Existing law, the Uniform Controlled Substances Act, authorizes the forfeiture and seizure of property involved in, or purchased with the proceeds from, a controlled substance offense. Existing law authorizes a police or sheriff's department, the Department of Justice, or the Department of the California Highway Patrol to, with an order from the court, destroy controlled substances, instruments, or paraphernalia, as specified. This bill would require the Department of Justice, upon an appropriation by the Legislature, and in consultation with the Department of Toxic Substances Control and other relevant state and local agencies, to develop and publish guidance, on the Department of Justice's internet website, for proper management and disposal of controlled substances in the possession of law enforcement, as specified.
Existing law, the California Clean Energy Jobs Act, expresses a goal of creating good-paying energy efficiency and clean energy jobs in California. Existing law establishes in state government the Labor and Workforce Development Agency, under the supervision of the Secretary of Labor and Workforce Development, which consists of the Office of the Secretary of Labor and Workforce Development and the California Workforce Development Board, among others. Existing law creates the position of Deputy Secretary for Climate within the agency, subject to appropriation by the Legislature, for the purpose of assisting in the oversight of California's workforce transition to a sustainable and equitable carbon neutral economy. This bill would, upon appropriation by the Legislature, establish an Electric Vehicle Economic Opportunity Zone (EVEOZ) for the County of Riverside, administered by the Labor and Workforce Development Agency, for the purpose of creating programs to make electric vehicle manufacturing jobs and education more accessible to lower income communities. The bill would require the agency to collaborate with the County of Riverside in determining the geographical boundaries of the EVEOZ. By imposing additional duties on local officials, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would authorize the agency to partner with educational institutions, electric vehicle manufacturing businesses, and local and national financial intuitions to develop EVEOZ education, training, and investment programs, as specified. This bill would make legislative findings and declarations as to the necessity of a special statute for the County of Riverside. 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.
Existing law requires the Office of Land Use and Climate Innovation and the Natural Resources Agency, on or before July 1, 2026, and every 3 years thereafter, to update the Extreme Heat Action Plan to promote comprehensive, coordinated, and effective state and local government action on extreme heat. This bill would require the office and the agency, on or before July 1, 2028, to conduct an assessment of the disparate and differentiated gendered impacts and risks of extreme heat, as provided, for purposes of integration into updates to the Extreme Heat Action Plan. The bill would require the office and the agency to post the gender assessment on their respective internet websites and to provide the assessment to the relevant policy and fiscal committees of the Legislature. Existing law provides that it is the intent of the Legislature to prioritize the most vulnerable communities, ecosystems, and economic sectors in the state' climate adaptation and resilience strategy set forth in the Safeguarding California Plan and that the Natural Resources Agency consider developing policies to address the impacts of climate change and climate adaptation with a focus on equity and that actions taken to address climate adaptation should be consistent with the plan and specifies that in developing these policies and taking these actions, the agency include the adoption of strategies that seek to address and, at a minimum, avoid worsening social and racial inequities. This bill would additionally state the intent of the Legislature that those strategies shall seek to address and, at a minimum, avoid worsening gender inequities. Existing law requires the office, through the Integrated Climate Adaptation and Resiliency Program, to develop the California Climate Change Assessment to provide an integrated suite of products that report the impacts and risks of climate change, based on the best available science, and identify potential solutions to inform legislative policy. Existing law requires the office to complete the assessment no less frequently than every 5 years. Existing law requires the products in the assessment to include, among other things, reports on issues of statewide significance, including, but not limited to, environmental justice considerations. This bill would expressly require the reports on issues of statewide significance to include gender impact considerations.
(1) Under existing law, the State Water Resources Control Board and the 9 California regional water quality control boards regulate water quality and prescribe waste discharge requirements in accordance with the Porter-Cologne Water Quality Control Act (act) and the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit program. Under the act, the State Water Resources Control Board is authorized to adopt water quality control plans for waters for which quality standards are required by the federal Clean Water Act, as specified, and that in the event of a conflict, those plans supersede regional water quality control plans for the same waters. This bill would authorize the state board to adopt water quality control plans for nexus waters, which the bill would define as all waters of the state that are not also navigable, except as specified. The bill would require any water quality standard that was submitted to, and approved by, or is awaiting approval by, the United States Environmental Protection Agency or the state board that applied to nexus waters as of May 24, 2023, to remain in effect, as provided. The bill would require the state board and regional boards to include nexus waters in all federal Clean Water Act processes, including, but not limited to, the California Integrated Report and the establishment of total maximum daily loads, as specified. (2) Existing law requires a regional board, after any necessary hearing, to prescribe requirements as to the nature of any proposed discharge, existing discharge, or material change in an existing discharge, except discharges into a community sewer system, with relation to the conditions existing in the disposal area or receiving waters upon, or into which, the discharge is made or proposed and sets forth what the requirements are to include. This bill would require the above-described discharge requirements to, in the case of discharges from any point source to nexus waters, implement, at a minimum, the requirements of provisions implementing the Federal Water Pollution Control Act and acts amendatory thereof or supplementary thereto. (3) The act authorizes the imposition of civil penalties for violations of certain waste discharge requirements, including violation of a cease and desist order or a cleanup and abatement order, and requires that penalties imposed pursuant to these provisions be deposited into the Waste Discharge Permit Fund, to be expended by the state board, upon appropriation by the Legislature, for specified purposes related to water quality. For violations of certain other waste discharge requirements, the act imposes specified civil penalties, the proceeds of which are deposited into the continuously appropriated State Water Pollution Cleanup and Abatement Account. This bill would require, commencing January 1, 2026, and each calendar year thereafter, the state board's executive director to adjust civil monetary penalties, as specified, including the civil penalties for the above-described provisions. The bill would require moneys collected in accordance with these annual adjustments to be deposited into the Penalty Adjustment Account, that the bill would establish within the Waste Discharge Permit Fund, and upon appropriation by the Legislature, be expended by the state board for purposes of cleaning up and abating the effects of waste on waters of the state. (4) Existing law generally provides for enforcement and implementation of the act. This bill would authorize specified entities, including the Attorney General and the state board, to bring an action to enforce certain provisions related to nexus waters or waste discharge requirements for nexus waters, as provided. (5) The act provides various provisions related to waste discharge to ensure consistency with the requirements for state programs implementing the Federal Water Pollution Control Act and acts amendatory thereof or supplementary thereto. The act defines the terms "navigable waters," "administrator," "pollutants," "biological monitoring," "discharge," and "point sources" as having the same meanings as in the Federal Water Pollution Control Act. This bill would provide that "waste discharge requirements" include waste discharge requirements issued for discharges to nexus waters, and "discharge" includes any addition of a pollutant to a nexus water from any point source. The bill would provide that for purposes of compliance with the Federal Water Pollution Control Act, nexus waters shall be treated as though they are navigable waters and navigable waters of the United States. The bill would require waste discharge requirements adopted or amended for discharges to nexus waters to be adopted pursuant to and in accordance with the requirements of provisions implementing the Federal Water Pollution Control Act and acts amendatory thereof or supplementary thereto, as specified. (6) The act requires a person who discharges pollutants or proposes to discharge pollutants to the navigable waters of the United States within the jurisdiction of this state or a person who discharges dredged or fill material or proposes to discharge dredged or fill material into the navigable waters of the United States within the jurisdiction of this state to file a report of the discharge, except as specified. The act prohibits the discharge of pollutants or dredged or fill material or the operation of a publicly owned treatment works or other treatment works treating domestic sewage by any person, except as authorized by waste discharge requirements or dredged or fill material permits. This bill would require a person to file a report for discharges to nexus waters. The bill would apply the above-described prohibition to nexus waters.
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.
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.
