Environment

Existing law establishes the state flag and the state's emblems, including, among other things, the golden poppy as the official state flower, the California redwood as the official state tree, and the California gray whale as the official state marine mammal. Existing law establishes the California State Library within the state government and vests control of the library to the State Librarian. Existing law authorizes the California State Library to serve as the central reference and research library for the departments of state government and maintain adequate legislative reference and research library services for the Legislature. This bill would require the California State Library to conduct a study, in consultation with the public, on the best candidate for the official state energy. The bill would require the California State Library, on or before January 1, 2028, to submit a report to the Legislature with the California State Library's recommendations based on the study. The bill would repeal these provisions on January 1, 2032.

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.

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.

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.

This measure would request that the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management hold public hearings in California on the proposed 2026–2031 National Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program, prepare an environmental impact statement to accompany the program, and provide the public the opportunity to comment on a draft programmatic environmental impact statement for potential offshore oil and gas leasing in California. The measure would strongly and unequivocally oppose any new offshore drilling and declare unequivocal support for the current federal prohibition on new oil or gas drilling in federal waters offshore of the Pacific coast.

This measure would urge President Donald J. Trump and Congress to protect and maintain the historic investments made possible by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the CHIPS and Science Act, and the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022.

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.

Existing law, the Administrative Procedure Act, sets forth the requirements for the adoption, publication, review, and implementation of regulations by state agencies. The Safe Drinking Water, Wildfire Prevention, Drought Preparedness, and Clean Air Bond Act of 2024 (act) , 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. Existing law authorizes certain regulations needed to effectuate or implement programs of the act to be adopted as emergency regulations in accordance with the Administrative Procedure Act, as provided. Existing law requires the emergency regulations to be filed with the Office of Administrative Law and requires the emergency regulations to remain in effect until repealed or amended by the adopting state agency. This bill, notwithstanding the above, would exempt the adoption of regulations for purposes of developing and adopting program guidelines and selection criteria needed to effectuate or implement programs of the act from the requirements of the Administrative Procedure Act, as provided. The bill would require a state entity that receives funding to administer a competitive grant program established using the Administrative Procedure Act exemption to do certain things, including, among other things, to develop draft project solicitation and evaluation guidelines, to transmit copies of the draft guidelines to the fiscal committees and to the appropriate policy committees of the Legislature, to hold a noticed public meeting on the draft guidelines, and to submit the final guidelines to the Secretary of the Natural Resources Agency, except as provided. The bill would require the Secretary of the Natural Resources Agency to post an electronic form of the guidelines submitted by a state entity and the subsequent verifications on the Natural Resources Agency's internet website. The bill would authorize the use of certain previously developed program guidelines and selection criteria for these purposes, as provided. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.

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.

Existing state sales and use tax laws impose a tax on retailers measured by the gross receipts from the sale of tangible personal property sold at retail in this state of, or on the storage, use, or other consumption in this state of, tangible personal property purchased from a retailer for storage, use, or other consumption in this state. The Sales and Use Tax Law provides various exemptions from those taxes, including a partial exemption for the sale of, or the storage, use, or consumption of, qualified tangible personal property purchased for use by a qualified person to be used primarily in any stage of the manufacturing, processing, refining, fabricating, or recycling of tangible personal property, beginning at the point any raw materials are received by the qualified person and introduced into the process and ending at the point at which the manufacturing, processing, refining, fabricating, or recycling has altered tangible personal property to its completed form, including packaging, if required. Existing law (backfill requirement) requires an amount that equals the estimated revenue loss to the General Fund from the allowance of the above-described exemptions, with the concurrence of the Department of Finance, to be transferred from the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund to the General Fund, as prescribed. This bill would, beginning July 1, 2027, define "processing" to include the altering, converting, conditioning, or other preparation of hydrogen or electricity for the purposes of selling the hydrogen for fueling or the electricity for charging a vehicle and would define "qualified tangible personal property" to include hydrogen fueling station equipment and charging station equipment and component parts used as an integral part of those activities. By expanding the scope of the crime of perjury, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. This bill would provide that the backfill requirement does not apply with respect to the exemptions allowed by the bill, as specified. Existing law requires any bill authorizing a new tax expenditure to contain, among other things, specific goals, purposes, and objectives that the tax expenditure will achieve, detailed performance indicators, and data collection requirements. This bill would include additional information required for any bill authorizing a new tax expenditure. 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 bill would take effect immediately as a tax levy.