Under existing law, the Public Utilities Commission has regulatory authority over public utilities, including electrical corporations, as defined, while local publicly owned electric utilities, as defined, are under the direction of their governing boards. The existing Renewables Portfolio Standard Program requires retail sellers of electricity, as defined, and local publicly owned electric utilities to purchase specified minimum quantities of electricity products from eligible renewable energy resources, as defined. The quantities of electricity products are based upon a percentage of the utility's total retail sales of electricity in California. The program authorizes an electrical corporation to apply to the commission for approval to construct, own, and operate an eligible renewable energy resource, and requires the commission to approve the application if certain conditions are met. This bill would make nonsubstantive changes to this authorization for an electrical corporation to apply to the commission for approval to construct, own, and operate an eligible renewable energy resource.
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Existing law requires the Secretary of Food and Agriculture to take various actions with respect to agricultural marketing advisory and promotional councils and commissions, including the California Seafood Council. This bill would make nonsubstantive changes to those provisions relating to the California Seafood Council.
Under existing law, a person who commits certain acts, including, among others, negligently setting a fire that escapes onto any public or private property or failing to correct a fire hazard prohibited by law, is liable for the costs incurred in fighting the fire and the cost of providing rescue or emergency medical services. This bill would make technical, nonsubstantive changes to these provisions.
In a fiscal year immediately after a fiscal year in which a transfer is made into the Public School System Stabilization Account, existing law prohibits a school district's adopted or revised budget from containing a combined assigned or unassigned ending fund balance that is in excess of either 2 or 3 times the minimum recommended reserve for economic uncertainties adopted by the State Board of Education, depending on the school district's units of average daily attendance. Existing law authorizes the county superintendent of schools to waive the prohibition, pursuant to specified conditions, for up to 2 consecutive fiscal years within a 3-year period if the school district provides documentation indicating that extraordinary fiscal circumstances substantiate the need for the balance. This bill would repeal those provisions. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
The Moore Universal Telephone Service Act established the Universal Lifeline Telephone Service program in order to provide low-income households with access to affordable basic residential telephone service. The act requires the commission to: (1) annually designate a class of lifeline service necessary to meet minimum communications needs, including the ability to originate and receive calls and the ability to access electronic information services, (2) set the rates and charges for that service, (3) develop eligibility criteria for that service, and (4) assess the degree of achievement of universal service, including penetration rates by income, ethnicity, and geography. The act requires that these 4 items of information be annually reported to the Legislature by the commission in a document that can be made public. This bill would make a nonsubstantive revision to the provision requiring that the items of information be annually reported to the Legislature by the commission in a document that can be made public.
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 exempts specified projects from its requirements. Existing law, the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, requires all groundwater basins designated as high- or medium-priority basins by the Department of Water Resources that are designated as basins subject to critical conditions of overdraft to be managed under a groundwater sustainability plan or coordinated groundwater sustainability plans by January 31, 2020, and requires all other groundwater basins designated as high- or medium-priority basins to be managed under a groundwater sustainability plan or coordinated groundwater sustainability plans by January 31, 2022, except as specified. The act authorizes a local agency or combination of local agencies overlying a groundwater basin to elect to become a groundwater sustainability agency for that basin and authorizes that groundwater sustainability agency to adopt, implement, and enforce a groundwater sustainability plan or coordinated groundwater sustainability plans. The act exempts the preparation and adoption of a groundwater sustainability plan or coordinated groundwater sustainability plan from the provisions of CEQA, but does not exempt a project that would implement actions taken pursuant to the plan. This bill would additionally exempt from the requirements of CEQA the formation of a groundwater sustainability agency, the amendment of a groundwater sustainability plan or coordinated groundwater sustainability plan, and the implementation of those plans, except to the extent that the implementation requires the construction or installation of a new facility. Because a lead agency would be required to determine the applicability of this exemption, 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.
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 adopt a statewide greenhouse gas emissions limit equivalent to the statewide greenhouse gas emissions level in 1990 to be achieved by 2020, and to adopt rules and regulations in an open public process to achieve the maximum, technologically feasible, and cost-effective greenhouse gas emissions reductions. The act authorizes the state board to include the use of market-based compliance mechanisms. Existing state board regulations require specified entities to comply with a market-based compliance mechanism beginning January 1, 2013, and require additional specified entities to comply with that market-based compliance mechanism beginning January 1, 2015. This bill instead would exempt categories of persons or entities that did not have a compliance obligation, as defined, under a market-based compliance mechanism beginning January 1, 2013, from being subject to that market-based compliance mechanism through December 31, 2020. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
Existing law establishes the Governor's Office of Business and Economic Development, which is administered by a director appointed by the Governor. The office serves 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, the Military Base Reuse Authority Act, authorizes the creation of a military base reuse authority to plan, finance, and manage the transition of a military base from military to civilian use, as specified. This bill would establish the Military and Aerospace Program in the Governor's Office of Business and Economic Development, and set forth the program's duties and authority with respect to state and local defense retention, conversion, and base reuse activities, including developing and recommending to the Governor and the Legislature a strategic plan for state and local defense retention and conversion efforts. The bill would authorize the office to establish a Military Advisory Council with a specified membership to provide input, information, technical advice, or other comments to the program on military related matters. This bill also would authorize the office to apply for grants and seek private funds for the operations of the office. The bill would establish the Military and Aerospace Account in the Special Deposit Fund in the State Treasury and require that any private funds the office accepts be deposited into that account. The bill would authorize the office to expend moneys in the account, upon appropriation by the Legislature, for specified purposes of the office. The bill would require the Governor's Office of Business and Economic Development to implement a space enterprise development program to foster activities that increase the competitiveness of space enterprise in California. The bill would authorize the director of the office to select a California nonprofit corporation to assist the office in its administration of space enterprise economic development activities, and would authorize the corporation to perform specified activities, including developing and implementing a state strategy for applying and commercializing technology to create jobs, respond to industry changes, and foster innovation and competitiveness in space enterprise. The bill would also establish the California Space Enterprise Competitive Grant Program within the office to provide funding, upon appropriation by the Legislature, for the development of space enterprise in California. Existing law creates the Office of Planning and Research in the Governor's office to provide the Governor and his or her cabinet with long-range, land use planning and research and to serve as the comprehensive state planning agency. This bill would require a local retention authority to be recognized for each active military installation, as defined, in the state, and would require the office to maintain a list of retention authorities or their successors, including, but not limited to, separate airport or port authorities recognized as the local retention authority for military installations.
In a fiscal year immediately after a fiscal year in which a transfer is made into the Public School System Stabilization Account, existing law prohibits a school district's adopted or revised budget from containing a combined assigned or unassigned ending fund balance that is in excess of either 2 or 3 times the minimum recommended reserve for economic uncertainties adopted by the State Board of Education, depending on the school district's units of average daily attendance. Existing law authorizes the county superintendent of schools to waive the prohibition, pursuant to specified conditions, for up to 2 consecutive fiscal years within a 3-year period if the school district provides documentation indicating that extraordinary fiscal circumstances substantiate the need for the balance. This bill would repeal those provisions.
Under existing law, the Public Utilities Commission has regulatory authority over public utilities, including electrical corporations, as defined. The Public Utilities Act imposes various duties and responsibilities on the commission with respect to the purchase of electricity and requires the commission to review and adopt a procurement plan and a renewable energy procurement plan for each electrical corporation pursuant to the California Renewables Portfolio Standard Program (RPS program) . The RPS program requires the commission to establish a renewables portfolio standard requiring all retail sellers, as defined, to procure a minimum quantity of electricity products from eligible renewable energy resources, as defined, at specified percentages of the total kilowatthours sold to their retail end-customers during specified compliance periods. Existing law authorizes the commission to require a retail seller to procure eligible renewable energy resources in excess of the specified quantities. This bill would require that the commission evaluate the benefits and costs to the California economy, including upon low- and middle-income individuals and families and disadvantaged communities, before exercise of its authority to increase the procurement of eligible renewable energy resources in excess of the specified quantities. The bill would require the commission, in performing its evaluation, to conduct duly noticed public workshops throughout the state to allow for public comment and consideration of the economic findings.