Existing law requires the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) , in consultation with the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission (Energy Commission) , on or before March 31, 2024, to provide transmission-focused guidance to the Independent System Operator about resource portfolios of expected future renewable energy resources and zero-carbon resources, including the allocation of those resources by region based on technical feasibility and commercial interest in each region to allow the Independent System Operator to identify and approve transmission facilities needed to interconnect resources and reliably serve the needs of load centers, as specified . On December 23, 2022, the PUC, Energy Commission, and Independent System Operator entered into a memorandum of understanding related to resource and transmission planning, transmission development and permitting, procurement, and interconnections in order to achieve reliability and policy needs and to coordinate the timely development of resources, resource interconnections, and needed transmission infrastructure. Existing law requires the Energy Commission and PUC, in coordination with the Independent System Operator, every 5 years, to review and update, as necessary, the memorandum of understanding and a related workplan to ensure the memorandum and workplan reflect the coordination that is needed to help meet the state's energy goals. This bill would require those entities to review and update, as necessary, the memorandum every 3 years, rather than every 5 years.
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 recommendation, continuous evaluation, and execution of statewide environmental goals, policies, and plans are included within the scope of the executive functions of the Governor. Existing law establishes the Office of Land Use and Climate Innovation in the Governor's office for the purpose of serving the Governor and the Governor's cabinet as staff for long-range planning and research and constituting the comprehensive state planning agency. This bill would require, on or before July 1, 2027, the Office of Land Use and Climate Innovation to consult with regional, local, state, and federal agencies to develop a technical advisory on thresholds of significance for greenhouse gas and noise pollution effects on the environment to assist local agencies. The bill would require the technical advisory to provide suggested thresholds of significance for all areas of the state, as specified, and would provide that lead agencies may elect to adopt these suggested thresholds of significance. The bill would also require the Office of Land Use and Climate Innovation to post the technical advisory on its internet website.
Existing law establishes in the California Environmental Protection Agency the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery, which administers various solid waste management and recycling programs. This bill would require the department to draft and submit a report to the Legislature, on or before January 1, 2028, relating to the in-state collection, recycling, reuse, and stockpiling for domestic consumption of precious metals, critical minerals, as defined, and other similar valuable materials as reasonably decided by the department, contained within products in the state, as specified. The bill would require the department to provide opportunities for public input and to perform outreach to potentially interested parties, as specified. The bill also would authorize the department to make recommendations to promote a circular economy for precious metals, critical minerals, and other similar valuable materials within products, including, but not limited to, best practices for product design to optimize the ability to recycle precious metals, critical minerals, and other similar valuable materials at the product's end of life.
Existing law establishes the Natural Resources Agency, composed of departments, boards, conservancies, and commissions responsible for the restoration, protection, and management of the state's natural and cultural resources. This bill would establish in the agency the California Trails Conservancy Program. The bill would require the program to have specified purposes, including promoting enhanced and expanded environmentally sound greenways and trail networks. If the agency determines that it would benefit these purposes, the bill would authorize the agency to establish an ad hoc working group with specified members, including a representative from the Department of Parks and Recreation. The bill would authorize the agency to delegate administration of the program to the agency's Deputy Secretary for Access. The bill would also authorize the agency to administer funding for priority projects, as defined, through existing or new grants or competitive grant programs and would require that no less than 35% percent of the funding administered by the agency for the purposes of the program be allocated to projects benefiting disadvantaged communities, as defined. This bill would make these provisions operative only upon an appropriation by the Legislature for its purposes.
Existing law requires the Director of Forestry and Fire Protection, until January 1, 2026, to establish a statewide program to allow qualifying entities to support and augment the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection in its defensible space and home hardening assessment and education efforts and requires the director to establish a common reporting platform that allows defensible space and home hardening assessment data, collected by qualifying entities, to be reported to the department, among other things. Existing law requires the department, until January 1, 2026, to develop and implement a training program to train individuals to support and augment the department in its defensible and home hardening assessment and public education efforts. This bill would extend those programs to January 1, 2031.
Existing law establishes the California Environmental Protection Agency in state government and requires the agency to oversee the development of a registry for greenhouse gas emissions that result from the water-energy nexus using the best available data. Existing law provides that participation in the registry is voluntary and open to any entity conducting business in the state. Existing law authorizes the agency to enter into a contract with a qualified nonprofit organization to do specified things, including to recruit broad participation in the registry from all economic sectors and regions of the state. Existing law limits the term of the term of the contract to 3 years, except as provided. This bill would instead require the agency to oversee the administration of the above-described registry and would authorize the agency to enter into a new contract, limited to a term of 3 years and with a total budget of $2,000,000, to do specified things, including to recruit broad participation in the registry from all economic sectors and regions of the state to meet the different needs of water users throughout the state by various means, as provided. The bill would remove obsolete language related to the development of the registry, as provided.
The Safe Drinking Water, Wildfire Prevention, Drought Preparedness, and Clean Air Bond Act of 2024, approved by the voters as Proposition 4 at the November 5, 2024, statewide general election, authorized the issuance of bonds in the amount of $10,000,000,000 pursuant to the State General Obligation Bond Law to finance projects for safe drinking water, drought, flood, and water resilience, wildfire and forest resilience, coastal resilience, extreme heat mitigation, biodiversity and nature-based climate solutions, climate-smart, sustainable, and resilient farms, ranches, and working lands, park creation and outdoor access, and clean air programs. The act makes $135,000,000 available, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to the Office of Emergency Services for a wildfire mitigation grant program to provide, among other things, loans, direct assistance, and matching funds for projects that prevent wildfires, increase resilience, maintain existing wildfire risk reduction projects, reduce the risk of wildfires to communities, or increase home or community hardening. The act provides that eligible projects include, but are not limited to, grants to local agencies, state agencies, joint powers authorities, tribes, resource conservation districts, fire safe councils, and nonprofit organizations for structure hardening of critical community infrastructure, wildfire smoke mitigation, evacuation centers, including community clean air centers, structure hardening projects that reduce the risk of wildfire for entire neighborhoods and communities, water delivery system improvements for fire suppression purposes for communities in very high or high fire hazard areas, wildfire buffers, and incentives to remove structures that significantly increase hazard risk. This bill would include in the list of eligible projects grants to the above-mentioned entities for improvements to public evacuation routes in very high and high fire hazard severity zones, mobile rigid dip tanks, as defined, to support firefighting efforts, prepositioned mobile rigid water storage, as defined, and improvements to the response and effectiveness of fire engines and helicopters. The bill would also include grants, in coordination with the Public Utilities Commission, to local agencies, state agencies, special districts, joint powers authorities, tribes, and nonprofit organizations for backup electrical generators for water reservoirs.
(1) Existing law generally designates the State Air Resources Board as the state agency with the primary responsibility for the control of vehicular air pollution, and air pollution control districts and air quality management districts with the primary responsibility for the control of air pollution from all sources other than vehicular sources. "?>Existing law authorizes air districts to establish a permit system to require, with specified exceptions, that a person obtain a permit before constructing or operating any article, machine, equipment, or contrivance that may cause the issuance of air contaminants. Existing law prohibits an air district from issuing a permit to a Title V source, as defined, if the Administrator of the United States Environmental Protection Agency objects to its issuance, as specified. Existing law requires each district with moderate, serious, or severe air pollution to include certain measures in its plan to attain state ambient air quality standards, including the use of best available control technology for any new or modified stationary source, and the use of best available retrofit control technology for all existing stationary sources, under certain circumstances, as prescribed. Under the federal Clean Air Act, a new or modified major stationary source is required to meet various requirements in order to obtain a permit to operate, including a requirement that the source employs best available control technology on its emission-emitting equipment. This bill would establish definitions for the terms "best available control technology" and "best available retrofit control technology" for purposes of the laws governing air pollution and would set forth various requirements for the determination of best available control technology. The bill would require an air district to submit a proposed permit for a Title V source to the executive officer of the state board. The bill would require the executive officer to review the permit and, if the executive officer determines that the permit does not comply with the federal Clean Air Act or state law governing air pollution, to object to the issuance of that permit. If the executive officer objects to the issuance of a permit, the bill would prohibit the air district from finalizing that permit without revising it to address the objection to the satisfaction of the executive officer. The bill would also authorize any person to petition the executive officer to object to a proposed Title V permit within 30 days of the executive officer's receipt of the proposed permit, as specified. The bill would require an applicant for a renewal of a Title V permit to submit a technical feasibility analysis to the air district as part of its application for the renewal of that permit if the facility's current effective operating permit includes equipment or control apparatus that meets certain criteria. The bill would require an air district to require best available retrofit control technology to be applied at each piece of equipment or source category identified in the technical feasibility analysis and would authorize an air district to impose measures more stringent than those proposed by the applicant, as specified. (2) Existing law requires the state board to implement a program to assist air districts to improve efficiencies in the issuance of permits and requires that program to include a process to precertify simple, commonly used equipment and processes as being in compliance with air quality rules and regulations, to expedite permitting of air pollution sources. Existing law requires the California Environmental Protection Agency to evaluate the feasibility of expanding the precertification program to involve other state and local regulatory agencies with jurisdiction over other environmental media. This bill would revise the precertification program including by requiring the state board to update criteria and guidelines for precertification at least once every 8 years. The bill would authorize the precertification program to include the identification of equipment, controls, fuels, and processes, as specified. As part of the precertification program, the bill would authorize the state board to prescribe rules to establish a voluntary program for the temporary assignment or loan of employees within an agency, or between agencies or jurisdictions, including air districts, on a limited-term basis, to enable the state to obtain expertise needed to meet a compelling program need. The bill would authorize the California Environmental Protection Agency to expand the precertification program to involve other state and local regulatory agencies with jurisdiction over other environmental media. (3) Existing law requires every air district, except as provided, to establish a program to provide for the expedited review of permits. Existing law requires that expedited permit system to include, among other things, a precertification program for equipment that is mass-produced and operated by numerous sources under the same or similar conditions and a training and certification program for private sector personnel, as specified. This bill would eliminate the requirement that the expedited permit system include a precertification program established by the applicable air district. The bill would instead require the expedited permit system to include an expedited permit review pathway for permit applications that propose to use equipment and processes identified through the state board's precertification program described above, as specified. The bill would also eliminate the requirement that the expedited permit system include a training and certification program and would instead require the publication of online training resources for private sector personnel that explain expedited permitting pathways. (4) Existing law requires the state board to establish and maintain a statewide clearinghouse that identifies the best available control technology and best available retrofit control technology for criteria air pollutants, and related technologies for the control of toxic air contaminants. When updating best available control technology determinations, existing law requires a district to use the information in the statewide clearinghouse. This bill would require the state board to periodically issue determinations to suggest best available control technology, and best available retrofit control technology, for any class or category of sources and to establish best available control technology for the control of toxic air contaminants for any class or category of sources. The bill would authorize members of the public to petition the state board to issue a determination. (5) Existing law authorizes the state board to appoint employees and prescribe their duties. This bill would authorize the state board and any district to temporarily loan and assign staff members to each other, via a memorandum of agreement, for any lawful purpose. (6) Existing law generally makes any violation of a rule or regulation of the state board or an air district relating to nonvehicular air pollution control a misdemeanor. To the extent that the bill would expand the definition of a crime, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (7) By expanding the duties of air districts, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (8) 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 specified reasons.
Existing law establishes the State Department of Public Health and sets forth its powers and duties pertaining to, among other things, protecting, preserving, and advancing public health. Existing law requires the department, in consultation with specified stakeholders, to develop a plan, addressing specified issues, with recommendations and guidelines for counties to use in the case of a significant air quality event caused by wildfires or other sources. This bill, the Wildfire Smoke and Health Outcomes Data Act, would require the State Department of Public Health, in consultation with the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection and the Wildfire and Forest Resilience Task Force, to create, operate, and maintain a statewide integrated wildfire smoke and health data platform on or before July 1, 2028, that, among other things, would integrate wildfire smoke and health data from multiple databases. Under the bill, the purposes for the data platform would include providing adequate information to understand the negative health impacts on California's population caused by wildfire smoke and evaluating the effectiveness of investments in forest health and wildfire mitigation on health outcomes in California. This bill would require the State Department of Public Health, in consultation with the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection and the Wildfire and Forest Resilience Task Force, to develop, among other things, protocols for data sharing, documentation, quality control, and promotion of open-source platforms and decision support tools related to wildfire smoke and health data. This bill would authorize the State Department of Public Health, the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, and the Wildfire and Forest Resilience Task Force, where appropriate, to utilize data from existing sources, including open source data and other external data, for purposes of implementing the act. This bill would create the Wildfire Smoke and Health Administration Fund. Under the bill, moneys in the fund would be available, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to the State Department of Public Health, the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, and the Wildfire and Forest Resilience Task Force for the collection, management, and improvement of wildfire smoke and health data for the purposes of the act. The bill would specify that these provisions do not change existing law with respect to the jurisdiction of the public entities involved. The bill would make related findings and declarations.
(1) Existing law establishes the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission and prescribes the authorities, duties, and responsibilities of the commission pertaining to energy matters. Existing law requires the commission, on or before January 1, 2019, in consultation with the Contractors State License Board, local building officials, and other stakeholders, to approve a plan that promotes compliance with specified regulations relating to building energy efficiency standards in the installation of central air-conditioning and heat pumps, as specified. Existing law authorizes the commission to adopt regulations to increase compliance with permitting and inspection requirements for central air-conditioning and heat pumps, and associated sales and installations, consistent with the above-described plan. The bill would require a city, county, or city and county to adopt and offer asynchronous inspections for installations of residential heat pump water heater or heat pump HVAC systems, as defined, that do not require a licensed contractor and building inspector to be simultaneously present during the inspection. The bill would authorize a building inspector to contact the licensed contractor who performed the installation by telephone call or real-time video conferencing during their inspection, and, if the building inspector determines during an asynchronous inspection that there is an issue with an installation of the heat pump water heater or heat pump HVAC system and that the licensed contractor who performed the installation must be present to perform tests or cure the installation, to require the licensed contractor who performed the installation to schedule an additional inspection in which the building inspector and the licensed contractor who performed the installation are required to be simultaneously present during the additional inspection. The bill would specify that these provisions do not require a local entity described above to discontinue offering inspections for the installation of a residential heat pump water heater or heat pump HVAC system that require a building inspector and licensed contractor to be simultaneously present. The bill would authorize a city, county, or city and county, except as specified, to issue up to one nondiscretionary permit per installation of a residential heat pump water heater or heat pump HVAC system in which the local entity administratively approves an application to install the residential heat pump water heater or heat pump HVAC system. The bill would authorize a city, county, or city and county to apply only certain additional building, planning or zoning, or workforce labor standards on the installation of a residential heat pump water heater or residential heat pump HVAC system, including additional standards that conform to local laws, including reach codes, designed to encourage the adoption of zero-emission equipment or improvement of building efficiency. The bill would prohibit a local entity described above from requiring a permit or inspection for plug-in ready window air-conditioner or window heat pump HVAC systems, provided that certain requirements are met, including that the appliance has a voltage rating of 120 volts or less and the appliance is a self-contained unit. The bill would require the commission, on or before July 1, 2026, to develop standardized permitting checklists, as prescribed, for local governments to use in the permitting process for installations of residential heat pump water heater or heat pump HVAC systems, as specified, subject to certain requirements, including that the standardized permitting checklists do not exceed 2 pages in length. The bill would require a city, county, or city and county, on or before July 1, 2027, to implement an online automated permitting process that verifies code compliance and issues permits in real time within the same day of the application being submitted to a licensed contractor for the installation of a residential heat pump water heater or residential heat pump HVAC system. The bill would require a permit to be issued pursuant to the automated permitting process, upon discretion of the administering jurisdiction, if the installation complies with the checklist requirements. The bill would require the local entity to publish and make publicly available, among other things, checklists on their internet website. The bill would require the local entity to allow an applicant to, among other things, submit an automated permit application and associated documentation electronically. The bill would, upon confirmation by the local entity that the application and supporting documents are complete and meet the checklist requirements, require the local entity to approve the application and issue all required permits or authorizations. The bill would, upon receipt of an incomplete application, require the local entity to issue a written correction notice, as specified. The bill would exempt from these requirements a city with a population of fewer than 5,000 persons or a county with a population of fewer than 150,000 persons, as specified. The bill would, except as provided, prohibit a city, county, or city and county from charging a permit fee for a residential heat pump water heater and heat pump HVAC system that exceeds the estimated reasonable cost of providing the service for which the fee is charged, subject to specified requirements, including that the permit fee for a residential heat pump water heater system does not exceed $50. The bill would, notwithstanding that provision, authorize a local entity described above to charge a permit fee for the installation of a residential heat pump water heater or heat pump HVAC system that exceeds the above-described fee limit, as specified, if the local entity, as part of a written finding and an adopted resolution or ordinance, provides substantial evidence of the reasonable cost to issue the permit, and would prohibit a local entity described above from applying additional charges above the advertised fee schedule. The bill would include findings and declarations related to these provisions. (2) Existing law, the Davis-Stirling Common Interest Development Act, defines and regulates common interest developments. Among other things, the act makes a provision of the governing documents, as defined, or architectural or landscaping guidelines or policies void and unenforceable if, among other things, the provision prohibits, or includes conditions that have the effect of prohibiting, the use of low water-using plants as a group or as a replacement of existing turf. This bill would additionally make any provision of the governing documents, architectural guidelines, or policies void and unenforceable if the provision prevents the replacement of a fuel-gas-burning appliance with an electric appliance. The bill would also make any covenant, restriction, or condition contained in any, among other specified agreements, deed, and any provision of a governing document, that effectively prohibits or restricts the installation or use of a residential heat pump water heater or heat pump HVAC system, void and unenforceable. (3) The bill would include findings that changes proposed by this bill address a matter of statewide concern rather than a municipal affair and, therefore, apply to all cities, including charter cities. (4) 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, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above.
