Existing law, the California Emergency Services Act, authorizes the Governor to declare a state of emergency during conditions of disaster or extreme peril to persons or property. Existing law authorizes the Governor, during a state of emergency, to suspend any regulatory statute, or statute prescribing the procedure for conduct of state business, or the orders, rules, or regulations of any state agency, if the Governor determines and declares that strict compliance with any statute, order, rule, or regulation would in any way prevent, hinder, or delay the mitigation of the effects of the emergency. Under the authority of the California Emergency Services Act, on March 1, 2025, Governor Gavin Newsom issued a proclamation of a state of emergency that suspends applicable state statutes, rules, regulations, and requirements that fall within the jurisdiction of boards, departments, and offices within the California Environmental Protection Agency or the Natural Resources Agency to the extent necessary for expediting critical fuels reduction projects, as provided. The proclamation requires an individual or entity desiring to conduct a critical fuels reduction project to request the secretary of the appropriate agency to make a determination that the proposed project is eligible for the suspension and requires the California Environmental Protection Agency and the Natural Resources Agency to maintain on their respective internet website a list of all suspensions approved. This bill would, on or before January 31, 2026, require the California Environmental Protection Agency and the Natural Resources Agency to each report to the Legislature information on the implementation of the above-described proclamation of emergency, as provided. 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 from its requirements certain projects. This bill would, until January 1, 2028, exempt from CEQA critical fuels reduction projects conducted in communities located in very high fire hazard severity zones, as provided. The bill would require the lead agency to hold a noticed public meeting to hear and respond to public comments before determining that a project is exempt and would require the lead agency to provide notice of the public meeting on its internet website at least 30 days before the public meeting. The bill would require the lead agency, if it determines that a project is not subject to CEQA and approves or carries out that project, to file a notice of exemption with the Office of Land Use and Climate Innovation and with the clerk of the county in which the project will be located. Because a lead agency would be required to determine whether a project qualifies for this exemption, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.
The California Urban Forestry Act of 1978 has a stated purpose of the promotion of the use of urban forest resources for the purpose of increasing integrated projects with multiple benefits in urban communities, including, but not limited to, the benefit of expanded urban forest canopy and community greening. This bill would also include school greening, as defined, as a benefit of the act. The act requires the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection to implement a program in urban forestry to encourage better tree management and planning in urban areas to increase integrated, multiple benefit projects by assisting urban areas with innovative solutions to problems including, among other things, improved capture of storm water and dry weather runoff, addressing water shortages. This bill would provide improving school greening as a problem to be addressed by the program. The act requires the department to complete a statewide strategic plan, as specified, and to submit the plan to the Legislature on or before June 30, 2025. This bill would require the plan to be submitted to the Legislature on or before June 30, 2026. The act requires the department to provide technical assistance to urban areas with respect to, among other things, improvement and enhancement of local water capture for urban forest maintenance, and requires the department to provide advice and guidance to cities, counties, districts, and other specified entities on, among other things, best practices and metrics for maintaining urban forest health. This bill would require the department to also provide technical assistance to urban areas with respect to improvement of public schools to create tree-shaded, natural school grounds, as specified, and to provide advice and guidance on use of trees in urban areas to promote community resilience and adaptation. The act authorizes the Director of Forestry and Fire Protection to make grants to provide assistance for specified projects, including, but not limited to, tree planting projects and other categories of projects recommended by the director, as provided. This bill would include, as part of that assistance, funding for school greening to optimize tree canopy cover and nature-based learning. The bill would authorize the director to authorize a negotiated indirect cost rate agreement within an approved project that is funded with state or federal dollars. The bill would also make conforming changes.
(1) The California Integrated Waste Management Act of 1989, administered by the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery, generally regulates the disposal, management, and recycling of solid waste. The act establishes stewardship programs for various products, including, among others, carpet. The act includes a product stewardship for carpet program and a successor carpet producer responsibility program, and requires the product stewardship for carpet program to become inoperative upon the completion of certain conditions related to the implementation of the successor carpet producer responsibility program. Existing law, the product stewardship for carpet program, requires a manufacturer of carpets sold in this state, individually or through a carpet stewardship organization, to submit a carpet stewardship plan to the department, which is required to include specified elements, including achieving specified carpet recycling rates and a funding mechanism that provides sufficient funding to carry out the plan. Existing law authorizes the department to administratively impose a civil penalty of $10,000 per day on any person in violation of the program or $25,000 per day if the violation is intentional, knowing, or negligent, as specified. This bill would instead authorize the department to impose administrative, rather than civil, penalties in those amounts, and to impose an administrative penalty of $25,000 per day if the violation is intentional or knowing. Existing law requires a carpet stewardship organization to include nonvoting board members with representation from, among others, a retailer that sells carpet. This bill would instead require the stewardship organization to create a governing board for the stewardship program, as specified. Existing law requires a manufacturer of carpets sold in this state, individually or through a carpet stewardship organization, to submit to the department an annual report describing its activities to achieve the purposes of the program, as provided. Existing law authorizes a carpet stewardship organization to award grants and subsidies to incentivize the recycling of carpet materials that have the highest recyclability. This bill would require a carpet stewardship organization to include in its annual report specified information related to the grants and subsidies provided pursuant to the program, as specified. (2) Existing law, the successor carpet producer responsibility program, requires producers of covered products to form and join a single producer responsibility organization (PRO) for the collection and recycling of a covered product. Existing law defines a "covered product" as carpet, as defined, and requires the PRO to develop a producer responsibility plan for the collection, transportation, recycling, and the safe and proper management of covered products in the state. Existing law requires, no later than January 1, 2029, a person who removes a covered product as part of the installation of a covered product to transport, or contract to transport, all of the removed covered product to an approved collection site, as provided. Under existing law, an approved collection site is a solid waste facility that has agreed to be a collection site for the PRO. This bill would exempt a covered product from this transport requirement if certain conditions are met, including that it is returned to the producer. The bill would expand approved collection sites to include certain carpet recycling centers, municipal facilities, and retailers. Existing law requires the governing board of a PRO to include 4 nonvoting members, including, but not limited to, a nonvoting member representing a nonprofit organization established to promote a circular economy and to address environmental issues. Existing law requires the PRO to submit an annual report to the department on or before July 1 of each year, as provided. Existing law requires a producer to publish on its internet website, for each of its covered products, an environmental product declaration that identifies a covered product's components, as provided. This bill would instead require one voting and 5 nonvoting members, as specified. The bill would require the annual report to be submitted on or before September 1 of each year, instead of July 1 of each year. The bill would instead require a producer to publish on its internet website, for each of its covered products, the components that constitute more than 1% of the product's weight and any component that is a hazardous chemical, as specified. Existing law requires the PRO to submit to the department an annual report, as specified, and to make the report publicly available on the PRO's internet website. Existing law requires the PRO to provide annual grants to apprenticeship programs for training carpet installers in proper carpet recycling techniques, as provided. This bill would require the PRO to include in its annual report specified information related to the grants and incentive payments provided pursuant to the program, as specified. Existing law requires a producer responsibility plan, among other things, to explain how producers will use standardized stamping or some other means to provide a visual mark on the back of a covered product that is a synthetic material to allow expeditious sorting of the carpet, as provided. Existing law requires the department to adopt regulations to implement the program with an effective date no earlier than December 31, 2026. This bill would instead require a producer responsibility plan to explain how producers will use standardized stamping or some other means to provide a visual mark on the back of a covered product that provides the name of the producer, the date of manufacture, and a listing of the types of face fibers and backing materials contained in the product. The bill would instead require the department to adopt the regulations no later than December 31, 2026. Existing law requires a producer responsibility plan in effect as of January 1, 2025, to continue in effect, as provided, until it expires or is revoked, except that the PRO is required to submit an amendment to conform the producer responsibility plan to certain requirements. This bill would eliminate the requirement to submit an amendment to the producer responsibility plan.
Under existing law, the Department of Toxic Substances Control generally regulates the management and handling of hazardous waste and hazardous materials. Existing law authorizes certain entities to operate household hazardous waste collection facilities, as defined, under permits issued by the department. A violation of the hazardous waste control laws is a crime. This bill would, until January 1, 2029, require the department to evaluate opportunities to increase safety and convenience related to the management and disposal of vape pens confiscated from students by a school, as provided, and identify any recommendations that require future legislative action. The bill would authorize a household hazardous waste collection facility to conduct physical treatment activities involving the disassembly of household hazardous waste to separate batteries, valves, electronic components and other parts containing liquids or gases, including, but not limited to, the disassembly of vape pens, in a manner that does not result in the unauthorized release of hazardous materials. Existing law authorizes a public agency, or its contractor, to conduct a materials exchange program at a household hazardous waste collection facility to make reusable household hazardous products or materials available to recipients, as a part of its household hazardous waste collection program, if the public agency, or its contractor, complies with specified requirements. The bill would prohibit a public agency, or its contractor, from including vape pens in a materials exchange program. Because a violation of these provisions would be a crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.
Existing law establishes the Shared Habitat Alliance for Recreational Enhancement (SHARE) program to encourage private landowners to voluntarily make their land available to the public for wildlife-dependent recreational activities, as specified. Existing law requires a cap on financial compensation offered to a private landowner of $30 per acre, or $50 per public participant per day. Existing law authorizes the Department of Fish and Wildlife, as part of the SHARE program, to make grants to, or enter into agreements with, nonprofit organizations, governmental entities, or any other entities for purposes of carrying out the SHARE program. This bill would require, rather than authorize, the department to make those grants to, or enter into agreements with, the above-described entities, including a nonprofit conservation organization, when the department finds the grants or agreements are necessary for carrying out the purposes of the SHARE program. The bill would increase the required cap on financial compensation offered to private landowners pursuant to the SHARE program to $52 per acre, or $87 per public participant per day, and would require those figures to be adjusted annually for inflation, as provided. The bill would authorize the department to reimburse a nonprofit organization, a private landowner, or other entity for its services related to the implementation of the program. The bill would repeal these provisions on January 1, 2031. This bill would require the Director of Fish and Wildlife, on or before October 1, 2029, to submit a written report to the Legislature that evaluates the effect of changes to the SHARE program, as provided.
The California Endangered Species Act prohibits the taking of an endangered, threatened, or candidate species, except as specified. Under the act, the Department of Fish and Wildlife (department) may authorize the take of listed species by certain entities through permits or memorandums of understanding for specified purposes. Existing law requires the State Fire Marshal to identify areas in the state as moderate, high, and very high fire hazard severity zones based on consistent statewide criteria and based on the severity of fire hazard that is expected to prevail in those areas. Existing law requires a local agency to designate, by ordinance, moderate, high, and very high fire hazard severity zones in its jurisdiction within 120 days of receiving recommendations from the State Fire Marshal, as provided. This bill would authorize a city, county, city and county, special district, or other local agency to submit to the department a wildfire preparedness plan to conduct wildfire preparedness activities on land designated as a fire hazard severity zone, as defined, that minimizes impacts to wildlife and habitat for candidate, threatened, and endangered species. The bill would require the wildfire preparedness plan to include, among other things, a brief description of the planned wildfire preparedness activities, the approximate dates for the activities, and a description of the candidate, endangered, and threatened species within the plan area. The bill would require the department to impose a fee on a local agency for the cost of reviewing a wildfire preparedness plan submitted by that local agency, as specified. The bill would require the department, if sufficient information is included in the wildfire preparedness plan for the department to determine if an incidental take permit is required, to notify the local agency within 90 days of receipt of the wildfire preparedness plan if an incidental take permit or other state permit is needed, or if there are other considerations, exemptions, or streamlined pathways that the wildfire preparedness activities qualify for, including, but not limited to, the State Board of Forestry and Fire Protection's California Vegetation Treatment Program. The bill would require the department to provide the local agency, in its notification, with guidance that includes, among other things, a description of the candidate, endangered, and threatened species within the plan area and measures to avoid, minimize, and fully mitigate the take of the candidate, threatened, and endangered species, as provided. The bill would require the department, on or before July 1, 2026, to make a standard wildfire preparedness plan submission form publicly available on its internet website. The bill also would require the department, commencing January 1, 2027, to annually post on its internet website a summary of the wildfire preparedness plans submitted and include specified information in that summary.
The Used Mattress Recovery and Recycling Act, administered by the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery, authorizes a mattress recycling organization to be established by a qualified industry association to develop, implement, and administer a used mattress recycling program in the state. The act requires the organization to develop and submit to the department for approval a plan, including an annual budget to implement the plan, for the recovery and recycling of used mattresses. The act requires the plan to include, among other things, providing outreach efforts and education to consumers, manufacturers, and retailers, for the purpose of promoting the recycling of used mattresses and options available to consumers for the free dropoff or collection of used mattresses. The act requires the organization to set the state mattress recycling charge, which is added to the purchase price of a mattress, at an amount sufficient to fund the program. The act requires the charge to be clearly visible on the invoice, receipt, or functionally equivalent document by the seller to the consumer as a separate line item. This bill would authorize the distributor, retailer, or seller to pay the applicable charge to the mattress recycling organization on behalf of the consumer or ultimate end user if the distributor, retailer, or seller enters into a written agreement with a mattress recycling organization to pay the charge directly to the mattress recycling organization, as provided. The bill would make a distributor, retailer, or seller responsible for educating the consumer or the ultimate end user of the mattress in the state on the recycling of used mattresses and options available to consumers for the free dropoff or collection of used mattresses.
This measure would urge the United States Congress and the President of the United States to fully fund the United States Environmental Protection Agency's Comprehensive Infrastructure Solution for the Tijuana River due to the ongoing impacts on public health, the environment, and the local economy caused by transboundary flow pollution. The measure would urge the United States Congress and the President of the United States to take additional specified actions to address ongoing transboundary flow pollution.
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. Under existing law, the Transit-Oriented Development Implementation Program is administered by the Department of Housing and Community Development to provide local assistance to developers for the purpose of developing higher density uses within close proximity to transit stations as provided. Existing law, establishes the Transit-Oriented Development Implementation Fund and, to the extent funds are available, requires the department to make loans for the development and construction of housing development projects within close proximity to a transit station that meet specified criteria. This bill would authorize a project, to the extent that the project is required to mitigate transportation impacts under CEQA, to satisfy the mitigation requirement by electing to contribute an amount of money, at a price per vehicle mile traveled, as determined by the Office of Land Use and Climate Innovation, to the Transit-Oriented Development Implementation Fund for the purposes of the Transit-Oriented Development Implementation Program, as provided. The bill would require the office, on or before July 1, 2029, and at least once every 3 years thereafter, to update the price per vehicle mile traveled based on specified factors. The bill would require, upon appropriation by the Legislature, the contributions to be available to the department to fund developments located in the same region, as defined, with preference given to specified projects. The bill would require the department to, for each award, confirm the estimated reduction in vehicle miles traveled, as provided, and would require the department to post specified information on its internet website.
This measure would urge the President of the United States and the Congress of the United States to immediately restore full funding for Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities program projects.
