged with monitoring and regulating sources of emissions of greenhouse gases. The act authorizes the state board to include the use of market-based compliance mechanisms. The act authorizes the state board to adopt a regulation that establishes a system of market-based declining annual aggregate emissions limits for sources or categories of sources that emit greenhouse gases, applicable from January 1, 2021, to December 31, 2030, as specified. This bill, no later than January 1, 2022, would require the state board for a market-based compliance mechanism applicable from January 1, 2021, to December 31, 2030, to investigate the potential for a carbon offset compliance protocol for recycled product manufacturing. (2) Existing law requires all moneys, except for fines and penalties, collected by the state board as part of a market-based compliance mechanism to be deposited in the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund and to be available upon appropriation. Existing law continuously appropriates 35% of the annual proceeds of the fund for transit, affordable housing, and sustainable communities programs and 25% of the annual proceeds of the fund for certain components of a specified high-speed rail project. This bill would authorize $200,000,000 from the annual proceeds of the fund to be subsequently appropriated to the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery for the department's Recycled Fiber, Plastic, and Glass Grant Program. (3) Existing law, the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) , requires a lead agency, as defined, to prepare, or cause to be prepared, and certify the completion of an environmental impact report on a project that it proposes to carry out or approve that may have a significant effect on the environment or to adopt a negative declaration if it finds that the project will not have that effect. CEQA also requires a lead agency to prepare a mitigated negative declaration for a project that may have a significant effect on the environment if revisions in the project would avoid or mitigate that effect and there is no substantial evidence that the project, as revised, would have a significant effect on the environment. CEQA exempts certain projects from its requirements. This bill would require the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery, no later than January 1, 2023, to prepare a program environmental impact report for organic waste composting facilities, as specified. The bill would require the Office of Planning and Research, in consultation with the department, to identify and report to the appropriate fiscal and policy committees of the Legislature on the regulatory barriers and opportunities to streamline local and state approval processes to help facilitate the achievement of the state's recycling and renewable energy generation goals. (4) The California Integrated Waste Management Act of 1989, which is administered by the department, generally regulates the management and recycling of solid waste. This bill would establish the Recycled Materials Innovation Grant Program to be administered by the department, in collaboration with the Office of Planning and Research, to offer competitive grants to create innovative uses for recyclable materials that have not historically been recycled domestically, as specified. The bill would require the department to award no more than 5 grants of $20,000,000 each, with moneys made available from the General Fund upon appropriation. The bill would require the department to develop administrative guidelines and other requirements for the administration of the program.