(1) 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. The act requires a city, county, or city and county, or regional agency formed under the act, to develop a source reduction and recycling element of an integrated waste management plan containing specified components. The act requires those jurisdictions to divert 50% of the solid waste subject to the element, except as specified, through source reduction, recycling, and composting activities. The act allows the 50% diversion requirement to include not more than 10% through transformation, as defined, if specified conditions are met. This bill would repeal the provision authorizing the inclusion of not more than 10% of the diversion through transformation. Because the bill would require local agencies to revise the source reduction and recycling elements of their integrated waste management plans, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (2) The act authorizes the department, under specified conditions, to reduce the diversion requirements for a city or county that, before January 1, 1990, disposed of 75% or more of its solid waste by transformation. This bill would repeal that authorization. (3) Existing law requires the department, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to administer a grant program to provide financial assistance to promote in-state development of infrastructure, food waste prevention, or other projects to reduce organic waste or process organic and other recyclable materials into new, value-added products. Existing law establishes certain methane emissions reductions goals, including a 75% reduction in the level of the statewide disposal of organic waste from the 2014 level by 2025 to reduce the landfill disposal of organics. This bill would require the department, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to establish and administer the Zero-Waste Equity Grant Program as a competitive grant program to support targeted strategies and investments in communities transitioning to a zero-waste circular economy. The bill would require the department to provide grants to eligible zero-waste projects, as described. (4) This bill would also require the department, in consultation with the California Workforce Development Board and the Department of Industrial Relations to submit policy recommendations to the Legislature on how to increase job opportunities and improve labor standards and worker pay related to the zero-waste job sector. (5) This bill would also make other conforming changes. (6) 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.
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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. This bill would declare the intent of the Legislature that state agencies aim to achieve net-zero emissions of greenhouse gases resulting from their operations no later than January 1, 2035, or as soon as feasible thereafter. The bill would require the Department of General Services, in consultation with the state board, and to the extent feasible, to publish, on its internet website or other publicly available location, an inventory of the greenhouse gas emissions of state agencies for the prior calendar year, on or before July 1, 2024, and annually thereafter until the goal has been achieved. The bill would require the department to develop and publish a plan, on or before January 1, 2026, that describes required actions and investments for achieving net-zero emissions of greenhouse gases and an estimate of the costs associated with the planned actions, and ensure that the required actions and investments are incorporated into the sustainability roadmaps of all state agencies. The bill would require the department to update the plan beginning June 30, 2028, and every 2 years thereafter until the goal has been achieved. The bill, subject to an appropriation by the Legislature, would require the department to provide information, training, coordination, best practices, and other technical assistance to state agencies to help those state agencies implement the required actions and investments. The bill would require state agencies to incorporate the required actions and investments into their future budget proposals, as provided. The bill would require the department, beginning December 31, 2027, and biennially thereafter until the achievement of the above stated goal, to report to the Legislature on progress toward achieving that goal, as provided.
Existing law establishes the State Air Resources Board as the state agency responsible for monitoring and regulating sources emitting greenhouse gases. Existing law, the California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006, requires the state board to ensure that statewide greenhouse gas emissions are reduced to at least 40% below the 1990 level by 2030. Existing law requires, no later than July 1, 2023, the Natural Resources Agency, in coordination with the state board, the California Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Food and Agriculture, and other relevant state agencies, to establish the Natural and Working Lands Climate Smart Strategy and, in developing the strategy, to create a framework to advance the state's climate goals. Existing law requires the state board, as part of its scoping plan, to establish specified carbon dioxide removal targets for 2030 and beyond. This bill would require the state board to establish a Carbon Capture, Removal, Utilization, and Storage Program, as provided, to evaluate the efficacy, safety, and viability of carbon capture, utilization, or storage (CCUS) technologies and carbon dioxide removal (CDR) technologies and facilitate the capture and sequestration of carbon dioxide from those technologies, where appropriate. The bill would require the program to ensure that carbon dioxide capture, removal, and sequestration projects include specified components including, among others, certain monitoring activities. In carrying out the program's objectives, the bill would require the state board to prioritize, among other priorities, reducing the emissions of greenhouses gases and reducing fossil fuel production in the state. The bill would require the state board to adopt regulations to implement the program and, in developing the program, to consult with the Geologic Carbon Sequestration Group described below. This bill would require the state board, in consultation with relevant state and local agencies, by January 1, 2025, to adopt regulations for a unified permit application for the construction and operation of carbon dioxide capture, removal, or sequestration projects to expedite the issuance of permits or other authorizations for the construction and operation of those projects. The bill would require relevant state agencies to use the unified permit application when issuing permits or other authorizations for a carbon dioxide capture, removal, or sequestration project. This bill would require the state board, by January 1, 2025, to develop a centralized public database to track the deployment of CCUS and CDR technologies and the development of carbon dioxide capture, removal, and sequestration projects throughout the state. The bill would authorize the state board, by January 1, 2024, to adopt protocols to support additional methods of utilization or storage of captured carbon dioxide. The bill would require the state board, no later than January 1, 2025, to adopt regulations for financial responsibility for carbon dioxide capture, removal, or sequestration projects, as specified. This bill would require the Secretary of the Natural Resources Agency, in consultation with the state board, to publish a framework by July 1, 2025, for governing agreements regarding 2 or more tracts of land overlying the same geologic storage reservoir or reservoirs for purposes of managing, developing, and operating a carbon dioxide capture, removal, or sequestration project, as provided. This bill would provide that title to any geologic storage reservoir is vested in the owner of the overlying surface estate unless it has been severed and separately conveyed and would establish certain requirements with regard to the conveyance of the ownership interest of a geologic storage reservoir. No less than 60 days before commencing development of a carbon dioxide capture, removal, and sequestration project, the bill would require the carbon dioxide capture, removal, or sequestration project operator to provide written notice of the project to each owner of a surface, subsurface, or storage reservoir estate that is adjacent to a geologic storage complex or a geologic storage reservoir that is included in the project. The bill would repeal the provisions described in this paragraph on a specified date. This bill would require a carbon dioxide capture, removal, or sequestration project operator, among other things, (1) to maintain financial responsibility for a specified period of time, (2) to show proof to the state board that there is binding agreement among relevant parties that drilling or extraction that may penetrate the geologic storage reservoir are prohibited for at least 100 years after the last date of injection of carbon dioxide into a geologic storage reservoir, and (3) to create an air monitoring and mitigation plan and to submit the plan to the state board. This bill would authorize the state board to require changes in operations of a carbon dioxide capture, removal, or sequestration project to ensure public and environmental health and safety if the monitoring and reporting detects increased seismicity or carbon dioxide leakage outside the geologic storage reservoir. This bill would require the California Geological Survey to establish the Geologic Carbon Sequestration Group to provide independent expertise and regulatory guidance to the state board. The bill would establish certain of the group's duties, including identifying high-quality, suitable locations of a class of carbon dioxide injection wells. Existing law requires the State Oil and Gas Supervisor to supervise the drilling, operation, maintenance, and abandonment of wells and the operation, maintenance, and removal or abandonment of tanks and facilities attendant to oil and gas production. The federal Safe Drinking Water Act regulates certain wells as Class II injection wells. Under existing federal law, the authority to regulate Class II injection wells is delegated to the Geologic Energy Management Division. Under existing regulations, a well operator is required to obtain approval from the supervisor or a district deputy for a subsurface injection or disposal project, including Class II injection wells, and is required to file a notice of intention whenever a new well is to be drilled for use as an injection well or whenever an existing well is converted to an injection well. This bill would prohibit an operator from injecting a concentrated carbon dioxide fluid produced by a carbon dioxide capture, removal, or sequestration project into a Class II injection well for purposes of enhanced oil recovery, including the facilitation of enhanced oil recovery from another well. Under existing law, a person who fails to comply with specified requirements relating to the regulation of oil or gas operations is guilty of a misdemeanor. Because a violation of the prohibition specified in this bill would be a crime, the 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 bill would make its operation contingent on the enactment of AB 1279 of the 2021–22 Regular Session, as provided.
Existing law requires the State Air Resources Board to prepare, and to update at least once every 5 years, a statewide strategy to reduce emissions of toxic air contaminants and criteria air pollutants in communities affected by a high cumulative exposure burden. Existing law requires the state board to include in the statewide strategy, among other components, an assessment and identification of communities with high cumulative exposure burdens for toxic air contaminants and criteria air pollutants, prioritizing disadvantaged communities and sensitive receptor locations based on specified factors. Existing law requires the state board, based on the assessment and identification of communities with high cumulative exposure burdens, to select locations around the state for preparation of community emissions reduction programs. Existing law requires an air district encompassing any location selected by the state board to adopt, within one year of the state board's selection, a community emissions reduction program to achieve emissions reductions for the location selected using cost-effective measures, as specified. Existing law also requires an air district to submit the community emissions reduction program to the state board for review and approval as prescribed, and to prepare an annual report summarizing the results and actions taken to further reduce emissions pursuant to the community emissions reduction program, among other things. This bill would require the state board to additionally identify in each statewide strategy update measures to reduce criteria air pollutants and toxic air contaminants. The bill would authorize an air district that is required to adopt a community emissions reduction program to take up to one additional year to adopt the program, if the state board and a majority of the persons who are designated by the district to participate in the development and adoption of the program agree. The bill would require an air district that is required to adopt a community emissions reduction program to additionally include in its annual report a summary of updates to the program made to ensure consistency with updates to the statewide strategy. The bill would require an air district with a population of 1,000,000 persons or more that issues permits to stationary sources of criteria air pollutants or toxic air contaminants to make available in an easily identifiable location on the air district's internet website all permits issued by the air district for those stationary sources. By increasing the duties of air districts, the 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 requires the State Water Resources Control Board to formulate and adopt state policy for water quality control. Existing law requires the regional boards 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. Existing law also authorizes the state board or a regional board to waive these requirements as to a specific discharge or type of discharge if the state board or a regional board determines, after any necessary state board or regional board meeting, that the waiver is consistent with any applicable state or regional water quality control plan and is in the public interest. This bill would, among other things, specify that the state board and each regional board need to begin outreach to identify issues of environmental justice as early as possible in planning, policy, and permitting processes. The bill would require the state board and each regional board to engage in equitable, culturally relevant community outreach to promote meaningful civic engagement from potentially impacted communities of proposed discharges of waste that may have disproportionate impacts on water quality in disadvantaged communities or tribal communities and ensure that outreach and engagement shall continue throughout the waste discharge planning, policy, and permitting processes. The bill would require the state board and each regional board, contingent upon an appropriation, to hire environmental justice and tribal community coordinator positions for specified purposes. The bill would require the state board, contingent upon a specific appropriation, to establish a community capacity-building stipend program to promote meaningful civic engagement by disadvantaged communities and tribal communities in the state board and regional board decisionmaking processes, among other activities. The bill would require the state board and each regional board to make a finding, as specified, on potential environmental justice, tribal impact, and racial equity considerations when adopting water quality control plans or state policies for water quality control, and when issuing or reissuing waste discharge requirements or waivers of waste discharge requirements. The bill would also set forth related findings and declarations.
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. This bill, the California Climate Crisis Act, would declare the policy of the state both to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions as soon as possible, but no later than 2045, and achieve and maintain net negative greenhouse gas emissions thereafter, and to ensure that by 2045, statewide anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions are reduced to at least 85% below the 1990 levels. The bill would require the state board to work with relevant state agencies to ensure that updates to the scoping plan identify and recommend measures to achieve these policy goals and to identify and implement a variety of policies and strategies that enable carbon dioxide removal solutions and carbon capture, utilization, and storage technologies in California, as specified. The bill would require the state board to submit an annual report, as specified. This bill would make its operation contingent on the enactment of SB 905 of the 2021–22 Regular Session, as provided.
Existing law requires the Natural Resources Agency to release a draft of the state's climate adaptation strategy, known as the Safeguarding California Plan, by January 1, 2017, and every 3 years thereafter, to update the plan by July 1, 2017, and every 3 years thereafter, and to coordinate with other state agencies to identify vulnerabilities to climate change by sectors and priority actions needed to reduce the risks in those sectors. Existing law requires, to address the vulnerabilities identified in the plan, state agencies to maximize specified objectives. This bill would instead require the agency to release the draft plan by January 1, 2024, and every 3 years thereafter, and to update the plan by July 1, 2024, and every 3 years thereafter. The bill would require the agency to also coordinate with the Office of Planning and Research and identify, among other things, vulnerabilities to climate change for vulnerable communities, an operational definition of "climate resilience" for each sector and for vulnerable communities, special protections of vulnerable communities and industries that are disproportionately impacted by climate change, opportunities to improve policy and budget coordination across jurisdictions, and timetables and specific metrics to measure and evaluate the state's progress in implementing the plan. The bill would require each lead agency or group of agencies to be informed, at a minimum, by specified documents and climate science research in identifying the vulnerabilities to climate change. The bill would require state agencies to also maximize the objective of prioritizing equity by ensuring public expenditures that address climate change adaptation prioritize protecting vulnerable communities, rectifying intersectional and systemic inequities, and enhancing low-income and vulnerable communities' abilities to weather the impacts of climate change. The bill would authorize the Treasurer, and the financing authorities that the Treasurer chairs, to assist state agencies by leveraging public and private capital investment to help with loans and other incentives to attain the goals established pursuant to these provisions.
Existing law establishes the Geologic Energy Management Division in the Department of Conservation, under the direction of the State Oil and Gas Supervisor, who is required to supervise the drilling, operation, maintenance, and abandonment of oil and gas wells in the state and the operation, maintenance, and removal or abandonment of tanks and facilities related to oil and gas production within an oil and gas field, so as to prevent damage to life, health, property, and natural resources. Existing law requires the operator of a well to file a written notice of intention to commence drilling with, and prohibits any drilling until approval is given by, the supervisor or district deputy. Existing law authorizes the supervisor to require other pertinent information to supplement the notice. Existing law requires the owner of any well to file with the supervisor a monthly statement that provides certain information relating to the well, as provided. Existing law requires an operator proposing to perform a well stimulation treatment to apply to the supervisor or district deputy for a permit to perform the well stimulation treatment and imposes other requirements and conditions on the use of well stimulation treatments. Under existing law, a person who fails to comply with this and other requirements relating to the regulation of oil or gas operations is guilty of a misdemeanor. This bill would prohibit, commencing January 1, 2023, the division from approving any notice of intention within a health protection zone, as defined, except for reasons related to preventing or responding to a threat to public health, safety, or the environment, complying with a court order, or to plug and abandon or reabandon a well, as provided. The bill would also explicitly authorize the division to approve notices of intention to public and private entities who own, purchase, or lease land containing idle-deserted or previously plugged and abandoned wells for the purposes of those public and private entities plugging and abandoning, or replugging and abandoning, those oil and gas wells so development of nonfossil fuel production and injection and related uses can proceed, as provided. The bill would require an operator who submits a notice of intention, except for certain notices of intention, to also submit either a sensitive receptor inventory and map of the area within the 3,200 feet radius of the wellhead or proposed wellhead location to the division, or a statement certifying that the operator has confirmed that there are no sensitive receptors, as defined, located within 3,200-foot of the wellhead location, as provided. If a notice of intention is approved pursuant to compliance with a court order, the bill would require the operator of the oil or gas well to provide an individual indemnity bond sufficient to pay the full cost of properly plugging and abandoning the operator's well or wells, and decommissioning any attendant production facilities in the health protection zone, as provided. Commencing January 1, 2025, the bill would require all oil or gas production facilities or wells with a wellhead within a health protection zone to comply with specified health, safety, and environmental requirements, as provided. These health, safety, and environmental requirements would, among other things, require compliance with requirements related to applicable permits, public notice, sound levels, light generation, migration of dust and particulates beyond property boundaries, emissions and vapor venting, and chemical analyses of produced waters. The bill would also require all operators with a production facility or well with a wellhead in a health protection zone to submit a leak detection and response plan, as provided, to the division by January 1, 2025, require division approval or notice of deficiency by January 1, 2026, and require implementation of the plan by January 1, 2027. The bill would require the division to hold public workshops related to the leak detection and response plans, as provided, operators to review and update their plans at least once every 5 years, subject to division approval, and the supervisor to notify the applicable legislative budget and policy committees about these leak detection and response plans, as provided. The bill would require operators to contact property owners and tenants before commencing work that requires a notice of intention, and would also require operators to comply with water sampling requirements, as provided. The bill would require every operator to submit a sensitive receptor inventory and map to the division by July 1, 2023, and provide updates to the inventory and map annually thereafter, as provided, and require the division to make all current sensitive receptor inventories and maps publicly available on its internet website. The bill would, commencing January 1, 2027, and annually thereafter, require operators with a wellhead or other production facility in a health protection zone to provide information to the division, as provided, and require the division to make this information publicly available on its internet website. Because a violation of these requirements would be a crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would exempt from its provisions underground gas storage wells and attendant production facilities. The bill would require the division, on or before July 1, 2027, and annually thereafter, to provide a legislative report to the applicable budget and policy committees regarding the implementation of health protection zones, as provided. The bill would authorize the division, the State Air Resources Board, and the State Water Resources Control Board to prescribe, adopt, and enforce any emergency regulations as necessary to implement, administer, and enforce these duties, as provided. The bill would require the State Air Resources Board, relevant local air districts, the State Water Resources Control Board, and relevant local water quality control boards, by June 1, 2023, to enter into memoranda of understanding with the division to clearly delineate respective responsibilities for the implementation and enforcement of health protection zones. By imposing requirements on local entities, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. This bill would state that its provisions are severable. 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.
The California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 establishes the State Air Resources Board as the state agency responsible for monitoring and regulating sources emitting greenhouse gases. The act requires the state board 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 no later than December 31, 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. Existing law requires, no later than July 1, 2023, the Natural Resources Agency, in coordination with the state board, the California Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Food and Agriculture, and other relevant state agencies, to establish the Natural and Working Lands Climate Smart Strategy and, in developing the strategy, to create a framework to advance the state's climate goals. Existing law requires the state board, as part of its scoping plan, to establish specified carbon dioxide removal targets for 2030 and beyond. This bill would require the Natural Resources Agency, in collaboration with specified entities including the state board and the expert advisory committee described below, to determine on or before January 1, 2024, an ambitious range of targets for natural carbon sequestration, and for nature-based climate solutions, that reduce greenhouse gas emissions for 2030, 2038, and 2045 to support state goals to achieve carbon neutrality and foster climate adaptation and resilience. The bill would require these targets to be integrated into the above-described scoping plan and other state policies. The bill would require the Natural Resources Agency, in consultation with specified agencies including the state board, to review and update the Natural and Working Lands Climate Smart Strategy to achieve these targets. The bill would require the Natural Resources Agency and the state board to jointly establish an expert advisory committee to inform and review modeling and analyses for natural and working lands, to advise state agencies on implementation strategies and standardized accounting, and to provide recommendations on addressing barriers to efficient implementation of the provisions of the bill. The bill would require the Natural Resources Agency to publish data on its internet website on progress made in achieving these targets, as specified. This bill would require the state board, no later than January 1, 2025, to develop standard methods for state agencies to consistently track greenhouse gas emissions and reductions, carbon sequestration, and, where feasible and in consultation with the Natural Resources Agency and the Department of Food and Agriculture, additional benefits from natural and working lands over time. The bill would require the state board, in estimating and tracking greenhouse gas emissions and reductions and carbon sequestration from natural working lands, to take into account, where feasible, greenhouse gas emissions and reductions of carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide related to natural and working lands and the potential impacts of climate change on the ability to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and sequester carbon from natural and working lands.
Existing law establishes the Trial Court Trust Fund for the purpose of funding trial court operations. For purposes of those provisions, court operations are defined to include, among other things, juror expenses such as travel reimbursement. Existing law also specifies the travel reimbursement to be paid to jurors in civil and criminal cases at $0.34 per mile for each mile traveled in attending court after the first day, in going only. This bill would require the mileage reimbursement provision described above to apply to travel both going and leaving court. The bill would require that all jurors and prospective jurors who have been summoned be provided access to existing public transit services at no cost, as specified. The bill would authorize courts to partner with public transit operators to provide this no-cost service or to determine an alternate method of reimbursement up to a daily maximum of $12. The bill would exempt from this requirement a court located where a public transit operator does not provide existing service that is reasonably available to the court facility. The bill would require a court to consider certain factors in determining whether transit service is reasonably available to the court facility. The bill would require a court, prior to determining that transit service is not reasonably available, to contact the public transit operator to inquire whether new transit options may be implemented near the court. The bill would require the Judicial Council to sponsor a pilot program for 2 fiscal years to study whether increases in juror compensation and mileage reimbursement rates increase juror diversity and participation. The bill would require the Judicial Council to provide a report to the Legislature describing the findings of the pilot program and providing information for promoting juror diversity.