Existing law requires a manufacturer or supplier making an environmental marketing claim relating to the recycled content of a plastic food container product to maintain specified information and documentation in written form in its records in support of that claim and to, upon request, furnish that maintained information to any member of the public, as specified. Existing law requires the maintained information to include that the recycled content for materials has been diverted from the solid waste stream either during the manufacturing process (preconsumer) or after consumer use (postconsumer) and that the recycled content claim conforms to the uniform standards for recycled content contained in the Federal Trade Commission Guides for the Use of Environmental Marketing Claims. Existing law provides for the imposition of a civil penalty by a city, county, or the state for a violation of these provisions. This bill would, beginning January 1, 2030, expand the application of those provisions from plastic food container products to all products making recycled content claims. The bill would revise the reference to the Federal Trade Commission Guides for the Use of Environmental Marketing Claims to specifically refer to those guides as they read on January 1, 2026. The bill would additionally require documentation in written form that the recycled content material claimed does not exceed the amount of third-party certified recycled content introduced into the manufacturer's or supplier's overall supply stream for the material used in that product line. The bill would require the recycled content claim to be based on the actual recycled content used in the production of the material used in the product line using specified methods. The bill would require a manufacturer or supplier making an environmental marketing claim relating to the recycled content of a product other than a plastic food container product to furnish, upon request, the aforementioned maintained information to the Attorney General, as specified. The bill would also keep any confidential, proprietary, or trade secret information provided or obtained regarding a product, other than a plastic food container product, confidential, as provided. Existing constitutional provisions require that a statute that limits the right of access to the meetings of public bodies or the writings of public officials and agencies be adopted with findings demonstrating the interest protected by the limitation and the need for protecting that interest. This bill would make legislative findings to that effect.
Existing law, the Plastic Pollution Prevention and Packaging Producer Responsibility Act (act) , regulates certain single-use packaging and plastic single-use food service ware, as provided. As part of its comprehensive statutory scheme, the act requires producers of covered materials to reduce and recycle covered plastic material and to ensure that covered materials that are offered for sale, distributed, or imported in or into the state on or after January 1, 2032, are recyclable or compostable, as provided. The act establishes, until January 1, 2037, the California Plastic Pollution Mitigation Fund, which consists of all environmental mitigation surcharges, interest, penalties, and other amounts collected pursuant to the act, as provided. The act requires, upon appropriation by the Legislature, that 60% of the moneys in the fund be expended to monitor and reduce the historical and current environmental justice and public health impacts of plastics, and that 40% of the moneys in the fund be expended to monitor and reduce the environmental impacts of plastics on terrestrial, aquatic, and marine life and human health. This bill would, among other things, require each expenditure made upon appropriation from the fund to comply with specified requirements, including, among others, prioritizing programs, projects, and initiatives that benefit communities most burdened by the impacts of plastic pollution or demonstrate meaningful and durable partnership with California Native American tribes and that provide multiple benefits. The bill would require each of those expenditures to achieve one or more of specified purposes, including, among others, sustained mitigation of the potential adverse health impacts of plastics, supporting a reduction in plastic production, use, and disposal, and supporting research, data collection, and monitoring activities, as specified. The bill would require each department, agency, or entity implementing a grant program funded by the fund to take specified actions, such as providing technical assistance and providing a simplified preapplication and application. The bill would require reimbursement of a grantee's or subgrantee's indirect costs by applying one of 4 enumerated rates, not to exceed 35% of the total grant award. The bill would authorize moneys from the fund to be expended on implementing the bill and would prohibit moneys from the fund from being expended on specified purposes. The bill would expand the entities eligible to receive grants from the fund, as specified. This bill would require the Secretary for Environmental Protection to annually publish a list of all program, project, and initiative expenditures made pursuant to the fund, as specified. The bill would authorize the secretary to request information from grant recipients, as provided.
(1) Existing law requires certain transportation planning agencies to prepare and adopt regional transportation plans directed at achieving a coordinated and balanced regional transportation system. Existing law requires a regional transportation plan to include a policy element, a sustainable communities strategy prepared by a metropolitan planning organization, an action element, and a financial element, as provided. Existing law requires those transportation planning agencies to adopt and submit every 4 years, except as provided, an updated regional transportation plan to the California Transportation Commission and the Department of Transportation. Existing law requires a sustainable communities strategy to achieve regional targets set by the State Air Resources Board for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions from the automobile and light truck sector in the region for 2020 and 2035, respectively, and requires the state board to update those targets every 8 years, consistent with each metropolitan planning organization's timeframe for updating its regional transportation plan, as specified. Existing law establishes certain procedural requirements for setting and updating those targets and authorizes the state board to revise the targets every 4 years based on changes in specified factors. Existing law, to the extent the sustainable communities strategy is unable to achieve the greenhouse gas emission reduction targets, requires a metropolitan planning organization to prepare an alternative planning strategy to the sustainable communities strategy showing how the targets would be achieved through alternative development patterns, infrastructure, or additional transportation measures or policies. Existing law requires the state board to review each metropolitan planning organization's sustainable communities strategy and alternative planning strategy to determine whether the strategy, if implemented, would achieve the greenhouse gas emission reduction targets. This bill would revise and recast the requirements for a sustainable communities strategy, including, among other things, (A) requiring a sustainable communities strategy every 8 years with a progress report after 4 years instead of requiring a sustainable communities strategy every 4 years, (B) requiring the state board to provide each region with greenhouse gas emission reduction targets for 2035 and 2045, and (C) requiring the state board to hold technical workshops before providing those targets. The bill would also revise the state board's process for reviewing sustainable communities strategies and alternative planning strategies, as specified. Because the bill would expand duties of local agencies, it would impose a state-mandated local program. (2) Existing law requires, commencing January 1, 2020, the San Diego Association of Governments to begin developing an implementation report that tracks the implementation of its most recently adopted sustainable communities strategy, as provided. Existing law requires the Sacramento Area Council of Governments to report on the regional implementation of its most recently adopted sustainable communities strategy, as provided. This bill would repeal those provisions. (3) Existing law requires the Department of Transportation to prepare the California Transportation Plan for submission to the Governor and the Legislature as a long-range planning document that incorporates various elements and is consistent with specified expressions of legislative intent. Existing law requires the plan to identify the statewide integrated multimodal transportation system needed to achieve statewide greenhouse gas emission reduction targets and to attain state and national air quality standards. This bill would also require the plan to, among other things, incorporate performance measures into planning that informs delivery of transportation capital projects to help achieve the goals of the plan. The bill would, commencing with the 3rd update to the plan, revise the information that the department is required to include in the plan to include, among others, relevant performance measures within each district of the department. (4) Existing law requires certain funds appropriated by the Legislature from the Public Transportation Account to be made available for specified purposes, including, among other purposes, for the department's planning activities, mass transportation responsibilities, and assistance in regional transportation planning, as specified. This bill, for any activities within the region of a metropolitan planning organization, would require the department to limit funding to activities that are consistent with an applicable sustainable communities strategy or alternative planning strategy, as specified. (5) Existing law creates the Road Maintenance and Rehabilitation Program to address deferred maintenance on the state highway system and the local street and road system. Existing law provides for the deposit of various moneys for the program into the Road Maintenance and Rehabilitation Account. Existing law requires funds in the account to be allocated for various purposes, including, among others, $25,000,000, upon appropriation by the Legislature, for local planning grants to encourage local and regional planning that furthers state goals, as provided. Existing law requires the department to develop a grant guide for the allocation of these grants. This bill, for areas within a metropolitan planning organization, would require the grant guide to encourage planning that furthers the goals of a sustainable communities strategy or alternative planning strategy. (6) Existing law requires the commission, under a program commonly known as the Trade Corridor Enhancement Program, to allocate certain state and federal funds to infrastructure projects located on or along specified transportation corridors. Existing law establishes the Solutions for Congested Corridors Program and requires the commission to allocate state funds made available to the program to projects designed to achieve a balanced set of transportation, environmental, and community access improvements within highly congested travel corridors throughout the state. Under both programs, existing law requires projects within the boundaries of a metropolitan planning organization to be included in an adopted regional transportation plan that includes a sustainable communities strategy determined by the state board to achieve the region's greenhouse gas emission reduction targets. For purposes of those programs, this bill would instead require, if the metropolitan planning organization has adopted an alternative planning strategy, the projects to meet prescribed requirements, including that the predominant purpose of the project is to implement a specific greenhouse gas emission reduction strategy or addresses an impediment to achieving an applicable greenhouse gas emission reduction target identified in the alternative planning strategy. (7) Existing law requires funding to be available under the Solutions for Congested Corridors Program for projects that make specific performance improvements and are part of a comprehensive corridor plan designed to reduce congestion in highly traveled corridors. Existing law authorizes the department and certain regional transportation planning agencies to nominate projects for funding through the program. This bill would require funding to be available under the program for projects that, among other things, make specific performance improvements and support the implementation of a regional transportation plan. The bill would revise the requirements applicable to a project nomination under the program. The bill would require the commission to allocate program funds to projects that, among other things, are included in an adopted regional transportation plan, as specified. (8) 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.
Existing law authorizes the Public Utilities Commission to fix the rates and charges for public utilities, including electrical corporations and gas corporations, and requires those rates and charges to be just and reasonable. Under existing law, a regulated public utility is prohibited from using ratepayer funds for advocacy-related activities that are political or do not otherwise benefit ratepayers. Existing law prohibits each electrical corporation or gas corporation from recording to an above-the-line account, or otherwise recovering from ratepayers, direct or indirect costs of specified activities. This bill would include in those activities for which costs may not be recovered from ratepayers any activities related to opposing the municipalization of electrical or gas utility service, as specified. Existing law authorizes the commission, each commissioner, and each officer and person employed by the commission to inspect the accounts, books, papers, and documents of any public utility. Existing law establishes within the commission an independent Public Advocate's Office of the Public Utilities Commission and authorizes the office to require an entity regulated by the commission to produce or disclose any information the office deems necessary to perform its duties, as provided. This bill would additionally authorize the office to require an entity regulated by the commission to produce or disclose any information the office deems necessary to support the commission's duties. The bill would also specify that the office has the same authority to discover information and review the accounts of a public utility as the commission and would change the timing of a specified annual report by the office to the Legislature. Under existing law, a violation of the Public Utilities Act or any order, decision, rule, direction, demand, or requirement of the commission is a crime. Because the above-described provisions would be part of the act and a violation of a commission action implementing the bill's requirements would be 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.
Existing law provides for the establishment of air pollution control districts and air quality management districts and prescribes the membership of the governing boards of air pollution control districts and air quality management districts. Those governing boards comprise combinations of mayors, city council members, and county supervisors, selected as prescribed, except for the governing board of the San Diego County Air Pollution Control District, which has a differently prescribed membership and certain specified duties. This bill would, as of July 1, 2027, prescribe the membership of the governing board of the Imperial County Air Pollution Control District (air district) and prescribe many of those same duties as are required for the San Diego County Air Pollution Control District. In particular, the bill would require the air district to appoint a specified liaison to consult with the United States Navy and the United States Marine Corps, as specified, and create and maintain an internet website providing access to specified information, including, among other information, the agendas and minutes of the governing board of the air district and all current and pending permit information and settled enforcement actions. The bill would require the district, in establishing the internet website, to establish a process for permitholders that have sensitive operations to request that physical identifying information be redacted from the publicly posted information. The bill would require that air monitoring data be made available to the public on the internet website within a reasonable period of time, as specified, and would require the governing board of the district to establish an air monitoring data program, as provided. The bill would require the air district, by January 1, 2029, to post all applications for an authority to construct or permit to operate. By requiring local governments to appoint members to the air district governing board in a specified manner and by adding to the duties of the air district, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. This bill would specify the continuing funding sources for the air district. This bill would make certain provisions inoperative on July 1, 2027, and would repeal these provisions as of January 1, 2028. This bill would make legislative findings and declarations as to the necessity of a special statute for the Imperial County Air Pollution Control District. The California Constitution requires local agencies, for the purpose of ensuring public access to the meetings of public bodies and the writings of public officials and agencies, to comply with a statutory enactment that amends or enacts laws relating to public records or open meetings and contains findings demonstrating that the enactment furthers the constitutional requirements relating to this purpose. This bill would make legislative findings to that effect. 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.
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 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. CEQA exempts certain projects from its requirements and authorizes a lead agency, if it determines a certain project is exempt from CEQA, to file a notice of exemption, as provided. This bill would exempt from CEQA the closure of a railroad grade crossing by order of the Public Utilities Commission if the commission finds the crossing to present a threat to public safety. The bill would provide that the exemption is inapplicable to any crossing for high-speed rail or any crossing for a project carried out by the High-Speed Rail Authority. The bill would require the lead agency to file the notice of exemption with specified public entities, as provided. Because the bill would impose additional duties on a lead agency with regard to the filing of the notice of exemption, 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. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
(1) Existing law creates the California Coastal Sanctuary and provides that it includes all state waters subject to tidal influence, except as provided. Existing law authorizes the State Lands Commission to enter into any lease for the extraction of oil or gas from state-owned tidelands and submerged lands in the California Coastal Sanctuary if the commission determines both that oil and gas deposits in the California Coastal Sanctuary are being drained by means of producing wells upon adjacent federal lands and that the lease is in the best interest of the state. This bill would prohibit the commission from entering into leases for the extraction of oil or gas, as described above, in areas designated as California marine protected areas or national marine sanctuaries, as provided. (2) Existing law prohibits the commission or a local trustee, as defined, of granted public trust lands from entering into a new lease or other conveyance authorizing new construction of oil- and gas-related infrastructure upon tidelands and submerged lands within state waters associated with Pacific Outer Continental Shelf leases issued after January 1, 2018, except as provided. Existing law requires the commission or a local trustee when approving or disapproving a lease renewal, extension, amendment, or modification authorizing new construction of oil- and gas-related infrastructure upon tidelands and submerged lands within state waters associated with Pacific Outer Continental Shelf leases issued after January 1, 2018, to follow a specified process. This bill would additionally prohibit leases and oil- and gas-related infrastructure located upon tidelands and submerged lands within state waters from being used to support Pacific Outer Continental Shelf leases issued after January 1, 2026, except as provided. The bill would additionally require the commission or the local trustee, in considering approval or disapproval, to consider additional factors, as specified. By imposing additional duties on local trustees in the consideration of a lease renewal, extension, amendment, or modification, 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, 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 California Beverage Container Recycling and Litter Reduction Act requires plastic beverage containers sold by a beverage manufacturer, as specified, to contain a specified average percentage of postconsumer recycled plastic per year. The act requires the manufacturer of a beverage sold in a plastic beverage container subject to the California Redemption Value to report to the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery certain information about the amounts of virgin plastic and postconsumer recycled plastic used for plastic beverage containers subject to the California Redemption Value for sale in the state in the previous calendar year. Existing law requires the department to post this reported information on its internet website, as provided. Existing law provides that a violation of the act or a regulation adopted pursuant to the act is a crime. The act subjects a beverage manufacturer that does not meet the minimum postconsumer recycled plastic content requirements to an annual administrative penalty, as provided. Under the act, the penalty is set at $0.20 for each pound of virgin plastic used in lieu of the required amount of postconsumer recycled plastic, as provided. This bill would instead set the administrative penalty at $0.30 for each pound of virgin plastic used in lieu of the required amount of postconsumer recycled plastic. This bill, beginning on or before March 1, 2028, would require a manufacturer of a beverage sold in a plastic beverage container subject to the California Redemption Value to also provide to the department proof that the postconsumer recycled content used by the beverage manufacturer for plastic beverage containers is able to be validated and is validated by a third party, as specified. The bill would require a validation regarding the postconsumer recycled content of plastic provided by a manufacturer of postconsumer recycled plastic to be accurate. By creating new crimes, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would require the department to publish on its internet website a list of beverage manufacturers and their associated brand names, indicate whether they have complied with applicable postconsumer recycled plastic requirements, and provide other information the department deems appropriate. 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 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 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. CEQA, until January 1, 2033, exempts from its requirements certain actions for affordable housing projects that meet specified requirements, including confirmation by a public agency that, among other things, the project site satisfies specified requirements and a vacant project site does not contain tribal cultural resources that could be affected by the development that were found pursuant to a consultation and the effects of which cannot be mitigated, as provided. This bill would extend the operation of the above-described exemption to January 1, 2037, and would expand the exemption to also include a public university or public college housing project, as defined, that meets specified requirements. Because the bill would extend the operation of the exemption and would increase duties on a lead agency related to the expansion of this exemption, 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.
Under the Z'berg-Nejedly Forest Practice Act of 1973, the Legislature finds and declares that it is the policy of the state to encourage prudent and responsible forest management of nonindustrial timberlands by approving working forest management plans in advance. Existing law regulates nonindustrial tree farmers and working forest landowners for timberland management purposes, including by setting a maximum acreage each may own, and authorizes a person who intends to become a nonindustrial tree farmer or a working forest landowner to submit to the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection a nonindustrial timber management plan or a working forest harvest plan, respectively, regarding that acreage. Existing law provides a maximum of 2,500 acres owned for nonindustrial tree farmers and nonindustrial timber management plans and a maximum of 10,000 acres owned for working forest landowners and working forest management plans. This bill would increase the maximum acreage for nonindustrial tree farmers and nonindustrial management plans to 4,000 acres and for working forest landowners and working forest management plans to 15,000 acres. Existing law requires the harvest area of a working forest management plan to be contained within a single hydrological area, as defined. This bill would eliminate the requirement that the harvest area of a working forest management plan be contained within a single hydrological area. Existing law requires the working forest landowner who owns, leases, or otherwise controls or operates on all or any portion of any timberland within the boundaries of an approved working forest management plan, and who plans to harvest any of the timber during a given year, to file a working forest harvest notice, as defined, with the department in writing. Existing law exempts the Southern Subdistrict of the Coast Forest District, as described in regulations, from these provisions regarding working forest management plans. This bill would eliminate this exemption.
