(1) Under existing law, as part of the hazardous waste control laws, the Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) generally regulates the management and handling of hazardous waste and hazardous materials. Existing law authorizes a public agency, as defined, to operate a household hazardous waste collection facility under permit from DTSC. The California Integrated Waste Management Act of 1989, which is administered by the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery (CalRecycle) , requires a city and a county to prepare and submit to CalRecycle a countywide integrated waste management plan. The act requires the plan to include a household hazardous waste element that identifies a program in each city and county for the safe collection, recycling, treatment, and disposal of hazardous wastes that are generated by households. The California Oil Recycling Enhancement Act, administered by CalRecycle, establishes a used oil recycling program to promote and develop alternatives to illegal disposal of used oil. The act imposes a charge for every gallon of lubricating oil sold or transferred in the state, or imported into the state for use in the state, as specified. This bill would create a producer responsibility program for lubricants waste that is not covered by the act, and packaging associated with lubricant products, and would require a producer responsibility organization (PRO) to provide a convenient collection and management system for covered products at no cost to residents. The bill would create 2 categories of covered product, covered liquid product and covered packaging product. The bill would define "covered liquid product" to mean a petroleum-based automotive product and other related products, as specified. The bill would define "covered packaging product" to mean primary packaging and containers designed and intended to hold a covered liquid product and other similar packaging, as specified. The bill would require a producer of a covered product to register with the PRO, which would be required to develop and implement a producer responsibility plan for the collection and the safe and proper management of covered products. The bill would require CalRecycle, in coordination with DTSC, to adopt regulations to implement the program with an effective date no earlier than January 1, 2029. This bill would require the PRO, within 12 months of the effective date of the regulations, to submit a product responsibility plan to CalRecycle. The bill would require the plan to include specified elements, including a funding mechanism that provides sufficient funding to carry out the plan. The bill would require, within 6 months of receipt of the plan, CalRecycle, in collaboration with DTSC, to approve, approve in part, or disapprove the plan, as specified. The bill would require CalRecycle to notify the PRO of its decision. If CalRecycle does not approve the plan in full, then the bill would require CalRecycle to specify the reasons for disapproval or identify the portions of the partially approved plan that do not comply with the program, as applicable. The bill would require the PRO to submit a revised plan if its plan is not fully approved. This bill would require the PRO to implement its plan within 90 days of approval. The bill would require the plan to be fully funded in a manner that equitably distributes the plan's costs among participant producers, as specified. The bill would require the plan to describe how the producer responsibility organization will consult with and mutually agree upon terms and amounts to reimburse local jurisdictions for the proportional costs associated with collecting and managing covered products pursuant to these provisions. The bill would also require the plan to include a description of how the producer responsibility organization will contract with haulers to transport covered products from the collection facilities to recycling facilities or disposal, and how the producer responsibility organization will contract with recyclers. This bill would require the PRO to prepare and submit to CalRecycle an annual report describing the activities carried out pursuant to the plan. The bill would require the PRO to retain specified documents, annually audit its accounting books, and make documents available to CalRecycle for review, as specified. The bill would require all reports and records provided to CalRecycle pursuant to the program to be provided under the penalty of perjury. By expanding the scope of a crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. This bill would require a participant producer, through the PRO, to pay CalRecycle, on an unspecified schedule, an annual administrative charge, as determined by CalRecycle and DTSC. The bill would require the charge be set at an amount that is adequate to cover CalRecycle's and DTSC's actual and reasonable costs of administering and enforcing the program. The bill would provide for the imposition of administrative civil penalties on producers and other specified persons who violate the program. The bill would establish the Lubricant Waste and Packaging Producer Responsibility Fund in the State Treasury and would require the administrative charges collected by CalRecycle to be deposited into that fund for expenditure by CalRecycle, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to cover CalRecycle's cost to implement and enforce the program. The bill would also establish the Lubricant Waste and Packaging Penalty Account in the Lubricant Waste and Packaging Producer Responsibility Fund and would require that the civil penalties collected by CalRecycle pursuant to the program be deposited into that account, for expenditure by CalRecycle, upon appropriation by the Legislature, for activities related to the collection and recycling of covered products, grants for related purposes, and the administration and enforcement of the program. (2) Existing law, the Plastic Pollution Prevention and Packaging Producer Responsibility Act, establishes a producer responsibility program designed to ensure that producers of single-use packaging and food service ware covered by that program take responsibility for the costs associated with the end-of-life management of that material and ensure that the material is recyclable or compostable. The act requires producers, either individually or through participation in a producer responsibility organization, to have an approved plan that, among other things, describe how the producer or organization will comply with the act. This bill would exempt a covered packaging product from the act. (3) 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. (4) 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. Existing law requires a lead agency to be responsible for determining whether the project is exempt from CEQA and whether an environmental impact report, negative declaration, or mitigated negative declaration is required, as provided. Existing law, for certain projects, establishes a ministerial review process with modified environmental assessment procedures, as provided. This bill, notwithstanding the above-described provisions relating to determinations by a lead agency, would require an environmental impact report, negative declaration, or mitigated negative declaration, as determined by the lead agency, for any project, except as provided, that includes the development, intensification, or substantial expansion of an industrial use if the project is located in or within 12 mile of an overburdened community, as defined. The bill would disqualify these projects from receiving a statutory exemption or ministerial review process. Because a lead agency would be required to determine the applicability of this requirement, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. This bill would require, on and after July 1, 2027, specified categories of notices prepared pursuant to the requirements of CEQA to be translated into all threshold languages, as defined, in the city or county where the project is located to ensure meaningful involvement of all impacted people. Because this bill would impose additional requirements on a lead agency, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would require the Office and Land Use and Climate Innovation, by July 1, 2027, to develop guidelines for this requirement, and would require the guidelines to allow lead agencies to develop a procedure for an interested party to request that interpretation services be made available, as specified. The bill would authorize the lead agency, if it develops that procedure, to require mandatory interpretation services only when a request has been made in advance of the hearing or meeting. This bill would require the lead agency to, among other things, provide a notice of any public hearing subject to the above-described requirements to owners and occupants of property located within 12 half mile of any parcel or parcels, and to any school located within one mile of any parcel or parcels, of a project site, not less than 30 days before the public hearing. The bill would require this public hearing to include oral translation services in all threshold languages spoken in the city or county, as provided. Because this bill would impose additional requirements on a lead agency, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would prohibit a minor inaccuracy in the translation of a notice or hearing from being a basis for invalidation of a public agency decision, unless the inaccuracy is found to preclude relevant information from being presented to the public, as provided. 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 requires the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission (Energy Commission) , in consultation with the specified entities, to adopt a biennial integrated energy policy report containing certain information in a specified format. Existing law requires the Energy Commission, in consultation with the Public Utilities Commission and the Independent System Operator, to adopt a goal for load shifting to reduce net peak electrical demand and adjust this target in each biennial integrated energy policy report thereafter. This bill would require the Energy Commission, in consultation with specified entities, to analyze the cost-effectiveness of specific load flexibility programs and other types of load-shifting interventions and identify both the approximate amount of load shifting and the cost-effectiveness of each type of load-shifting intervention in the next update to the biennial integrated energy policy report after January 1, 2027, as provided. The bill would require the Energy Commission, as part of each integrated energy policy report, to estimate each retail supplier's load-shifting potential, giving consideration to certain factors, as specified. The bill would require the Energy Commission, on or before July 1, 2028, and biennially thereafter, to analyze and publish the amount of load shifting that each retail supplier achieved in the prior calendar year.
Existing law requires the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission (Energy Commission) to establish the Equitable Building Decarbonization Program that includes the direct install program and the statewide incentive program for low-carbon building technologies, as provided. This bill would require the Energy Commission to establish a mechanism to notify applicants to the Equitable Building Decarbonization Program that they may also be eligible for building energy efficiency and decarbonization incentives authorized by the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) . Existing law vests the PUC with regulatory authority over public utilities, including electrical corporations and gas corporations. Existing law establishes an 11-member Low-Income Oversight Board to advise the PUC on low-income electrical, gas, and water customer issues, as specified. This bill would add to the Low-Income Oversight Board a member to be selected by the Executive Director of the Energy Commission.
Existing law requires the Department of Toxic Substances Control, on or before January 1, 2029, to adopt regulations to enforce specified covered perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) restrictions, which include prohibitions on the distribution, sale, or offering for sale of certain products that contain specified levels of PFAS. Existing law requires the department, on and after July 1, 2030, to enforce and ensure compliance with those provisions and regulations, as provided. Existing law requires manufacturers of these products, on or before July 1, 2029, to register with the department, to pay a registration fee to the department, and to provide a statement of compliance certifying compliance with the applicable prohibitions on the use of PFAS to the department, as specified. Existing law authorizes the department to test products and to rely on third-party testing to determine compliance with prohibitions on the use of PFAS, as specified. Existing law requires the department to issue a notice of violation for a product in violation of the prohibitions on the use of PFAS, as provided. Existing law authorizes the department to assess an administrative penalty for a violation of these prohibitions and authorizes the department to seek an injunction to restrain a person or entity from violating these prohibitions, as specified. This bill would, on and after January 1, 2028, prohibit a person from distributing, selling, or offering for sale a cleaning product, dental floss, juvenile product, food packaging, or ski wax, as provided, that contains intentionally added PFAS, as defined, except for previously used products and as otherwise preempted by federal law. The bill would, until January 1, 2031, exempt certain components of a cleaning product from this prohibition, as specified. The bill would clarify that, on and after January 1, 2028, a cleaning product is required to comply with certain regulations adopted by the California Air Resources Board regarding volatile organic compounds in consumer products, and would prohibit the use of a regulatory variance to comply with those regulations, as specified. The bill would, on and after January 1, 2030, prohibit a person from distributing, selling, or offering for sale cookware that contains intentionally added PFAS, except for previously used products and as otherwise preempted by federal law. The bill would authorize the department, on or before January 1, 2029, to adopt regulations to carry out these provisions. This bill would require these prohibitions on products containing intentionally added PFAS to be enforced by the department pursuant to the existing authority described above, including, but not limited to, product testing and administrative penalties. The bill would require a manufacturer of a product regulated by the bill to provide a certificate of compliance to the department upon request instead of on or before July 1, 2029. The bill would exempt a manufacturer of a product regulated by the bill from the registration and registration fees required by the existing enforcement authority described above.
Existing law, the California Emergency Services Act, authorizes the Governor to declare a state of emergency during conditions of disaster or extreme peril to persons or property. Existing law authorizes the Governor, during a state of emergency, to suspend any regulatory statute, or statute prescribing the procedure for conduct of state business, or the orders, rules, or regulations of any state agency, if the Governor determines and declares that strict compliance with any statute, order, rule, or regulation would in any way prevent, hinder, or delay the mitigation of the effects of the emergency. Under the authority of the California Emergency Services Act, on March 1, 2025, Governor Gavin Newsom issued a proclamation of a state of emergency that suspends applicable state statutes, rules, regulations, and requirements that fall within the jurisdiction of boards, departments, and offices within the California Environmental Protection Agency or the Natural Resources Agency to the extent necessary for expediting critical fuels reduction projects, as provided. The proclamation requires an individual or entity desiring to conduct a critical fuels reduction project to request the secretary of the appropriate agency to make a determination that the proposed project is eligible for the suspension and requires the California Environmental Protection Agency and the Natural Resources Agency to maintain on their respective internet website a list of all suspensions approved. This bill would require, on or before January 1, 2028, the California Environmental Protection Agency and the Natural Resources Agency to each report to the Legislature information on the implementation of the above-described proclamation of emergency, as provided. Existing law, the California Coastal Act of 1976, requires any person wishing to perform or undertake any development in the coastal zone to obtain a coastal development permit and provides various procedures related to development control within areas of the coastal zone. The act provides for the certification of local coastal programs and public works plans by the California Coastal Commission. The act provides for limited review by the commission for projects contained in a public works plan after certification and for action taken by a local government on a coastal development permit application after certification of a local coastal program. This bill would require, on or before January 1, 2028, the commission to report to the Legislature certain information on fuel modification and reduction projects, including the acreage of fuel modification or reduction projects approved annually under coastal development permits from January 1, 2020, to December 31, 2026, inclusive, among other information.
The Surface Mining and Reclamation Act of 1975 prohibits a person, with exceptions, from conducting surface mining operations unless, among other things, a permit is obtained from, a specified reclamation plan is submitted to and approved by, and financial assurances for reclamation have been approved by the lead agency for the operation of the surface mining operation. This bill would prohibit pit dewatering, as defined, in areas with subsurface river flow or groundwater levels shallower than 50 feet below ground anywhere within the San Joaquin River Parkway, as defined. This bill would make legislative findings and declarations as to the necessity of a special statute for the San Joaquin River Parkway.
The California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006, until January 1, 2031, authorizes the State Air Resources Board to adopt a regulation establishing a system of market-based declining aggregate emissions limits for sources or categories of sources that emit greenhouse gases (market-based compliance mechanism) that meets certain requirements. Existing law establishes the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund and requires all moneys, except for fines and penalties, collected by the state board from the auction or sales of allowances as a part of a market-based compliance mechanism to be deposited into the fund and requires the Legislature to appropriate moneys in the fund for the purpose of reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the state, as provided. Existing law, the California Climate Crisis Act, declares that it is the policy of the state both to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions as soon as possible, but no later than 2045, and achieve and maintain net-negative greenhouse gas emissions thereafter, and to ensure that by 2045, statewide anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions are reduced to at least 85% below the 1990 levels. This bill would enact the Polluters Pay Climate Superfund Act of 2025 and would establish the Polluters Pay Climate Superfund Program to be administered by the California Environmental Protection Agency to require fossil fuel polluters to pay their fair share of the damage caused by greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere during the covered period, which the bill would define as the time period between the 1990 and 2024 calendar years, inclusive, resulting from the extraction, production, refining, sale, or combustion of fossil fuels or petroleum products, to relieve a portion of the burden to address cost borne by current and future California taxpayers. The bill would require the agency, within 90 days of the effective date of the act, to determine and publish a list of responsible parties, which the bill would define as an entity with a majority ownership interest in a business engaged in extracting or refining fossil fuels that, during the covered period, did business in the state or otherwise had sufficient contact with the state, and is determined by the agency to be responsible for more than 1,000,000,000 metric tons of covered fossil fuel emissions, as defined, in aggregate globally, during the covered period. This bill would require the agency, within one year of the effective date of the act, to conduct and complete a climate cost study to, among other things, quantify the total damage amount, which the bill would define as all past and future climate harms and damages to the state from January 1, 1990, through December 31, 2045, inclusive. The bill would require the agency to update the climate cost study, not less frequently than every 5 years, through January 1, 2045, as provided. The bill would require the agency, within 60 days of the completion of the climate cost study, to determine and assess, as provided, a cost recovery demand for each responsible party listed, which represents the responsible party's proportionate share of the total damage amount. The bill would require responsible parties to pay their cost recovery demand, as provided. The bill would require the collected cost recovery demands to be deposited in the Polluters Pay Climate Superfund, which the bill would create in the State Treasury. The bill would, upon appropriation by the Legislature, require moneys in the fund be expended for, among other things, qualifying expenditures, which the bill would define to include expenditures for projects and programs to mitigate, adapt, or respond to the damages and costs caused to the state from climate change. The bill would require all interest earned on moneys that have been deposited into the fund to be retained in the fund for use in implementing the program. The bill would require the agency to determine the initial implementation costs for the act, as provided, and would require the agency to assess an amount allocated equitably among responsible parties to cover those costs. This bill would require the Director of Finance, within 45 days of the effective date of the act, to perform an initial assessment of the reasonable and appropriate initial implementation costs that will be incurred by the agency. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
Existing law designates air pollution control districts and air quality management districts as having the primary responsibility for the control of air pollution from all sources other than vehicular sources, and, subject to the powers and duties of the State Air Resources Board, requires that air districts adopt and enforce rules and regulations to achieve and maintain the state and federal ambient air quality standards in all areas affected by emission sources under their jurisdiction. Existing law requires the board of each air district to establish by regulation a system by which all reductions in the emission of air contaminants that are to be used to offset certain future increases in the emission of air contaminants be banked as credits prior to use to offset future increases in emissions, except as specified. This bill would require each air district, for all active permits required for equipment or processes that may release or control air pollutants and that require or required the use of one or more emission reduction credits, to make publicly available on its internet website a map of permitted facilities containing specified information regarding those permits. By adding to the duties of air districts, 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 requires the State Air Resources Board, on or before July 1, 2025, to develop and adopt regulations requiring specified partnerships, corporations, limited liability companies, and other business entities with total annual revenues in excess of $1,000,000,000 and that do business in California, defined as "reporting entities," to publicly disclose starting in 2026 or on a date to be determined by the state board, and annually thereafter, their scope 1 and scope 2 greenhouse gas emissions, as defined, and, starting in 2027 and annually thereafter, their scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions, as defined, for the reporting entity's prior fiscal year, as provided. Existing law prescribes additional duties on specific industries for a variety of purposes, including those that promote the public health, safety, and welfare relating to issues that are unique to that industry. Existing law, for example, requires any tanning device used by a tanning facility to comply with all applicable federal laws and regulations. This bill would enact the Fashion Environmental Accountability Act of 2025 and would require fashion sellers to carry out effective environmental due diligence, as provided. The bill would vest the Department of Toxic Substances Control with jurisdiction over fashion sellers' compliance with ensuring that a fashion seller's covered fashion products, as defined, do not contain any regulated chemicals, as defined, above thresholds the act would establish, as provided. The bill would authorize the department to adopt regulations to implement, enforce, interpret, or make specific portions of the act under its jurisdiction, as provided. The bill would vest the state board with jurisdiction over a fashion seller's environmental due diligence under the act pertaining to emissions of greenhouse gases. The bill would require a fashion seller, in carrying out its effective environmental due diligence, to comply with certain environmental guidelines that, at a minimum, require the fashion seller to, among other things, embed responsible business conduct in its policies and management systems, identify areas of significant risks of societal and ecological harms from its own activities and its supply chain relationships, identify, prioritize, and assess the significant potential and actual adverse impacts of those risks, and cease, prevent, or mitigate those risks, as provided. The bill would require a fashion seller, beginning July 1, 2027, and annually thereafter, to submit to the department and the state board an Environmental Due Diligence Report pertaining to the effective environmental due diligence performed by the fashion seller for the prior calendar year, as provided. The bill would specify that fashion sellers are reporting entities for purposes of above-described public disclosure requirement for emissions of greenhouse gases and would require the disclosure be reported on their Environmental Due Diligence Report. The bill would require a fashion seller, in carrying out its environmental due diligence, to establish, on or before July 1, 2027, a quantitative baseline for their emissions of greenhouse gases and targets for reductions in the emissions of greenhouse gases in the near-term and long-term covering their scopes 1, 2, and 3 emissions, as provided. The bill would require a fashion seller, on or before January 1, 2027, to ensure that their covered fashion products do not contain any regulated chemicals above the act's thresholds, as provided. The bill would prohibit, on and after January 1, 2028, a person from manufacturing, selling, or distributing in commerce any covered fashion product that contains any regulated chemicals above those thresholds, as specified. The bill would authorize the department or the Attorney General to enforce the act's thresholds, as specified, and would punish violations of the threshold requirements and of the act that are enforced by the department with an administrative or civil penalty not to exceed $5,000 for a first violation, and not to exceed $10,000 for each subsequent violation, as specified. The bill would subject a fashion seller in violation of the act to a civil penalty, as provided, for violations enforced by the state board. The bill would authorize the department and the state board, as appropriate, to seek appropriate equitable remedies for a violation of the act. The bill would require the civil penalties collected by the state board to be deposited into the Fashion Environmental Remediation Fund, which the bill would establish in the General Fund. The bill would require moneys in the fund, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to be expended for purposes of implementing the act and one or more environmental benefit or environmental remediation projects.
