Existing law requires the State Air Resources Board to prepare a statewide strategy to reduce emissions of toxic air contaminants and criteria air pollutants in communities affected by a high cumulative exposure burden that includes an assessment and identification of those communities. Existing law requires the statewide strategy to be updated at least once every 5 years. Existing law requires the state board, based on the assessment and identification, to select locations around the state for preparation of community emissions reduction programs. Existing law requires the assessment and identification to prioritize disadvantaged communities, as defined. Existing law requires the regional air quality management district or the regional air pollution control district encompassing the location selected by the state board, within one year of selection, to adopt a community emissions reduction program to achieve emissions reductions for the location selected using cost-effective measures, as provided. Existing law requires the state board to provide grants to community-based organizations for technical assistance and to support community participation in the implementation of the statewide strategy. Under this existing regulatory authority, the state board provides grants to development and implement local community emissions reduction plans. This bill would revise the definition of "disadvantaged community" to include a disadvantaged unincorporated community. By expanding the definition of "disadvantaged community," the bill would expand the duties of districts in the preparation of community emissions reduction programs, thereby imposing a state-mandated local program. The bill would require the local community emissions reduction plans to be submitted to the state board for review and approval and would require the state board or the relevant air district to enforce those plans, as provided. The bill would specify that a steering committee formed by an air district to assist it in the development and implementation of a community emissions reduction program remains active until the emissions objectives identified in the program are achieved as determined by the air district or 2 3 "?> a majority of the members of the committee vote to disband the committee. The bill would require members of the steering committee to meet certain requirements. The bill would specify eligible uses for the grants provided. This bill would require the state board, on or before June 30, 2027, and annually thereafter, to report to the appropriate subcommittees of the budget committee of the Legislature about the progress the state board has made to implement the statewide strategy and the community emissions reduction programs, as provided. The bill would require the Secretary for Environmental Protection to periodically convene representatives of agencies and departments within the California Environmental Protection Agency with jurisdiction over pollution sources included in a community emissions reduction program to ensure coordination among those agencies and departments to address concerns raised about those pollution sources. 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 with regard to certain mandates no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason. With regard to any other mandates, this bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs so mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above.
Existing law establishes within the California Environmental Protection Agency the State Air Resources Board. Existing law provides for the establishment of air pollution control districts and air quality management districts. Existing law generally vests regulatory jurisdiction over stationary sources of air pollution in the air pollution control districts and air quality management districts and regulatory jurisdiction over mobile sources of air pollution in the State Air Resources Board. This bill, contingent upon an appropriation by the Legislature in the annual Budget Act or another act for its purposes, would create the Office of Civil Rights within the state board. The bill would set forth the responsibilities of the office, including providing training on civil rights obligations to board staff, grantees, contractors, and subrecipients. The bill would require the state board to post on its internet website an annual summary of information regarding the office, including a summary of civil rights complaints received by the office and a description of compliance and enforcement efforts by the office relating to civil rights.
Existing law requires the Wildfire and Forest Resilience Task Force to develop a comprehensive implementation strategy to track and ensure the achievement of the goals and key actions identified in the state's "Wildfire and Forest Resilience Action Plan," as provided. Existing law requires, on or before March 1, 2026, and every 5 years thereafter, the task force to update the action plan. This bill would require the task force, on or before July 1, 2028, and in cooperation with the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, the State Air Resources Board, and the State Department of Public Health, to assess the health costs and impacts of wildfire smoke using existing wildfire smoke and health data, as provided. The bill would require the task force, in developing this assessment, to, among other things, develop a model to determine the approximate health benefits of achieving the goals identified in the action plan and make recommendations on how the action plan can increase its health benefits. The bill would authorize the task force to enter into contracts with an independent group to assist with this assessment. The bill would require the task force to include this assessment and additional actions to reduce the health impact of wildfire smoke in the next update to the action plan, as provided.
By Executive Order No. N-82-20, Governor Gavin Newsom directed the Natural Resources Agency to combat the biodiversity and climate crises by, among other things, establishing the California Biodiversity Collaborative and conserving at least 30% of the state's lands and coastal waters by 2030. Existing law requires the Secretary of the Natural Resources Agency to prepare and submit, on or before March 31, 2024, and annually thereafter, a report to the Legislature on the progress made in the prior calendar year toward achieving the goal to conserve 30% of California's lands and coastal waters by 2030. Existing law provides that it is the goal of the state to conserve at least 30% of California's lands and coastal waters by 2030, known as the 30x30 goal. Existing law establishes the Equitable Outdoor Access Act, which sets forth the state's commitment to ensuring all Californians can benefit from, and have meaningful access to, the state's rich cultural and natural resources. Existing law declares that it is state policy, among other things, to ensure that all Californians have equitable opportunities to safe and affordable access to nature and access to the benefits of nature, and to prevent and minimize the intentional and unwarranted limitation of sustainable public access to public lands, where appropriate, including, but not limited to, local, regional, state, and federal parks, rivers, lakes, beaches, forests, mountain ranges, deserts, and other natural landscapes. Existing law requires specified state agencies to consider and incorporate, as appropriate, the state policy when revising, adopting, or establishing policies, regulations, or grant criteria, or making expenditures, as specified. Existing law requires all state agencies implementing the above-described state policy to do so in a manner consistent with the mission of their agency and that protects the health and safety of the public and conserves natural and cultural resources. This bill would provide that, to advance and promote environmental, conservation, and public access policies and budget actions, the Governor's office, state agencies, and the Legislature, when distributing resources, shall recognize the coequal goals and benefits of the 30x30 goal and the Outdoors for All initiative, and, to the extent practical, maximize investment in historically underserved urban communities consistent with those initiatives. The bill would encourage decisionmakers, when distributing resources to achieve the goals and benefits of the 30x30 goal and the Outdoors for All initiative, to consider factors that are unique to urban settings, including, among other things, higher land value acquisition and development costs per acre, the acute health needs of a local population due to historic lack of greenspace access and development externalities, local park needs assessment plans, current or impending loss of parks or greenspace as a result of state or federal infrastructure projects, and the availability of mobility options near a proposed land conservation site. The bill would encourage regulatory agencies, including the Department of Toxic Substances Control, to work with local communities to restore degraded lands that could contribute to a more equitable strategy for meeting the state's environmental, conservation, and public access goals. The bill would require state funding agencies, including certain state conservancies and the Wildlife Conservation Board, to allow, to the extent consistent with the funding source, the funding program's authorizing statutes, and the state's goals, for urban nature-based projects on degraded lands to be eligible and competitive for state funds.
Existing law establishes the California Community Colleges, under the administration of the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges, as one of the 3 segments of public postsecondary education in this state. Existing law establishes community college districts throughout the state, and authorizes them to provide instruction to students at community college campuses. One of these districts is the Los Angeles Community College District. Existing law appropriates $5,000,000 to the Los Angeles Community College District for the development and initial operations of the California Center for Climate Change Education at the West Los Angeles College with the mission to promote climate change education at the California Community Colleges and establish opportunities for students to engage in hands-on internships and other learning opportunities. This bill would codify the establishment of the center. This bill would make legislative findings and declarations as to the necessity of a special statute for the Los Angeles Community College District.
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 (EIR) 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 authorizes the Governor to certify projects meeting certain requirements as infrastructure projects and provide those certified projects with certain streamlining benefits, including requiring the lead agency to prepare the record of proceedings concurrently with the environmental review process and requiring the resolution of an action or proceeding challenging the certification of an EIR for certified projects or the granting of any project approvals, to the extent feasible, within 270 days of the filing of the record of proceedings with the court, as specified. Existing law requires the lead agency, within 10 days of the certification of an infrastructure project, to provide a public notice of the certification, as provided. If a lead agency fails to approve a project certified as an infrastructure project before January 1, 2033, existing law specifies that the certification is no longer valid. This bill would authorize the Governor to certify up to 3 sustainable aviation fuel projects, as defined, meeting certain requirements, as infrastructure projects, thereby providing the above streamlining benefits to those projects. By expanding the duties of a lead agency as they relate to infrastructure projects and to sustainable aviation fuel projects, this 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 vests the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) with regulatory authority over public utilities, including electrical corporations. Existing law requires the PUC, in consultation with the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission and the Independent System Operator, to take specified actions to facilitate the commercialization of microgrids for distribution customers of large electrical corporations, including developing microgrid service standards necessary to meet state and local permitting requirements and developing methods to reduce barriers for microgrid deployment without shifting costs between ratepayers. This bill would require a large electrical corporation, upon request, to collaborate with local governments, tribal governments, or community choice aggregators within its service area to support resiliency planning, as provided. The bill would require large electrical corporations to provide local governments, tribal governments, and community choice aggregators with access to data, including electrical distribution equipment data, transmission and distribution circuit data, grid hardening plans, and other information as directed by the commission, to support resiliency planning by local governments and tribal governments to ensure local governments, tribal governments, and community choice aggregators are able to plan potential microgrid projects to support critical facilities. The bill would authorize the commission to require large electrical corporations to share this information in aggregated and anonymized form to protect customer privacy and electrical grid security. Under existing law, a violation of any order, decision, rule, direction, demand, or requirement of the PUC is a crime. Because the violation of a PUC action implementing the bill's requirements would be a crime, this 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.
This measure would acknowledge and celebrate 50 years of coastal protection and affirm the state's longstanding commitment to protecting its coastal waters, as specified.
Existing law, the California Integrated Waste Management Act of 1989, administered by the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery, establishes an integrated waste management program and requires the department to adopt rules and regulations, as necessary, to carry out the act. Existing law requires each city, county, and regional agency, if any, to develop a source reduction and recycling element, household hazardous waste element, and nondisposal facility element of an integrated waste management plan. The act requires the source reduction and recycling element to divert from disposal 50% of all solid waste subject to the element through source reduction, recycling, and composting activities, with specified exceptions. This bill would require a city or county that requires a refundable deposit, performance security, or similar financial guarantee as a condition of issuing a construction, demolition, or building permit for the purpose of ensuring compliance with a construction or demolition debris requirement to return the full amount of the deposit if documentation demonstrating compliance with the terms of the deposit is provided, as specified.
This measure would request the United States, at the 2026 joint review of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) , to secure and publicly adopt measurable and sustained commitments from the parties to eliminate chronic transboundary sewage discharges into the Tijuana River watershed and the flow of untreated sewage, industrial effluent, and toxic pollutants through the New River from Mexicali into the County of Imperial. The measure would further request that the United States commit to automatic nonrenewal of the USMCA should there be a failure of establishing commitments, benchmarks, and timelines relating to specific numeric discharge-reduction benchmarks for both the Tijuana River watershed and the New River, investment into and enforceable timelines for completion of wastewater infrastructure projects, and annual public reporting on compliance.
