The Lempert-Keene-Seastrand Oil Spill Prevention and Response Act generally requires the administrator for oil spill response, acting at the direction of the Governor, to implement activities relating to oil spill response, including emergency drills and preparedness, and oil spill containment and cleanup, and to represent the state in any coordinated response efforts with the federal government. Existing law requires the Governor to establish a California oil spill contingency plan that provides for an integrated and effective state procedure to combat the results of major oil spills within the state and that specifies state agencies to implement the plan. Existing law requires the administrator to submit to the Governor and the Legislature an amended California oil spill contingency plan that addresses marine oil spills, by January 1, 1993, and to submit revised plans every 3 years thereafter. Beginning January 1, 2017, and every 3 years thereafter, the administrator is required to submit an amended California oil spill contingency plan that addresses both marine and inland oil spills. Existing law requires the administrator to adopt and implement regulations governing the adequacy of oil spill contingency plans to be prepared and implemented and requires the regulations to provide for the best achievable protection of coastal and marine waters. Existing law requires an owner or operator of a facility, small marine fueling facility, or mobile transfer unit, or an owner or operator of a tank vessel, nontank vessel, or vessel carrying oil as secondary cargo, while operating in the waters of the state or where a spill could impact waters of the state, to have an oil spill contingency plan that complies with the rules, regulations, and policies established by the administrator, that meets specified minimum requirements, and that has been submitted to, and approved by, the administrator. This bill would define "nonfloating oil" for purposes of the act. The bill would require the administrator, by January 1, 2020, to conduct and complete an independent scientific study on the best achievable protection of state waters from spills of nonfloating or potentially nonfloating oils, including criteria for oil spill contingency plans and oil spill response organizations (OSROs) responsible for remediating those spills. The bill would require that the scientific study evaluate the hazards and risks and potential hazards and risks that nonfloating or potentially nonfloating oils pose to natural resources and public, occupational, and environmental health and safety. The bill would require the administrator to post the results and recommendations of the completed scientific study on an Internet Web site maintained by the administrator. The bill would require the administrator, by January 1, 2019, to identify those oils transported into or through the state that place waters of the state at risk from an oil spill that are composed in whole or in part of nonfloating or potentially nonfloating oil and, through a public process, to establish criteria to identify specific characteristics of nonfloating and potentially nonfloating oil. The bill would require the administrator to periodically update and publicly release this list as the sources and types of nonfloating or potentially nonfloating oil change. The bill would, if nonfloating or potentially nonfloating oil is present, require that the oil spill contingency plan that is filed with and approved by the administrator identifies one OSRO capable of oil spill response activities related to that nonfloating or potentially nonfloating oil. The bill would additionally require the oil spill contingency plan to describe spill location-specific procedures, techniques, and demonstrated technologies effective for responding to a spill of the nonfloating or potentially nonfloating oil. The bill would require that the 3-year update to the California oil spill contingency plan that addresses marine and inland oil spills that is to be revised and submitted to the Governor and the Legislature by January 1, 2020, and every 3 years thereafter, include consideration of nonfloating or potentially nonfloating oils. Existing law authorizes an OSRO to apply to the administrator for a rating of that OSRO's response capabilities. Upon receiving a completed application for rating, the administrator is required to review the application and rate the OSRO based on the OSRO's satisfactory compliance with criteria established by the administrator, including specified elements. This bill would require that those elements include the type of oil, including nonfloating or potentially nonfloating oil, the OSRO is capable of recovering and containing. The bill would require any OSRO seeking a nonfloating or potentially nonfloating oil response capability rating to explain, in detail, the tools, technologies, and techniques it will deploy, including how these tools, technologies, and techniques will overcome identified challenges in remediating spills of nonfloating or potentially nonfloating oils, in order to meet the criteria developed for remediating a nonfloating or potentially nonfloating oil spill necessary to protect state waters. The Lempert-Keene-Seastrand Oil Spill Prevention and Response Act prohibits a person from operating a marine facility, as defined, unless the owner or operator of the marine facility has obtained a certificate of financial responsibility. To receive a certificate of financial responsibility from the administrator for oil spill response, the act requires the owner or operator of a marine facility to make a specified showing of financial resources to the satisfaction of the administrator. The act authorizes the administrator to issue a certificate of financial responsibility on a lesser showing of financial resources for a period of not longer than 3 years if the administrator makes specified findings. This bill would require that the administrator, when determining whether to issue a certificate of financial responsibility on a lesser showing of financial resources, to consider the particular risks posed by the type of oil proposed to be carried and to differentiate the risk based upon whether the oil is floating oil or nonfloating or potentially nonfloating oil.
Sponsored bills
The California Alternative Energy and Advanced Transportation Financing Authority Act establishes the California Alternative Energy and Advanced Transportation Financing Authority. The act authorizes the authority, until January 1, 2021, to provide financial assistance in the form of a sales and use tax exclusion for certain projects, with the purpose of promoting California-based manufacturing, California-based jobs, advanced manufacturing, the reduction of greenhouse gases, or the reduction in air and water pollution or energy consumption. The act prohibits the sales and use tax exclusions from exceeding $100,000,000 for each calendar year. This bill would make nonsubstantive changes to these provisions and would delete an obsolete provision.
The California Constitution requires the Governor to submit a budget for the ensuing fiscal year to the Legislature within the first 10 days of each regular session. Existing law requires that budget to contain a complete plan and itemized statement of all proposed expenditures of the state provided by existing law or recommended by the Governor, and of all estimated revenues, as specified. Existing law requires the budget to be prepared in a specified manner. This bill would require the budget to be made available, on or before July 1, 2019, on the Department of Finance Internet Web site in a prescribed downloadable spreadsheet format. The bill would require the budget for each budget year to be posted and maintained on the site for a period of at least 10 years following the release of that budget.
Existing law establishes the Road Maintenance and Rehabilitation Program, to address deferred maintenance on the state highway system and the local street and road system, and funds that program, in part, with an annual transportation improvement fee imposed on vehicles with a varying fee between $25 and $175 based on vehicle value. 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 act authorizes the state board to include use of market-based compliance mechanisms. The act authorizes the state board to adopt a regulation that establishes a system of market-based declining annual aggregate emissions limits for sources or categories of sources that emit greenhouse gases. Existing law requires all moneys, except for fines and penalties, collected by the state board from a market-based compliance mechanism to be deposited in the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund and to be available upon appropriation by the Legislature. Upon registering a vehicle, existing law requires the Department of Motor Vehicles to issue a certificate of ownership and a registration card to the legal owner. Existing law requires a registration card to contain certain information upon its face, including the name and residence or business address of the owner and of the legal owner of the vehicle. This bill would establish the Climate Policy Rebate program and the Climate Policy Rebate Special Fund. The program would provide rebates to offset the transportation improvement fee imposed on a vehicle. The bill would require quarterly transfers of funds from the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund to the Climate Policy Rebate Special Fund in amounts needed to fund the rebates, as determined by the department. The bill would require the amount of an individual rebate to equal the transportation improvement fee imposed on a vehicle, and those rebates would be paid from the Climate Policy Rebate Special Fund to the department upon appropriation by the Legislature. The bill would require the registration documents issued for a vehicle to display the amount of the Climate Policy Rebate that was applied by the department toward the vehicle registration costs for the vehicle.
(1) Existing federal law, the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, regulates, among other things, the quality and packaging of foods introduced or delivered for introduction into interstate commerce and generally prohibits the misbranding of food. Existing federal law, the Nutrition Labeling and Education Act of 1990, governs state and local labeling requirements, including those that characterize the relationship of any nutrient specified in the labeling of food to a disease or health-related condition. Existing state law, the Sherman Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Law, generally regulates misbranded food and provides that any food is misbranded if its labeling does not conform with the requirements for nutrient content or health claims as set forth in the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act and the regulations adopted pursuant to that federal act. Existing law requires that a food facility, as defined, make prescribed disclosures and warnings to consumers, as specified. A violation of these provisions is a crime. Existing state law, the Pupil Nutrition, Health, and Achievement Act of 2001, also requires the sale of only certain beverages to pupils at schools. The beverages that may be sold include fruit-based and vegetable-based drinks, drinking water with no added sweetener, milk, and in middle and high schools, an electrolyte replacement beverage if those beverages meet certain nutritional requirements. This bill would establish the Sugar-Sweetened Beverages Health Warning Act, which would prohibit a person from distributing, selling, or offering for sale a sugar-sweetened beverage in a sealed beverage container, or a multipack of sugar-sweetened beverages, in this state unless the beverage container or multipack bears a health warning, as prescribed. The bill also would require every person who owns, leases, or otherwise legally controls the premises where a vending machine or beverage dispensing machine is located, or where a sugar-sweetened beverage is sold in an unsealed container, to place a specified safety warning in certain locations, including on the exterior of any vending machine that includes a sugar-sweetened beverage for sale. (2) Under existing law, the State Department of Public Health, upon the request of a health officer, as defined, may authorize the local health department of a city, county, city and county, or local health district to enforce the provisions of the Sherman Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Law. Existing law authorizes the State Department of Public Health to assess a civil penalty against any person in an amount not to exceed $1,000 per day, except as specified. Existing law authorizes the Attorney General or any district attorney, on behalf of the State Department of Public Health, to bring an action in a superior court to grant a temporary or permanent injunction restraining a person from violating any provision of the Sherman Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Law. This bill, commencing July 1, 2018, would provide that any violation of the provisions described in (1) above, or regulations adopted pursuant to those provisions, is punishable by a civil penalty of not less than $50, but no greater than $500. This bill would also create the Sugar-Sweetened Beverages Safety Warning Fund for the receipt of all moneys collected for violations of those provisions. The bill would allocate moneys in this fund, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to the department for the purpose of enforcing those provisions. The bill would make legislative findings and declarations relating to the consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages, obesity, and dental disease.
The Personal Income Tax Law allows various credits against the taxes imposed by that law. This bill, for taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2017, and before January 1, 2027, would allow a credit under the Personal Income Tax Law in an amount equal to 50% of the costs paid or incurred by a qualified taxpayer, as defined to include specified teachers, to earn a clear teaching credential, as specified. The Personal Income Tax Law, in conformity with federal income tax law, generally defines gross income as income from whatever source derived, except as specifically excluded, and provides various exclusions from gross income. This bill would provide an exclusion from gross income for 50% of qualified income received on or after January 1, 2017, and before January 1, 2027, by an eligible teacher, as defined, for specified educational work. This bill would state the intent of the Legislature to enact legislation with respect to calculations for minimum amounts of funding for school districts and community colleges. This bill would take effect immediately as a tax levy.
Existing law, the Porter-Cologne Water Quality Control Act, requires each California regional water quality control board to adopt water quality control plans and to establish water quality objectives in those plans, considering certain factors, to ensure the reasonable protection of beneficial uses and the prevention of nuisance. This bill would require a regional board preparing a water quality control plan for a region having a population in excess of 10 million residents to additionally consider opportunities to convey stormwater to a regional site within the watershed in which the stormwater originated for capture and infiltration and to consider the opportunity for stormwater capture when determining past and probable future beneficial uses of water, as specified. This bill would make legislative findings and declarations as to the necessity of a special statute for the Los Angeles region.
(1) Under existing law, the Division of Oil, Gas, and Geothermal Resources in the Department of Conservation regulates the drilling, operation, maintenance, and abandonment of oil and gas wells in the state. Existing law requires the State Oil and Gas Supervisor to continue the prohibition against Southern California Gas Company injecting any natural gas into the Aliso Canyon natural gas storage facility located in the County of Los Angeles until a comprehensive review of the safety of the gas storage wells at the facility is completed, as specified, the supervisor determines that well integrity has been ensured by the review, the risks of failures identified in the review have been addressed, the supervisor's duty to prevent damage to life, health, property, and natural resources, and other requirements is satisfied, and the Executive Director of the Public Utilities Commission has concurred via letter with the supervisor regarding his or her determination of safety. This bill would additionally require the supervisor to continue that prohibition until a specified root cause analysis of the natural gas leak from the facility that started approximately October 23, 2015, has been completed and released in its entirety to the public. The bill would, notwithstanding that prohibition, authorize the Governor to order incremental injections at the facility, but only if the Governor determines it is necessary to avoid, or respond to, an emergency situation. (2) Under existing law, the Public Utilities Commission is authorized to supervise and regulate every public utility in the state. Existing law requires the commission, no later than July 1, 2017, to open a proceeding to determine the feasibility of minimizing or eliminating use of the Aliso Canyon natural gas storage facility located in the County of Los Angeles while still maintaining energy and electric reliability for the region, and to consult with specified entities in making its determination. This bill would require the commission, in conducting the proceeding, to act in the manner that will maximize transparency. (3) This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
Under existing law, the State Water Resources Control Board administers a water rights program pursuant to which the board grants permits and licenses to appropriate water. Existing law prohibits the taking or possession of a fully protected fish, except as provided, and designates the unarmored threespine stickleback as a fully protected fish. This bill would prohibit the board from issuing on or after January 1, 2018, a new permit to appropriate water from any river or stream that has, or is reasonably expected to have, a population of unarmored threespine stickleback.
Existing law requires all rigid plastic bottles and rigid plastic containers sold in the state to be labeled with a code that indicates the resin used to produce the rigid plastic bottle or rigid plastic container. The California Integrated Waste Management Act of 1989, administered by the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery, requires every rigid plastic packaging container, as defined, sold or offered for sale in this state to generally meet one of specified criteria. This bill would enact the Ocean Pollution Reduction Act of 2017. The bill would prohibit a food vendor, as defined, that is subject to specified federal requirements for the posting of calories and nutrients imposed upon restaurants and other retail food establishments, on and after January 1, 2020, from dispensing prepared food to a customer in an expanded polystyrene food service container. The bill would prohibit all food vendors from dispensing prepared food to a customer in an expanded polystyrene food service container on and after January 1, 2022. The bill would authorize a city or county to grant a food vendor an exemption from these prohibitions, as specified, upon request of the food vendor, if the food vendor demonstrates to the satisfaction of the city or county that compliance with the prohibition would impose an undue economic hardship, as defined. The bill would authorize a city, a county, a city and county, or the state to impose civil liability on a person or entity that knowingly violates that prohibition, or reasonably should have known that it was violating that prohibition, in the amount of $1,000 per day for the first violation, $2,000 per day for the 2nd violation, and $5,000 per day for the 3rd and subsequent violations. The bill would require any civil penalties collected to be paid to the office that brought the action and would authorize these penalties, if collected by the Attorney General, to be expended, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to enforce that prohibition. The bill would require the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery to develop an Internet Web page with information on how to comply with, and how to file a complaint for a violation of, that prohibition. The act would also define related terms.