Under existing law, the State Water Resources Control Board and the 9 California regional water quality control boards regulate water quality in accordance with the Porter-Cologne Water Quality Control Act and the federal Clean Water Act. Under the Porter-Cologne Water Quality Control Act, the state board is required to adopt specified state policies with respect to water quality as it relates to the coastal marine environment, including a policy requiring new or expanded coastal powerplants and other industrial installations using seawater for cooling, heating, or industrial processing to use the best available site, design, technology, and mitigation measures feasible to minimize the intake and mortality of all forms of marine life. Pursuant to that policy, the state board has adopted a policy to phase out once-through cooling for powerplants. This bill would prohibit the state board from granting an operator of a powerplant additional time for complying with the once-through cooling policy adopted by the state board if the powerplant is situated on a site containing coastal wetlands, as specified, and a local agency, nonprofit organization, or nongovernmental land conservation organization has been awarded a grant on or before January 1, 2020, for the purposes of acquiring all or a portion of the site of the powerplant to develop parklands and restore wetlands. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
Sponsored bills
This measure would proclaim March 15, 2020, to March 22, 2020, as California Down Syndrome Awareness Week and March 21, 2020, as California Down Syndrome Day, and would encourage all Californians to support and participate in related activities.
The Economic Revitalization Act establishes the Governor's Office of Business and Economic Development, also known as "GO-Biz," to, among other duties, serve the Governor as the lead entity for economic strategy and the marketing of California on issues relating to business development, private sector investment, and economic growth. Existing law requires the director of GO-Biz to develop an International Trade and Investment Program for the state and authorizes the director to establish and terminate international trade and investment offices outside of the United States as the director determines is appropriate, if specific requirements are met. This bill, no later than January 1, 2023, upon appropriation of sufficient funds for this purpose, would require the office to establish under its jurisdiction an international trade and investment office in Tokyo, Japan. The bill would require the trade and investment office to have those powers and duties prescribed by the director to promote and facilitate the state's international trade activities and would require the trade and investment office to, among other things, promote the export of California goods and services into Japan. Existing law requires the director of GO-Biz to prepare and submit an annual budget and strategy and business plan for the International Trade and Investment Program that includes, among other things, a separately stated budget for each international trade and investment office. Existing law requires that budget and strategy and business plan to be submitted to specified legislative committees. The bill would require the director of GO-Biz to include information regarding the Japan trade and investment office in that budget and strategy and business plan for the International Trade and Investment Program.
Existing law establishes the Department of Fish and Wildlife and the Fish and Wildlife Commission and sets forth the powers and duties of the department and the commission. Existing law authorizes the commission to make regulations, as may be necessary, to insure the proper harvesting of kelp and other aquatic plants. Existing law requires, upon the application and payment of a specified fee, the department to issue a license granting the privilege to harvest kelp or other aquatic plants. This bill would require, to the extent funds are available from bonds, appropriations by the Legislature, or other private and public sources, the department to establish and administer, in consultation with the Ocean Protection Council and other relevant entities, a Kelp Restoration and Resilience Program for the purpose of achieving numerous biological and scientific goals regarding kelp, including supporting kelp recovery and preservation efforts in all coastal areas of California and conducting statewide monitoring of kelp forests to assess overall health. The bill would require the department, when implementing the program, to consider approaches that provide multiple cobenefits, including, but not limited to, improving commercial fisheries, improving water quality, reducing ocean acidification, and incorporating carbon dioxide removal and long-term carbon sequestration considerations. The bill would also require the Director of Fish and Wildlife to establish, by January 1, 2022, a Kelp Restoration Science Advisory Committee with a specified membership to advise the department on the implementation of the program, provide scientific guidance and expertise to state agencies to support the recovery of kelp ecosystems on the California coast, and to perform numerous related tasks, as prescribed.
Existing law, enacted during the 2000–01 energy crisis, creates the California Consumer Power and Conservation Financing Authority, with prescribed powers and responsibilities, for the purpose of issuing revenue bonds for the purposes of supplementing public and private power supplies and ensuring a sufficient and reliable supply of electricity. The financing authority is also authorized to finance incentives for investment in cost-effective, energy-efficient appliances and energy demand reduction, to achieve an adequate energy capacity reserve level, and to provide financing for the retrofit of inefficient electrical powerplants. Existing law prohibits the financing authority from approving any new program, enterprise, or project on or after January 1, 2007, unless authority to approve such an activity is granted by statute enacted on or before January 1, 2007. Until January 1, 2007, the financing authority was authorized to request proposals from qualified participating parties to purchase, lease, or otherwise acquire sites for the purpose of developing generation facilities that would provide the lowest cost electricity to consumers over the life of the facilities. This bill would establish the California Reliability Authority, a nonprofit public benefit corporation, and would, beginning January 1, 2022, require the authority, subject to the Public Utilities Commission's oversight, to procure, through a competitive solicitation process, adequate resource capacity to meet the annual and monthly resource adequacy needs of customer load in the service territories of the electrical corporations, determined as specified. The bill would require the authority, in exercising its procurement authority, to achieve certain objectives. The bill would require the Public Utilities Commission, in coordination with the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission, by June 1, 2021, to adopt selection criteria for use by the authority in selecting resources for procurement to minimize costs and to achieve those objectives. The bill would require the Public Utilities Commission to take certain actions, including the establishment of protocols for the authority's competitive solicitation process for the procurement of adequate resource capacity and the development of a methodology to allocate costs incurred by the authority in the procurement of that capacity. The bill would specify that costs incurred by the authority are to be recovered through direct billing to electrical corporations, electric service providers, and community choice aggregators, as provided. The bill would provide that the organization and operation of the California Reliability Authority is overseen by an oversight board consisting of 5 members appointed by the Governor who have expertise in electrical reliability. The bill would specify that the members of the oversight board serve a 3-year term and may be reappointed by the Governor.
Existing law establishes the California Community Colleges, under the administration of the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges, as one of the segments of public postsecondary education in this state. The segment comprises 73 community college districts and a total of 115 campuses throughout the state. This bill would, commencing with the 2021–22 academic year, require each community college district to offer courses in ethnic studies at each of its campuses. The bill would require that the units earned by students for successful completion of these courses would be eligible for transfer and, if applicable, would meet ethnic studies graduation requirements at the California State University. The bill would also, commencing with the 2023–24 academic year, require each community college district to require the completion of at least one course in ethnic studies of at least 3 units as a requirement for a student to obtain an associate degree. The bill would require the Chancellor of the California Community Colleges to develop and adopt appropriate regulations for the implementation of these provisions. Because this bill would impose new duties on community college districts, it would constitute a state-mandated local program. (2) 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.
This measure would designate the week of February 24, 2020, to March 1, 2020, as Eating Disorders Awareness Week.
Existing law establishes the San Gabriel and Lower Los Angeles Rivers and Mountains Conservancy in the Natural Resources Agency and prescribes the functions and duties of the conservancy with regard to the protection, preservation, and enhancement of specified areas of the Counties of Los Angeles and Orange located along the San Gabriel River and the lower Los Angeles River and tributaries along those rivers. Existing law, for purposes of those provisions, defines "territory" to mean the territory of the conservancy that consists of those portions of the Counties of Los Angeles and Orange located within the San Gabriel River and its tributaries, the lower Los Angeles River and its tributaries, and the San Gabriel Mountains, as described. This bill would additionally include the Dominguez Channel watershed and Santa Catalina Island, as described, within that definition of territory, and would make various related changes to the boundaries of that territory. Existing law requires the conservancy to prepare a San Gabriel and Lower Los Angeles Parkway and Open Space Plan with specified elements to be approved by specified entities. This bill would require the conservancy to update the San Gabriel and Lower Los Angeles Parkway and Open Space Plan to include the priorities for conservation and enhanced public use within the Dominguez Channel watershed and Santa Catalina Island.
Under existing law, the State Water Resources Control Board and the 9 California regional water quality control boards regulate water quality in accordance with the Porter-Cologne Water Quality Control Act and the federal Clean Water Act. Under the act, the state board is required to adopt specified state policies with respect to water quality as it relates to the coastal marine environment, including a policy requiring new or expanded coastal powerplants and other industrial installations using seawater for cooling, heating, or industrial processing to use the best available site, design, technology, and mitigation measures feasible to minimize the intake and mortality of all forms of marine life. Pursuant to that policy, the state board has adopted a policy to phase out once-through cooling for powerplants. This bill would prohibit the state board, on or after January 1, 2021, from granting to an operator of a powerplant additional time for complying with the once-through cooling policy adopted by the state board if specified conditions are met.
Existing law requires any nonprofit corporation that operates or controls a health facility or other facility that provides similar health care to provide written notice to, and to obtain the written consent of, the Attorney General prior to entering into any agreement or transaction to sell, transfer, lease, exchange, option, convey, or otherwise dispose of the asset, or to transfer control, responsibility, or governance of the asset or operation, to a for-profit corporation or entity, to a mutual benefit corporation or entity, or to a nonprofit corporation, as specified. Existing law authorizes the Attorney General to determine what information is required to be contained in the notice. Existing law gives discretion to the Attorney General to give conditional consent to the agreement or transaction and to contract with, consult, and receive advice from any state agency on those terms and conditions that the Attorney General deems appropriate. Existing law authorizes the Attorney General to monitor ongoing compliance with the terms and conditions and to enforce the conditions to the fullest extent of the law. Under existing law, the Attorney General is entitled to specific performance, injunctive relief, and other equitable remedies a court deems appropriate for breach of any of the conditions, and to recover its attorney's fees and costs incurred in remedying each violation. This bill would specify that if the Attorney General imposes a condition on its consent to an agreement or transaction pursuant to the provisions described above, that condition shall remain in effect for the entire period of time specified by the Attorney General, regardless of whether the health facility is subject to an additional or subsequent sale, transfer, purchase, lease, exchange, option, conveyance, or other disposition of assets.