Asm. Steve Bennett

Existing law requires the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission (Energy Commission) , working with the State Air Resources Board and the Public Utilities Commission, to prepare and update, as provided, a statewide assessment of the electric vehicle charging infrastructure needed to support the levels of electric vehicle adoption required for the state to meet its goals of putting at least 5,000,000 zero-emission vehicles on California roads by 2030, and of reducing emissions of greenhouse gases to 40% below 1990 levels by 2030. Existing law establishes the Clean Transportation Program, administered by the Energy Commission, to provide funding to certain entities to develop and deploy innovative technologies that transform California's fuel and vehicle types to help attain the state's climate change policies. This bill would require a person who receives state funding to deploy a publicly available electric vehicle charging station to agree, as a condition of receiving the funding, to operate the station in compliance with reliability and reporting standards that would be developed by the Energy Commission, as specified. The bill would require the Energy Commission and the Public Utilities Commission to develop excluded time criteria from which the recipient of the state funding is exempt from reliability standards compliance. The bill would require the Energy Commission to publish data on compliance with the reliability standards as part of the above-described assessment and to protect the confidential information of an entity subject to the reliability standards by anonymizing and aggregating the compliance data in the assessment. The bill would also require the state board, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to develop a program, in consultation with the California Integrated Travel Project, to provide financial assistance to residents of low-income or disadvantaged communities, or both, to use electric vehicle charging stations, as specified. Existing constitutional provisions require that a statute that limits the right of access to the meetings of public bodies or the writings of public officials and agencies be adopted with findings demonstrating the interest protected by the limitation and the need for protecting that interest. This bill would make legislative findings to that effect.

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, including, among other solid waste, plastic packaging containers. This bill would require an e-commerce shipper, as defined, that ships purchased products in or into the state to reduce from its 2023 calendar year levels the total weight and number of units of single-use plastic shipping envelopes, cushioning, and void fill, and expanded and extruded polystyrene, it uses to ship or transport the products, by no less than unspecified percentages on or before January 1, 2030. The bill would establish exemptions from these prohibitions. The bill would make a violation of the foregoing requirements subject to civil penalties and would require penalties collected by the Attorney General to be deposited into the Plastic Packaging Reduction Penalty Account, which the bill would create, for expenditure by the Attorney General, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to enforce those requirements.

Existing law requires the State Department of Social Services to allocate certain funds through contracts with community-based providers or entities or through local assistance allocations to counties or Indian tribes that support new or expanded programs, services, practices, and training that build system capacity and ensure the provision of a high-quality continuum of care that is designed to support foster children in the least restrictive setting that is consistent with a child's permanency plan. Existing law requires recipients of those funds to use the funds for specified purposes, one of which may be building system capacity for intensive, child-specific recruitment, family finding and engagement, and support programs for children with complex needs. This bill would require county placing agencies, to the extent that funding is available and provided, to implement model practices for intensive family finding and support for foster children, children detained but not adjudicated, and candidates for foster care. The bill would require a county, as a condition of receiving funds for this purpose, to submit a county plan to the department that describes, among other things, the population to be served and the expected outcomes and method for tracking outcomes. The bill would require the county plan to be automatically approved if it complies with those requirements and would require the department to notify a county within 14 business days of receiving the county plan of any required changes to, or additional information needed for, the county plan. The bill would require counties receiving funds pursuant to these provisions to track and report outcomes achieved through the use of the funds. The bill would authorize the department to implement these provisions through all-county letters or similar written instructions.

Existing law requires the court to grant a fee waiver to an applicant at any stage of the proceedings at both the appellate and trial court levels if the applicant meets specified standards of eligibility and application requirements, including a person who is receiving certain public benefits, such as Supplemental Security Income or Medi-Cal, or who has a monthly income of 125% or less of the current poverty guidelines, as specified. An initial fee waiver excuses the applicant from paying, among other fees and costs, fees for the first pleading and other court fees and costs as specified in rules adopted by the Judicial Council. This bill would require a court to initially grant permission to proceed without paying court fees and costs to a person who was joined or countersued in a case involving a water right held by the person.

(1) Existing law establishes within the Natural Resources Agency the State Water Resources Control Board and the California regional water quality control boards. Existing law requires the work of the state board to be divided into at least 2 divisions, known as the Division of Water Rights and the Division of Water Quality. Existing law requires the state board to formulate and adopt state policy for water quality control. This bill would create a Drought Section within the state board, as specified. The bill would require the state board, in consultation with the Department of Fish and Wildlife, to adopt principles and guidelines for diversion and use of water in coastal watersheds, as specified, during times of water shortage for drought preparedness and climate resiliency. The bill would require that the principles and guidelines provide for the development of watershed-level contingency plans to support public trust uses, public health and safety, and the human right to water in times of water shortage, among other things. The bill also would require the state board, prior to adopting those principles and guidelines, to allow for public comment and hearing, as provided. The bill would require the state board to adopt those principles and guidelines no later than March 31, 2024. (2) Existing law authorizes the state board to issue a cease and desist order against a person who is violating, or threatening to violate, certain requirements relating to water use. Existing law authorizes a person or entity in violation of a term or condition of a permit, license, certificate, or registration issued by, an order adopted by, or regulations adopted by, the state board to be held civilly liable for an amount not to exceed $500 for each day that the violation occurs. This bill would authorize the state board to issue a cease and desist order when a diversion or use violates or threatens to violate an applicable limitation or requirement adopted by the state board for the diversion and use of water in specified coastal watersheds during times of water shortage. The bill would authorize a person who violates a principle, guideline, or requirement adopted by the state board for the diversion and use of water in specified coastal watersheds during times of water shortage to be held liable in an amount not to exceed the sum of $500 for each day that the violation occurs.

Existing law establishes the Strategic Growth Council consisting of specified state agency members and members of the public. Existing law requires the council, among other things, to recommend policies and investment strategies and priorities to the Governor, the Legislature, and to appropriate state agencies to encourage the development of sustainable communities, such as those communities that promote equity, strengthen the economy, protect the environment, and promote public health and safety. The federal Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) provides additional federal funds to rebuild the nation's infrastructures. Executive orders issued by President Biden established the federal Justice40 Initiative with the goal that 40% of the overall federal benefits flow to disadvantaged communities and stating that the implementation of the IIJA should prioritize investing public dollars equitably, including through the Justice40 Initiative. This bill would require a minimum of 40% of funds received by the state under the IIJA and certain other federal funds to be allocated to projects that provide direct benefits to disadvantaged communities and disadvantaged unincorporated communities and, except as specified, a minimum of an additional 10% be allocated for projects that provide direct benefits to low-income households and low-income communities, as provided. The bill would require state agencies administering those federal funds to perform specified tasks related to the expenditure of those federal funds. This bill would establish the Justice40 Advisory Committee in the council, as provided, to perform various actions related to the expenditure of those federal funds. The bill would require the committee, by December 31, 2024, to submit a report to the Legislature, and to the council at a public meeting of the council, that identifies certain recommendations it has developed, including recommending projects under any covered program for federal funding. The bill would require the council, by December 31, 2027, to submit a report to the Legislature on the expenditure of federal funds and an evaluation of the state agencies' success in meeting the requirements of the bill. The bill would provide that those provisions would be repealed by their own terms on a specified date.

Existing law requires, by July 1, 2017, and every 3 years thereafter, the Natural Resources Agency to update, as prescribed, the state's climate adaptation strategy, known as the Safeguarding California Plan. Existing law establishes the Office of Planning and Research in state government in the Governor's office. Existing law establishes the Integrated Climate Adaptation and Resiliency Program to be administered by the office to coordinate regional and local efforts with state climate adaptation strategies to adapt to the impacts of climate change, as prescribed. This bill would authorize eligible entities, as defined, to establish and participate in a regional climate network, as defined. The bill would require the office, through the program, to encourage the inclusion of eligible entities with land use planning and hazard mitigation planning authority into regional climate networks. The bill would authorize a regional climate network to engage in activities to address climate change, as specified. The bill would authorize a regional climate network to develop a regional climate adaptation and resilience action plan. The bill would require the office, through the program, to develop and publish on its internet website guidelines on how eligible entities may establish regional climate networks and how governing boards may be established within regional climate networks. The bill would require the office, through the program, to provide technical assistance to regions seeking to establish a regional climate network, facilitate coordination between regions, and encourage regions to incorporate as many eligible entities into one network as feasible.

The California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 designates the State Air Resources Board as the state agency charged with monitoring and regulating sources of emissions of greenhouse gases. The state board is required to approve a statewide greenhouse gas emissions limit equivalent to the statewide greenhouse gas emissions level in 1990 to be achieved by 2020 and to ensure that statewide greenhouse gas emissions are reduced to at least 40% below the 1990 level by 2030. The act requires the state board to prepare and approve a scoping plan for achieving the maximum technologically feasible and cost-effective reductions in greenhouse gas emissions and to update the scoping plan at least once every 5 years. The act requires the scoping plan to identify and make recommendations on direct emissions reduction measures, alternative compliance mechanisms, market-based compliance mechanisms, and potential monetary and nonmonetary incentives for sources and categories of sources that the state board finds are necessary or desirable to facilitate the achievement of the maximum feasible and cost-effective reductions of greenhouse gas emissions, as provided. This bill would require, on or before March 1, 2023, and on or before March 1 of each year thereafter, each state agency, board, or department to post on its internet website a report regarding its compliance with and efforts to implement any goal or recommendation related to that state agency, board, or department, as defined, that is identified by the state board in the scoping plan, including any scoping plan updates. The bill would require a state agency, board, or department to include specified information in its report, including, but not limited to, identification of all scoping plan goals or recommendations that the state agency, board, or department is charged with or responsible, in whole or in part, for implementing, a description of the state agency's, board's, or department's, efforts to implement each scoping plan goal or recommendation, and whether the state agency, board, or department has fully implemented each scoping plan goal or recommendation. The bill would require, for each scoping plan goal or recommendation that is not fully implemented, a state agency, board, or department to describe in detail why the scoping plan goal or recommendation has not been fully implemented and the steps necessary for the state agency, board, or department to fully implement the goal or recommendation.