Existing law, the Western Joshua Tree Conservation Act, prohibits a person or public agency from importing into the state, exporting out of the state, or taking, possessing, purchasing, or selling within the state, a western Joshua tree or any part or product of the tree, except as provided. Under existing law, the Department of Fish and Wildlife may authorize, by permit, the taking of a western Joshua tree if certain conditions are met, including, among other conditions, that the permittee mitigates all impacts to, and the taking of, the western Joshua tree. Existing law authorizes the department to enter into an agreement with a county or city to delegate to the county or city the ability to authorize the taking of a western Joshua tree associated with developing single-family residences, multifamily residences, accessory structures, and public works projects concurrent with its approval of the project if certain conditions are met. Existing law authorizes a person or public agency receiving a take authorization for a project to pay specified fees in lieu of satisfying the mitigation obligation on several bases, including if the project receives a permit issued by a county or city. Existing law requires the department to annually adjust those fees and, by December 31, 2026, and every 3 years thereafter, to adopt and subsequently amend specified regulations adjusting the fees. This bill would additionally authorize the department to enter into an agreement with a city to delegate to the city the ability to authorize the taking of a western Joshua tree associated with developing commercial and industrial projects. This bill would additionally authorize a person or public agency receiving a take authorization from the department to pay specified fees in lieu of satisfying the mitigation obligation for (1) the removal of no more than 10, or the trimming of, western Joshua trees by an owner-occupant of an existing single-family residence if the western Joshua trees are within 30 feet of the existing single-family residence or 15 feet of an existing accessory structure, or within the construction footprint, or 15 feet of the construction footprint, of a new accessory structure that is proposed to be constructed for the existing single-family residence or (2) the removal of no more than 40, or the trimming of, western Joshua trees by the proponent of a public works project if the western Joshua trees are within the construction footprint, or 15 feet of the construction footprint, of a public works project to repair, rehabilitate, replace, or maintain an existing structure. The bill would authorize a county or city operating under an agreement with the department to authorize, by permit, without mitigation and subject to a fee to cover the administrative costs of issuing the permit, a project described above in (1) or (2) . The bill would require a property owner or proponent of a public works project seeking a permit to submit a request to the county or city, as applicable, that includes specified information. The bill would require, within 60 days of receipt of a request for a permit, the county or city, as applicable, to either notify the property owner or proponent of the public works project that the county or city will issue the permit or to deny the request if it does not meet the above-described requirements. The bill would, until the department certifies a certain programmatic environmental impact report, as specified, or until January 1, 2032, whichever occurs first, exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act the issuance of a permit by the department, a county, or a city for a project described above in (1) . This bill would delay from December 31, 2026, to June 30, 2027, the date by which the department is required to adopt regulations adjusting the fees for the taking of a western Joshua tree paid in lieu of mitigation. This bill would incorporate additional changes to Section 1927.8 of the Fish and Game Code proposed by SB 1062 to be operative only if this bill and SB 1062 are enacted and this bill is enacted last. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
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 the lead agency 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 establishes the Geologic Energy Management Division in the Department of Conservation. Existing law requires the division to be the lead agency for all geothermal exploratory projects for purposes of CEQA, except as provided. Existing law defines "geothermal exploratory project," for purposes of CEQA, in part as a project composed of not more than 6 wells and associated drilling and testing equipment whose chief and original purpose is to evaluate the presence and characteristics of geothermal resources. Existing law requires wells included within a geothermal exploratory project to be located at least 12 mile from geothermal development wells that are capable of producing geothermal resources in commercial quantities. This bill would expressly include as part of a geothermal exploratory project, among other things, equipment and activities necessary to establish interconnectivity between wells and reservoirs. The bill would specify that the above-described12–mile limit is measured from all points along the wellhead location and well course.
Existing law requires all new building and major renovation projects larger than 10,000 gross square feet undertaken by state agencies, and for which the project schematic design documents are initiated by the state agency on or after January 1, 2024, to obtain the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design or "LEED" Gold or higher certification, except as provided. Existing law requires state agencies to obtain LEED Silver certification for new buildings or major renovations, as described above, if the state agency concerned makes a finding that achieving LEED Gold conflicts with critical operational or security requirements, is demonstrably cost ineffective, or conflicts with California Building Code requirements. This bill would, as an alternative to obtaining LEED Gold certification as described above, allow building or renovation projects to obtain Three Green Globes or higher certification, as specified. This bill would, as an alternative to obtaining LEED Silver as described above, allow building or renovation projects to obtain Two Green Globes certification, as specified. The bill would make its requirements apply to projects for which the project schematic design documents are initiated by a state agency on or after January 1, 2027.
(1) Existing law establishes the California Clean Truck, Bus, and Off-Road Vehicle and Equipment Technology Program, to be administered by the State Air Resources Board in conjunction with the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission (Energy Commission) . The program funds eligible projects, including, among others, projects for technology development, demonstration, precommercial pilots, and early commercial deployments of zero- and near-zero-emission medium- and heavy-duty truck technology, including projects that help to facilitate clean goods movement corridors. Existing law establishes the Clean Transportation Program, administered by the Energy Commission, to provide, among other things, competitive grants and revolving loans to specified entities for those entities to develop and deploy innovative technologies that transform California's fuel and vehicle types to help attain the state's climate change policies. This bill would require, within the California Clean Truck, Bus, and Off-Road Vehicle and Equipment Technology Program, the state board and the Energy Commission, beginning January 1, 2027, to condition the inclusion of any medium- or heavy-duty vehicle model in specified incentive programs, including the Clean Transportation Program, on the receipt of the pricing data specified below. (2) Existing law establishes the state board as the state agency responsible for monitoring and regulating sources emitting greenhouse gases. The state board, in this capacity, administers the California Hybrid and Zero-Emission Truck and Bus Voucher Incentive Project (project) under which the agency issues a limited number of vouchers to incentivize the purchase and use of zero-emission commercial vehicles. This bill would require the state board, in order to support the deployment of zero-emission heavy-duty vehicles through the project, to annually reevaluate the cap on the purchase of unredeemed state vouchers issued through the project, as specified. The bill would also require the state board to periodically reevaluate whether or not taxes should be included when determining the maximum share of vehicle cost incentivized through the project. This bill, beginning January 1, 2027, would require a state agency administering any medium- or heavy-duty vehicle incentive program that receives funding from the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, including, but not limited to, the project, and any program that receives funding through the California Clean Fuel Reward through the Low-Carbon Fuel Standard regulations, or through the Clean Transportation Program, to condition the inclusion of any medium- or heavy-duty vehicle model in that program upon certain transparency requirements. The bill would require these transparency requirements to include, among other things, the original equipment manufacturer providing the manufacturer suggested retail price for all zero-emission vehicle models offered for sale in California that may be funded by the above-described incentive programs and receipt by the administering agency of a final itemized purchase order, as provided. This bill would require the state board, in coordination with the Energy Commission, to compile and make publicly available on its internet website in an aggregated format that anonymizes and protects the confidentiality of specified information, the data provided pursuant to these requirements. The bill would also authorize the state board to recover previously dispersed incentive funds that are found to have been dispersed based on data that was knowingly and intentionally misrepresented. The bill would require suspension of a vehicle model's eligibility for the above-described incentive programs for failure to comply with the reporting requirements, following a notice and a reasonable opportunity to cure the failure to comply. (3) Existing law establishes the Medium- and Heavy-Duty Zero-Emission Vehicle Fleet Purchasing Assistance Program within the Air Quality Improvement Program to make financing tools and nonfinancial supports available to operators of medium- and heavy-duty vehicle fleets to enable those operators to transition their fleets to zero-emission vehicles. The bill would require the state board, on or before January 1, 2028, and in coordination with the Governor's Office of Business and Economic Development and the California Infrastructure and Economic Development Bank, to explore alternative financing opportunities to encourage the deployment of zero-emission medium- and heavy-duty vehicles and report its findings regarding these alternative financing opportunities to the Legislature. The bill would require this report to include, but not be limited to, incentives with a specific focus on encouraging new entries into the market, spurring market competition, and prioritizing manufacturing within the state, an evaluation of ways to de-risk and scale up the participation of private investors in the market for affordable zero-emission medium- and heavy-duty vehicles, including used vehicles, and an exploration of increasing deployment and decreasing costs by retrofitting internal combustion medium- and heavy-duty vehicles to zero-emission.
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.
Existing law establishes the State Water Resources Control Board in the California Environmental Protection Agency (CalEPA) and the California regional water quality control boards which prescribe waste discharge requirements in accordance with the Federal Water Pollution Control Act and the Porter-Cologne Water Quality Control Act. Existing law, the Petroleum Industry Information Reporting Act of 1980, requires refiners, as defined, to report monthly to the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission (Energy Commission) , for each of their refineries, specified information, and requires that any confidential information pertinent to the responsibilities of the Energy Commission, as provided, which is obtained by another state agency be available to the Energy Commission and be treated in a confidential manner. This bill would require, no later than December 31, 2028, every refiner, as defined for purposes of the bill, to submit to CalEPA a retirement plan setting forth information concerning decommissioning and site remediation for every refinery it owns, operates, or controls, as provided. The bill would require the CalEPA, no later than 6 months following the submission of the retirement plan, to review the retirement plan for completeness and reasonableness and to make a determination as to whether the retirement plan complies with the requirements imposed by the bill. The bill would require CalEPA, if it determines that the retirement plan complies with the bill's requirements, to make the retirement plan available on CalEPA's internet website for public comments for not less than 45 days. The bill would authorize CalEPA to require further revisions to the retirement plan after the public comment period, as provided, before it is deemed final. The bill would require CalEPA, after CalEPA has determined that no further revisions are necessary, to promptly post the final retirement plan on its internet website. This bill would require a refiner who, on or after January 1, 2026, gives notice of intent to permanently shut down, shut down to reconfigure, or sell a refinery in a transaction that may result in a refinery shutting down or reconfiguring, as provided, to submit either the required retirement plan, or, if a final retirement plan has been released, an update of the retirement plan within a specified timeframe, as provided. The bill would require, on or before December 31, 2027, CalEPA to publicly provide an overview of the methods, costs, and timelines associated with soil and groundwater remediation that have been employed at refineries that have undergone decommissioning and remediation and to update the overview, as provided. This bill would make information filed pursuant to the above-described provisions confidential information, as provided. The bill would require a refiner to file the final retirement plan concurrently with the Energy Commission and the Division of Occupational Safety and Health. The bill would authorize CalEPA, the Energy Commission, and the Division of Occupational Safety and Health to share the information with the Legislature, any governmental agency, or a local government, including an air pollution control district or an air quality management district, only if the Legislature, the governmental agency, or the local government that receives the information agrees to maintain the confidentiality of the information. The bill would further require any information that is, or may be, accessible by the public, as provided, by CalEPA, the Department of Toxic Substances Control, a certified unified program agency, or a local government, to be made publicly available even if that information is also contained in the retirement plan. This bill would require, on or before December 31, 2027, CalEPA, in coordination with the Energy Commission, to compile a survey of existing local, state, and federal statutory and regulatory requirements applicable to refiners concerning decommissioning, closure, financial assurance, and site remediation obligations, as provided, for a specified purpose. This bill would require CalEPA, no later than one year after the retirement plans are deemed final, to publish publicly on CalEPA's internet website a report assessing the total decommissioning and remediation liabilities for refineries in the state, and identify opportunities for greater transparency prior to the closure notice, 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.
(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 establishes the Office of Land Use and Climate Innovation in the Governor's office for the purpose of serving the Governor and the Governor's cabinet as staff for long-range planning and research and constituting the comprehensive state planning agency. This bill would require the office, on or before July 1, 2028, to compile, standardize, maintain, and make publicly available through a consolidated online platform a core set of statewide standardized spatial planning datasets, as defined. The bill would require the datasets to include specified categories of information, including hazardous data, natural resource sensitivity data, and agricultural value data, as provided. The bill would also require the office, on or before January 1, 2029, to develop and provide guidance for agencies to inform how to use and integrate the datasets in regional planning processes and products. The bill would require the office to update those datasets as new or revised data becomes available from the originating state or federal agencies. This bill would permit state, regional, and local governments to consider use of the standardized spatial planning datasets published by the office in the development and production of land use and infrastructure plans, as specified. The bill would require the office to provide technical assistance, upon request, for use of the data from these provisions. The bill would specify that it does not create new regulatory requirements, regulate land use or zoning, establish land use designations, or preempt the local land use authority of cities and counties.
Existing law vests the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) with regulatory authority over public utilities, including electrical corporations. Existing law requires the PUC, on or before March 31, 2024, to evaluate each customer renewable energy subscription program to determine if the program meets specified goals and to determine whether it would be beneficial to ratepayers to establish a new tariff or program for an electrical corporation, or modify an existing tariff or program administered by an electrical corporation, to establish a community renewable energy program, as provided. If the PUC determines that it would be beneficial to ratepayers to establish the community renewable energy program, existing law requires the PUC, on or before July 1, 2024, to establish the program and require each electrical corporation to participate in the program. This bill would revise the requirements of the customer renewable energy subscription program, as provided, among other things, to promote participation by low-income customers at levels commensurate with the opportunity provided to certain customer-generators, to provide bill credits to subscribers based on the avoided costs of community renewable energy generators, as defined, participating in the program if the community renewable energy generator is determined to be a load-modifying resource, to require all community renewable energy generators participating in the program to have no more than 5 megawatts of generation capacity and no more than 5 megawatts of energy storage, and to limit the total program capacity to 4 gigawatts or end the enrollment of new community renewable energy generators in the program after 7 years, whichever occurs first. The bill would require the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission (Energy Commission) , in a public process that includes opportunity for public comment, to evaluate the load-modifying potential of community renewable energy generators, as specified, and, if the evaluation finds that community renewable energy generators have load-modifying potential, to, on or before December 1, 2027, in a public process with opportunity for public comment, identify attributes that the Energy Commission would expect a community renewable energy generator to meet in order to be classified by the PUC as a load-modifying resource, as provided. The bill would require the PUC, within 180 days following the identification of attributes by the Energy Commission, to adopt or modify a customer renewable energy subscription program consistent with the revisions to the program made by the bill, and would require the PUC to establish in the program a mechanism to determine whether community renewable energy generators are load-modifying resources, as provided. Existing law requires the PUC, within 24 months of establishing a community renewable energy program and annually thereafter for the duration of the program, to submit to the Legislature a report on the facilities deployed and customers subscribed, as provided. This bill would instead require the PUC, within 24 months of the adoption or modification of a customer renewable energy subscription program and annually thereafter for the duration of the program, to submit to the Legislature a report on the community renewable energy generators participating in the program and customers subscribed. The bill would repeal this requirement on January 1, 2034. Under existing law, a violation of an order, decision, rule, direction, demand, or requirement of the PUC is a crime. Because a violation of a PUC action implementing this bill's requirements would be a crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.
Existing law requires the Wildfire and Forest Resilience Task Force, including the Natural Resources Agency, the California Environmental Protection Agency, the Office of Planning and Research, and the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, in coordination with certain public agencies, to develop a comprehensive implementation strategy to track and ensure the achievement of the goals and key actions identified in California's Wildfire and Forest Resilience Action Plan, as provided. Existing law requires the task force, on or before March 1, 2026, and every 5 years thereafter, to update that action plan, as provided. Existing law establishes, in the Department of Conservation, a Regional Forest and Fire Capacity Program to support regional leadership to build local and regional capacity and develop, prioritize, and implement strategies and projects that create fire-adapted communities and landscapes, as provided. Existing law requires the department to, upon appropriation by the Legislature for purposes of the program, provide block grants to regional entities, as defined, to develop regional strategies that develop governance structures, identify wildfire risks, foster collaboration, and prioritize and implement projects within the region to achieve the goals of the program, as specified. Existing law authorizes the regional entities, as defined, to implement activities pursuant to this program, directly or by providing subgrants or contracts, and collaborative planning efforts with local entities to accomplish development of regional priority strategies, among other objectives. Existing law authorizes the department to, until July 1, 2025, authorize advance payments of grants awarded pursuant to the program. This bill would authorize the Director of the Department of Conservation to directly award regional landscape grants to regional entities to implement the above-described regional priority strategies to contribute to the achievement of the goals of California's Wildfire and Forest Resilience Action Plan, as specified. The bill would extend the authorization for the department to award advance payments of grants awarded pursuant to the program indefinitely. Existing law authorizes the Director of Forestry and Fire Protection to provide grants to, or enter contracts or other cooperative agreements with, specified entities for the implementation and administration of projects and programs to improve forest health and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Existing law requires moneys appropriated to the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection for landscape-scale projects to be allocated to subsidize the removal of small-diameter material and dead trees, for multiple benefit projects, and for activities on national forest lands, as provided. This bill would additionally require moneys appropriated to the department for landscape-scale projects to be allocated for projects that improve ecosystem health and for regional landscape grants that the director would be authorized to directly award to regional entities, as defined, to implement the above-described regional priority strategies. The bill would also require the director, in collaboration with the Wildfire and Forest Resilience Task Force, to, before the issuance of these grants, establish guidelines for funding the grants to contribute to the achievement of the goals of California's Wildfire and Forest Resilience Action Plan, as specified. Existing law requires the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection to establish a local assistance grant program for fire prevention and home hardening education activities in the state and extends eligibility for grants to, among others, local agencies, resource conservation districts, fire safe councils, the California Conservation Corps, certified community conservation corps, Native American tribes, and qualified nonprofit organizations. Existing law requires eligible activities under the local assistance grant program to include, but not be limited to, vegetation management along roadways and driveways to reduce fire risk, as provided. Existing law authorizes the department to, until July 1, 2025, authorize advance payments from grants awarded pursuant to the local assistance grant program. This bill would expand eligible activities to include vegetation modification and specify that the vegetation management and modification along roadways and driveways includes wildfire ignition risk. The bill would also add ignition prevention, as defined, to the eligible activities. The bill would extend the authorization for the department to award advance payments from grants awarded pursuant to the program indefinitely. The Wildlife Conservation Law of 1947 establishes the Wildlife Conservation Board within the Department of Fish and Wildlife to investigate, study, and determine what areas within the state are most essential and suitable for wildlife production and preservation, among other things. Under existing law, the board administers various habitat conservation programs. This bill would authorize the Wildlife Conservation Board to award regional landscape grants to local entities, as defined, to implement regional priority strategies as described above. The bill would also require, before the issuance of these grants, the board, in collaboration with the Wildfire and Forest Resilience Task Force, to establish guidelines for funding these regional landscape grants to contribute to the achievement of the goals of California's Wildfire and Forest Resilience Action Plan, as specified. This bill would incorporate additional changes to Section 4799.05 of the Public Resources Code proposed by AB 1699 to be operative only if this bill and AB 1699 are enacted and this bill is enacted last.
