(1) Existing state and federal law provides for the enforcement of laws related to elections. This bill would prohibit a peace officer from interfering with the administration of an election, as specified. This bill would authorize certain persons to enforce those prohibitions by filing a civil action, as specified. This bill would also prohibit any individual from permitting an agent of a law enforcement agency, as specified, to access, disrupt, modify, or take possession of rosters, combined rosters, or voter lists unless authorized by a court order or to investigate certain types of voting fraud. The bill would additionally require the Attorney General to provide guidance and information regarding how to respond to requests by law enforcement, as defined, to access areas where ballots are present. (2) Existing law requires an elections official, upon receiving a vote by mail ballot, to compare the signature on the identification envelope with the voter's prior signatures, and it also provides a mechanism by which a voter can verify their signature and cure this defect. Existing law provides that the processing of vote by mail ballots is open to the public and permits specified persons and organizations to observe this processing. This bill would prohibit a vote by mail observer from challenging a signature on a vote by mail ballot that has been verified by the voter. (3) Under existing law, it is a crime for a person in possession of a firearm, a uniformed peace officer, private guard, or security personnel, or any person wearing the uniform of a peace officer, guard, or security personnel, to be stationed in the immediate vicinity of, or posted at, a polling place without authorization from the appropriate elections official. It is also a crime for a person to hire or arrange for such a person to be stationed in the immediate vicinity of, or posted at, a polling place without authorization from the elections official. This bill would authorize the Secretary of State or Attorney General to object to authorization provided by the appropriate elections official, in which case the person stationed or posted at the polling place, or the person who hired or arranged for such a person to be stationed or posted at the polling place, is guilty of a crime. By expanding the scope of these crimes, the bill would create a state-mandated local program. (4) Existing law authorizes the Secretary of State, Attorney General, and any local elections official in the county in which the act occurs, to bring a civil action against an individual, business, or other legal entity that commits any specified act of tampering with a voting system or voting equipment before, during, or after an election. This bill would additionally authorize the Secretary of State, Attorney General, and the appropriate local elections official to bring a civil action against a person, business, or entity that takes a package containing ballots from the custody of an elections official. (5) Existing law makes it a crime for an individual to undertake a number of enumerated actions that would result in interference with an election, including displaying a container for the purpose of collecting ballots with the intent to deceive a voter into casting a ballot in an unofficial ballot box. This bill would also make it a crime to take a package containing voted ballots out of the custody of an elections official. By expanding the scope of this crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (6) Existing law requires the elections official of any county or city using a voting system to inspect the machines or devices at least once every 2 years. This bill would prohibit an individual from permitting an agent of a law enforcement agency, as defined, to access, disrupt, modify, or take possession of certified voting technology unless authorized by a court order. To the extent this bill would establish new procedures for the conduct of elections, it would create a state-mandated local program. (7) 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. (8) This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
Existing law establishes the Safe Drinking Water State Revolving Fund, and moneys in the fund are continuously appropriated to the State Water Resources Control Board for the provision of grants and revolving fund loans to provide for the design and construction of projects for public water systems that will enable suppliers to meet safe drinking water standards. Existing law provides that moneys in the fund and its special accounts may be expended for additional purposes provided in the federal Safe Drinking Water Act. This bill would provide that moneys in the fund and its special accounts may be considered eligible and expended for projects that address perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances in drinking water. By expanding the purposes for which a continuously appropriated fund may be expended, the bill would make an appropriation. The bill would authorize the state board to implement the bill through updating an existing policy handbook, which would be exempt from the rulemaking provisions of the Administrative Procedure Act.
Under existing law, the State Water Resources Control Board and the 9 California regional water quality control boards regulate water quality and prescribe waste discharge requirements in accordance with the Porter-Cologne Water Quality Control Act (act) and the national pollutant discharge elimination system permit program. The act requires mandatory minimum penalties to be assessed for serious violations, as defined, relating to waste discharge requirements, and for certain violations relating to waste discharge requirements and reports whenever there are 4 or more violations in a period of 6 consecutive months, except as provided. The act authorizes the state board or regional board, in lieu of assessing all or a portion of those mandatory minimum penalties against a publicly owned treatment works serving a small community, to instead require the publicly owned treatment works to spend an equivalent amount towards the completion of a compliance project proposed by the publicly owned treatment works if the state board or regional board make specified findings. The act defines "a publicly owned treatment works serving a small community" for these purposes to mean a publicly owned treatment works serving a population of 20,000 persons or fewer or a rural county, with a financial hardship as determined by the state board after consideration of specified factors. This bill would expand the authorization for the state board or regional board to require funding of a compliance project in lieu of the otherwise mandatory penalty to apply to a publicly owned treatment works serving a population of 3,000 persons or fewer, with a financial hardship, determined by the state board, within the 10 years preceding the assessment of the penalty.
Existing law requires a refinery-related community air monitoring system to be installed near each refinery, as provided, and requires the monitoring system to include equipment capable of measuring compounds emitted to the atmosphere from refinery processes. Existing law requires owners or operators of petroleum refineries to develop, install, operate, and maintain a fence-line monitoring system in accordance with guidance developed by the appropriate regional air pollution control district or regional air quality management district. This bill would require guidance adopted to implement the fence-line monitoring system to include a process for a petroleum refinery to provide substantial evidence to the appropriate air district to exclude a pollutant for monitoring in a fence-line monitoring system and would authorize the air district to exclude a pollutant for monitoring at a petroleum refinery fence-line monitoring system if the air district determines that substantial evidence supports certain considerations. Because the bill would require air districts to revise their guidance related to the fence-line monitoring system, 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 authorizes, when a release of waste occurs and remedial action is required, a responsible party, as defined, to request a local officer to supervise the remedial action if the site is not already overseen by the Department of Toxic Substances Control or a regional water quality control board. Existing law authorizes the department or a regional water quality control board to retain or assume oversight authority from a local officer, as specified. This bill would require the State Water Resources Control Board, working jointly with the department and in consultation with the Office of Land Use and Climate Innovation, to develop guidelines for developers and for agencies overseeing development-specific site remediations and making determinations of site suitability, as provided. The bill would require the board, in conjunction with the department, to develop thresholds of significance for contaminants from different sources and for different future uses, as provided. The bill would specify that sites with contamination above those thresholds shall be deemed not suitable for residential use.
Existing law establishes the Office of Land Use and Climate Innovation in state government in the Governor's office to serve the Governor and Governor's Cabinet as staff for long-range planning and research, and constitute the comprehensive state planning agency. Existing law provides state goals for the installation of solar energy systems through, among other programs, the California Solar Initiative. This bill would require, on or before January 1, 2029, and upon appropriation by the Legislature, the Office of Land Use and Climate Change to complete a study on the impacts of large-scale solar on the land use planning, environment, and economy of the Central Valley region. The bill would require the Office of Land Use and Climate Change, in conducting the study, to consult interested parties, as specified. The bill would require the study to include an analysis of the impacts of large-scale solar on regional land use planning, the regional environment, and the regional economy. The bill would require the study to include recommendations on how to mitigate impacts of large-scale solar through changes to existing or the adoption of new state, regional, and local policy, as provided. This bill would make legislative findings and declarations as to the necessity of a special statute for the Central Valley region.
Existing law creates the High-Speed Rail Authority to develop and implement a high-speed rail system in the state. Existing law requires moneys collected by the State Air Resources Board from the auction or sale of certain allowances as part of a market-based compliance mechanism to be deposited into the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund and continuously appropriates a portion of the moneys in the fund for various purposes, including a specified portion to the authority for certain purposes. Existing law prohibits the authority from entering into new funding commitments with those moneys for activities outside of the Merced to Bakersfield segment, until June 30, 2030, or when that segment is fully funded, whichever is sooner. Notwithstanding that prohibition, existing law authorizes the authority to enter into new funding commitments outside of the Merced to Bakersfield segment for certain purposes, including for additional activities, not to cumulatively exceed $500,000,000, that maximize the efficiency of delivering the project, as specified. This bill would revise and recast that authorization to instead authorize the authority to enter into new funding commitments with the above-described moneys outside of the Merced to Bakersfield segment in any amount for activities related to early works, as defined, and for projects developed through public partnership agreements or public-private partnership agreements, subject to the requirements that those funding commitments maximize the efficiency of delivering the project and do not delay the completion of the Merced to Bakersfield segment, as specified. By expanding the purposes for which continuously appropriated moneys may be used, the bill would make an appropriation.
Existing law designates the State Air Resources Board as the state agency responsible for the preparation of the state implementation plan required by the Clean Air Act, and requires the state board to adopt standards, rules, and regulations that are consistent with the state goal of providing a decent home and suitable living environment for every Californian. Existing law, the Administrative Procedure Act, sets forth the requirements for the adoption, publication, review, and implementation of regulations by state agencies. Existing law requires a state agency proposing to adopt, amend, or repeal a major regulation on or after November 1, 2013, to prepare a standardized regulatory impact analysis, as specified, that addresses, among other things, the competitive advantages or disadvantages for businesses currently doing business within the state and the benefits to health, safety, and welfare of the regulations. This bill would require a standardized regulatory impact analysis prepared by the State Air Resources Board to additionally address cost of living impacts on residents of the state, including, but not limited to, retail gasoline and transportation costs, consumer electric bills, consumer goods and food costs, housing and building construction costs, and costs to businesses.
Existing law establishes the State Air Resources Board as the state agency responsible for monitoring and regulating sources emitting greenhouse gases. Existing law requires the state board to establish a Carbon Capture, Removal, Utilization, and Storage Program, as provided, to evaluate the efficacy, safety, and viability of carbon capture, utilization, or storage technologies and carbon dioxide removal technologies and facilitate the capture and sequestration of carbon dioxide from those technologies, where appropriate. Existing law requires the Secretary of the Natural Resources Agency, in consultation with the state board, to publish a framework for governing agreements regarding 2 or more tracts of land overlying the same geologic storage reservoir or reservoirs for purposes of managing, developing, and operating a carbon dioxide capture, removal, or sequestration project, as provided. This bill would require the state board to establish and administer the Carbon Dioxide Removal Purchase Program as a competitive grant process for eligible carbon dioxide removal projects, as specified. The bill would require the state board, on or before January 1, 2028, and annually thereafter, to conduct and publish on its internet website a survey of carbon dioxide removal projects existing or in development within the state, and, on or before December 31, 2027, and annually thereafter, until December 31, 2035, to publish on its internet website a report describing Carbon Dioxide Removal Purchase Program activities completed and carbon dioxide removal projects to date, as specified. The bill would require the state board, on or after July 1, 2026, but on or before December 31, 2035, to fund carbon dioxide removal projects in an amount totaling $50,000,000. The bill would authorize up to 10% of that amount to be used to supplement necessary administrative costs in establishing the program. The bill would prohibit carbon dioxide removal projects from exceeding $25,000,000 of grants toward qualified carbon dioxide removals in any one of specified project categories or $12,500,000 of grants towards any one individual carbon dioxide removal project sponsor, except as specified. The bill would require that eligible carbon dioxide removal projects permanently retire the contracted tons of removed carbon dioxide from any future carbon dioxide removals credit issuance. The bill would require the state board, on or before January 1, 2028, to adopt guidelines, including the definition of an eligible carbon dioxide removal project, for the program, which the bill would require to be consistent with certain provisions governing carbon dioxide capture, removal, or sequestration projects, as specified. The bill would make implementation of these provisions contingent upon an appropriation by the Legislature for purposes of the program. The bill would require all funds to be available for encumbrance or expenditure until June 30, 2035, and to be available for liquidation until June 30, 2035.
Existing law requires the Secretary of the Natural Resources Agency, in consultation and coordination with the Salton Sea Authority, to lead Salton Sea restoration efforts. Existing law, to the extent that funding is appropriated to the Department of Fish and Wildlife for Salton Sea restoration activities, authorizes the Department of Water Resources, in coordination and under agreement with the Department of Fish and Wildlife, to undertake certain restoration efforts. This bill would require, except as provided, specified state agencies undertaking a Salton Sea restoration project in excess of $1,000,000 to obtain, as part of a contract entered into on or after January 1, 2026, an enforceable commitment that every bidder, contractor, subcontractor, or other entity at every tier, as defined, shall use a skilled and trained workforce, as provided, to perform all work that falls within an apprenticeship occupation in the building and construction trades.
