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.
Sponsored bills
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, the California Organic Food and Farming Act, requires the Secretary of Food and Agriculture, county agricultural commissioners, and the Director of the State Department of Public Health to enforce state and federal laws governing the production, labeling, and marketing of organic products, as specified. Existing law requires every person engaged in the state in the processing or handling of specified products for human consumption that are sold as organic to register with the director, as specified. Existing law authorizes any person to file a complaint with the director concerning suspected noncompliance with those provisions by a person over whom the director has control. Existing law requires the director, to the extent funds are available, to establish a procedure for handling those complaints and commencing and completing an investigation, as specified, and reporting the findings and enforcement action taken, if any, to the complainant within 90 days. Existing law also requires the director to compile and publish and submit to the California Organic Products Advisory Committee a summary of specified information collected pursuant to the above-described registration form. The bill would require the director to establish a process for resolving complaints that meets the 90-day timeline and a procedure for clearing complaints that cannot be resolved. This bill would additionally require the director to compile and publish and submit information on the total amount of fees collected pursuant to the registration requirement, including the costs to administer the program.
(1) The California Cultural and Historical Endowment Act establishes the California Cultural and Historical Endowment in the Natural Resources Agency. Among other things, the act authorizes the endowment to make grants and loans on a competitive basis to public agencies and nonprofit organizations, as defined, to encourage development of California's historical and cultural resources. Existing law, to the extent funding is available, requires the endowment to establish a program to assist and enhance the services of California's museums and of other groups and institutions that undertake cultural projects that are deeply rooted in and reflective of previously underserved communities. Existing law requires the program to give priority to certain museum and cultural programs and projects, as provided. This bill would revise and recast those provisions to, among other things, instead require the endowment to establish a competitive grant program to assist and enhance the services of museums in the state that undertake programs and projects that are deeply rooted in and reflective of underserved communities. The bill would instead require the grant program to give priority to those programs and projects (A) serving pupils and teachers at schools eligible to be served under Title I, Part A of the federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act, (B) serving children in low-income communities, (C) supporting a museum in engaging or collaborating with underserved communities, as specified, (D) advancing preservation of at-risk cultural and natural collections and historic buildings, as provided, (E) improving access to historic buildings, cultural sites, or museums, as specified, (F) supporting the ethical stewardship of culturally sensitive art and artifacts, as provided, or (G) educating the public about critical issues affecting Californians. (2) Existing law authorizes the California Cultural and Historical Endowment to create a specified competitive grant program to support, among other things, small capital projects in museums. Existing law requires funding for the grant program to only be made, upon appropriation by the Legislature, from certain collected funds. This bill would expand that authority to support capital projects in museums, without regard to size, and publications in museums. The bill would delete the funding limitation for the grant program.
The California Beverage Container Recycling and Litter Reduction Act, which is administered by the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery, is established to promote beverage container recycling and provides for the payment, collection, and distribution of certain payments and fees based on minimum refund values established for beverage containers. The act establishes the California Beverage Container Recycling Fund and, except for civil penalties, fines, and administrative costs, continuously appropriates moneys in the fund to the department for specified purposes, including the amount necessary to pay handling fees to supermarket sites, nonprofit convenience zone recyclers, and rural region recyclers to provide an incentive for the redemption of empty beverage containers in convenience zones. The act defines "nonprofit convenience zone recycler" for its purposes to mean a recycling center that meets one of 2 sets of criteria, one of which is a recycling center that is operated by a nonprofit organization and has operated in the same location for a period of not less than 5 years, that is certified by the department, and that is located within one mile of a supermarket that is in an exempt convenience zone. This bill would revise the criteria for, and expand the above definition of, a nonprofit convenience zone recycler by deleting the requirement that the recycling center operate in the same location for a period of not less than 5 years and allowing the recycling center to be located within 2 miles, rather than one mile, of a supermarket that is in an exempt convenience zone.
(1) The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has exclusive jurisdiction over the transmission of electricity in interstate commerce, over the sale of electricity at wholesale in interstate commerce, and over all facilities for the transmission or sale of electricity in interstate commerce. Existing law vests the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) with regulatory authority over public utilities, including electrical corporations. The California Renewables Portfolio Standard Program requires the PUC to establish a renewables portfolio standard requiring all retail sellers, including electrical corporations, electric service providers, and community choice aggregators, to procure a minimum quantity of electricity products from eligible renewable energy resources so that the total kilowatthours of those products sold to their retail end-use customers achieves 25% of retail sales by December 31, 2016, 33% by December 31, 2020, 44% by December 31, 2024, 52% by December 31, 2027, and 60% by December 31, 2030. Existing law requires an electrical corporation that owns electrical transmission facilities to annually prepare, as part of a specified FERC process, a report identifying any electrical transmission facility, upgrade, or enhancement that is reasonably necessary to achieve the procurement requirements of the California Renewables Portfolio Standard Program and to submit that report to the PUC. This bill would require each electrical corporation that owns electrical transmission facilities to annually prepare, and submit to the PUC, concurrently with each electrical corporation's annual renewable energy procurement plan, a report on any changes to previously reported in-service dates of transmission and interconnection facilities necessary to provide transmission deliverability to eligible renewable energy resources or energy storage resources that have executed interconnection agreements, and to identify the reason for any changes to the status of in-service dates. (2) Existing law requires the PUC to annually report specified information to the Legislature in order to evaluate the progress of the state's electrical corporations in complying with the California Renewables Portfolio Standard Program. This bill would require that annual report to also include a systemwide assessment of delays to interconnection or transmission approvals for eligible renewable energy resources or energy storage resources, based on those annual reports. (3) Existing law requires the PUC to adopt a process for each electrical corporation, electric service provider, or community choice aggregator to file an integrated resource plan and a schedule for periodic updates to the plan, and to ensure that those entities take specified actions, including meeting certain greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets and procuring at least 60% eligible renewable energy resources by December 31, 2030, as specified. For those purposes, existing law requires the PUC to consider the role of existing renewable generation, grid operational efficiencies, energy storage, and distributed energy resources in helping to ensure those entities meet energy and reliability needs during peak demand, while reducing the need for new electricity generation resources and new transmission resources in achieving the state's energy goals at the least cost to ratepayers. This bill would additionally require the PUC, for those purposes, to also consider the role of transmission. (4) Under existing law, a violation of the Public Utilities Act or any order, decision, rule, direction, demand, or requirement of the PUC is a crime. Because the provisions of this bill would be a part of the act and a violation of a PUC action implementing its requirements 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.
Existing law establishes the Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) in state government as a means of resolving disputes and enforcing the statutory duties and rights of specified public employers and employees under various acts regulating collective bargaining. Existing law includes within PERB's jurisdiction the resolution of disputes alleging violation of rules and regulations adopted by a public agency, as defined, concerning unit determinations, representations, recognition, and elections, as specified. Existing law authorizes PERB to adopt rules and regulations to carry out its purposes, as provided. Existing law does not apply the above provisions to employees of specified transit agencies, including the Santa Cruz Metropolitan Transit District, among others. Existing law provides for the establishment of the Santa Cruz Metropolitan Transit District. Existing law requires any question as to whether a majority of the district's employees in an appropriate unit desire to be represented by a labor organization to be submitted to PERB. Existing law requires the district to bargain in good faith with a duly designated or certified labor organization and, when an agreement is reached, to execute a written collective bargaining agreement with the labor organization covering the wages, hours, and working conditions of the employees represented by the labor organization in an appropriate unit, and to comply with the terms of the agreement, as specified. This bill would grant PERB jurisdiction to enforce these labor provisions applicable to the Santa Cruz Metropolitan Transit District. The bill would give PERB the exclusive jurisdiction to make the initial determination of whether the charge of unfair practice is justified and, if so, to determine the appropriate remedy necessary. The bill would provide that exclusive representatives have the right to represent their bargaining units in employer-employee relations with the district, and employees have the right to be represented by their exclusive representative. The bill would require the district to give reasonable written notice to an exclusive representative of its intent to make any changes to matters within the scope of representation for purposes of providing the exclusive representative a reasonable amount of time to negotiate with the district regarding the proposed changes. The bill would also make it unlawful for the district or an employee organization to engage in certain acts, including imposing or threatening to impose reprisals on employees, or refusing to meet and negotiate in good faith in mutually agreed upon impasse procedures. By requiring the district transit agencies to adjudicate claims before PERB, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. This bill would make legislative findings and declarations as to the necessity of a special statute for the Santa Cruz Metropolitan Transit District. 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.
The Pharmacy Law establishes the California State Board of Pharmacy to license and regulate pharmacists. Existing law authorizes a pharmacist to furnish naloxone hydrochloride in accordance with standardized procedures and protocols developed and approved by the board and the Medical Board of California, subject to completion by the pharmacist of specified continuing education on the use of naloxone hydrochloride. This bill would instead authorize a pharmacist to furnish an opioid antagonist approved by the federal Food and Drug Administration, subject to completion of continuing education on the use of opioid antagonists.
(1) Existing law provides for the compensation of victims and derivative victims of specified types of crimes by the California Victim Compensation Board from the Restitution Fund, a continuously appropriated fund, for specified losses suffered as a result of those crimes. Existing law defines various terms for purposes of these provisions. This bill would define "law enforcement officer" consistently with specified provisions. The bill would define "victim services provider" to mean an individual, whether paid or serving as a volunteer, who provides services to victims under the supervision of either an agency or organization that has a documented record of providing services to victims, or a law enforcement or prosecution agency. (2) Existing law requires that a person be ineligible for compensation under specified conditions, including, among other things, if the board determines that denial of the claim for compensation is appropriate because of the nature of the victim's involvement in the events leading to the crime or the involvement of the person whose injury or death gives rise to the application. Existing law requires the board to deny an application if it finds that the victim failed to cooperate reasonably with a law enforcement agency in the apprehension and conviction of a criminal committing the crime. This bill, in the case of a claim based on a victim's serious bodily injury or death that resulted from a law enforcement officer's use of force, would prohibit the board from denying an application based on the victim's or other applicant's involvement in the crime, except as specified, or the victim's failure to cooperate. The bill would require the board, solely for the purposes of eligibility for compensation, to accept as sufficient evidence forms of documentation, as described, that describe or demonstrate a person suffered serious bodily injury or death as a result of a law enforcement officer's use of force. The bill, in the case of a claim based on a victim's death as a result of a crime, would prohibit the board from denying an application based on the deceased victim's involvement in the crime or the victim's or derivative victim's failure to cooperate, except as provided. By expanding the types of crime for which compensation can be paid from a continuously appropriated fund, the bill would make an appropriation. (3) Existing law requires that the California Victim Compensation Board be subrogated to the rights of the recipient to the extent of any compensation granted by the board. This bill would specify that the above-described subrogation of the board applies to compensation by the board for a claim based on serious bodily injury or death that resulted from a law enforcement officer's use of force, as specified.
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. Under the act, 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 no later than December 31, 2030. Under the act, a violation of a rule, regulation, order, emission limitation, emission reduction measure, or other measure adopted by the state board under the act is a crime. This bill instead would require the state board to ensure that statewide greenhouse gas emissions are reduced to at least 55% below the 1990 level by no later than December 31, 2030. By expanding the scope of 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.