Sen. Steve Bradford

This measure would declare February 6, 2013, as Ronald Reagan Day.

This measure would designate that January 21, 2013, be observed as the official memorial of the late Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birth and commemorate Martin Luther King, Jr. Day and the work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Civil Rights Movement in changing public policy in California and in the United States of America. This measure would also recognize the anniversaries of the Emancipation Proclamation and the March on Washington in connection with the advancement of civil rights.

(1) Existing law requires the Department of Motor Vehicles to issue driver's licenses to applicants who meet specified criteria and provide the department with the required information. Existing law requires the department to establish that the applicant's presence in the United States is authorized under federal law. Under existing federal law, the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security has issued a directive allowing certain undocumented individuals who meet several key criteria for relief from removal from the United States or from entering into removal proceedings to be eligible to receive deferred action for a period of 2 years, subject to renewal, and who will be eligible to apply for work authorization. This bill would allow persons who provide satisfactory proof, as described, that their presence in the United States is authorized under federal law, but who are not eligible for a social security account number, to receive an original driver's license from the Department of Motor Vehicles if they meet all other qualifications for licensure. (2) Existing law prohibits a person from renting a motor vehicle to another unless the person to whom the vehicle is rented is a validly licensed driver, as specified, and the person renting to that driver has inspected the person's driver's license and compared the signature on the license with the signature of the driver written in his or her presence. This bill would delete the requirement that the signature of the driver be written in his or her presence and would allow the person renting the vehicle to instead compare the photograph on the driver's license of the person with the person to whom the vehicle is to be rented. The bill would also exempt, a "rental company," as defined, from these requirements if the rental is subject to the terms of a membership agreement that allows the renter to gain physical access to a car without a key through use of a code, key card, or by other means that allow the car to be accessed at a remote location or at a business location of the rental company outside of that location's regular hours of operation.

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 use of market-based compliance mechanisms. Existing law imposes limitations on any link, as defined, between the state and another state, province, or country for purposes of a market-based compliance mechanism by, among other things, prohibiting any state agency, including the state board, from taking any action to create such a link unless the state agency notifies the Governor, and the Governor issues specified written findings on the proposed link that consider the advice of the Attorney General. This bill would prohibit the Governor's written findings on the proposed link from being subject to judicial review. Existing law requires all moneys, except for fines and penalties, collected by the state board from the auction or sale of allowances as part of a market-based compliance mechanism to be deposited in the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund and to be available upon appropriation by the Legislature. This bill would require the moneys in the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund to be used for specified purposes. The bill would require the Department of Finance, in consultation with the state board and any other relevant state entity, to develop, as specified, a 3-year investment plan that includes specified analysis and information and to submit the plan to the Legislature, as specified. The bill would require the Department of Finance to submit a report no later than March 1, 2014, and annually thereafter, to the appropriate committees of the Legislature containing specified information. This bill would make its provisions contingent on the enactment of other legislation, as specified.

Under existing law, the Public Utilities Commission has regulatory authority over public utilities, including telephone corporations, as defined. This bill would, until January 1, 2020, prohibit the commission from regulating Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and Internet Protocol enabled service (IP enabled service) , as defined, except as required or delegated by federal law or expressly provided otherwise in statute. The bill would prohibit any department, agency, commission, or political subdivision of the state from enacting, adopting, or enforcing any law, rule, regulation, ordinance, standard, order, or other provision having the force or effect of law, that regulates VoIP or other IP enabled service, unless required or delegated by federal law or expressly authorized by statute. The bill would specify certain areas of law that are expressly applicable to VoIP and IP enabled service providers. The bill would provide that its limitations upon the commission's regulation of VoIP and IP enabled services do not affect the commission's existing authority over non-VoIP and other non-IP enabled wireline or wireless service and do not affect the enforcement of any state or federal criminal law or local ordinances of general applicability that apply to the conduct of business, the California Environmental Quality Act, or a local utility user tax, among other things.

(1) 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 also requires a lead agency to prepare a mitigated negative declaration for a project that may have a significant effect on the environment if revisions in the project would avoid or mitigate that effect and there is no substantial evidence that the project, as revised, would have a significant effect on the environment. This bill would, until January 1, 2017, exempt from CEQA the design, site acquisition, construction, operation, or maintenance of certain structures and equipment of the Los Angeles Regional Interoperable Communications System (LA-RICS) , consisting of a long-term evolution broadband mobile data system and a land mobile radio system, if certain criteria are met at the individual project site. Because a lead agency, which may include a local agency, is required to determine whether a project qualifies for this exemption, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (2) This bill would make legislative findings and declarations as to the necessity of a special statute because of unique circumstances surrounding the implementation of the LA-RICS. (3) 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. (4) This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.

Under existing law, the Public Utilities Commission has regulatory authority over public utilities, including electrical corporations. Existing law, relative to private energy producers, requires every electric utility, as defined, to make available to an eligible customer-generator, as defined, a standard contract or tariff for net energy metering on a first-come-first-served basis until the time that the total rated generating capacity of renewable electrical generation facilities, as defined, used by eligible customer-generators exceeds 5% of the electric utility's aggregate customer peak demand. The existing definition of an eligible customer-generator requires that the generating facility use a solar or wind turbine, or a hybrid system of both, and have a generating capacity of not more than one megawatt. Electrical corporations are an electric utility for these purposes. This bill would require the commission to complete a study by October 1, 2013, to determine who benefits from, and who bears the economic burden, if any, of, the net energy metering program, and to determine the extent to which each class of ratepayers and each region of the state receiving service under the net energy metering program is paying the full cost of the services provided to them by electrical corporations, and the extent to which those customers pay their share of the costs of public purpose programs. The bill would require the commission to report the results of the study to the Legislature within 30 days of its completion. Existing law establishes separate requirements for wind energy co-metering that provides a credit against the generation component of an electricity bill of an electric utility for those customer-generators utilizing a wind energy project greater than 50 kilowatts, but not exceeding one megawatt. The wind energy co-metering provisions include a requirement that the eligible customer-generator utilize a meter, or multiple meters, capable of separately measuring electricity flow in both directions. This bill would state that nothing in the wind energy co-metering provisions precludes the use of advanced metering infrastructure devices.

The California renewables portfolio standard program (RPS program) requires the Public Utilities Commission to establish the quantity of electricity products from eligible renewable energy resources, as defined, to be procured by each retail seller, as defined, for specified compliance periods, sufficient to ensure that the procurement of electricity products from eligible renewable energy resources achieves 20% of retail sales for the period January 1, 2011, to December 31, 2013, inclusive, 25% of retail sales by December 31, 2016, and 33% of retail sales by December 31, 2020, and in all subsequent years. The RPS program, consistent with the goals of procuring the least-cost and best-fit eligible renewable energy resources that meet project viability principles, requires that all retail sellers procure a balanced portfolio of electricity products from eligible renewable energy resources, as specified (portfolio content requirements) . The RPS program conditions certain eligibility requirements upon whether the contract for electricity products from eligible renewable energy resources was executed after June 1, 2010. This bill, for purposes of electric service providers only, would require specified restrictions on crediting eligible renewable energy resource electricity products to each compliance period to apply to contracts executed after January 13, 2011.

Under existing law, the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) 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 board. Existing law requires a local publicly owned electric utility to report various matter to its consumers and the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission (Energy Commission) relative to energy efficiency, renewable energy resources, the California Solar Initiative, and energy source content. This bill would recast and revise the above-described reporting requirements into a division of the Public Utilities Code that is applicable to publicly owned utilities. Existing law requires the Energy Commission, beginning November 1, 2003, and every 2 years thereafter, to adopt an integrated energy policy report which includes an overview of major energy trends and issues facing the state. Existing law requires the Energy Commission to include certain information relative to local publicly owned electric utilities in the integrated energy policy report. This bill would recast certain requirements relative to information about local publicly owned electric utilities that the Energy Commission is required to include in the integrated energy policy report.