Existing law requires the Office of Land Use and Climate Innovation and the Natural Resources Agency, on or before July 1, 2026, and every 3 years thereafter, to update the Extreme Heat Action Plan to promote comprehensive, coordinated, and effective state and local government action on extreme heat. This bill would require the office and the agency, on or before July 1, 2028, to conduct an assessment of the disparate and differentiated gendered impacts and risks of extreme heat, as provided, for purposes of integration into updates to the Extreme Heat Action Plan. The bill would require the office and the agency to post the gender assessment on their respective internet websites and to provide the assessment to the relevant policy and fiscal committees of the Legislature. Existing law provides that it is the intent of the Legislature to prioritize the most vulnerable communities, ecosystems, and economic sectors in the state' climate adaptation and resilience strategy set forth in the Safeguarding California Plan and that the Natural Resources Agency consider developing policies to address the impacts of climate change and climate adaptation with a focus on equity and that actions taken to address climate adaptation should be consistent with the plan and specifies that in developing these policies and taking these actions, the agency include the adoption of strategies that seek to address and, at a minimum, avoid worsening social and racial inequities. This bill would additionally state the intent of the Legislature that those strategies shall seek to address and, at a minimum, avoid worsening gender inequities. Existing law requires the office, through the Integrated Climate Adaptation and Resiliency Program, to develop the California Climate Change Assessment to provide an integrated suite of products that report the impacts and risks of climate change, based on the best available science, and identify potential solutions to inform legislative policy. Existing law requires the office to complete the assessment no less frequently than every 5 years. Existing law requires the products in the assessment to include, among other things, reports on issues of statewide significance, including, but not limited to, environmental justice considerations. This bill would expressly require the reports on issues of statewide significance to include gender impact considerations.
(1) 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 (NPDES) permit program. Under the act, the State Water Resources Control Board is authorized to adopt water quality control plans for waters for which quality standards are required by the federal Clean Water Act, as specified, and that in the event of a conflict, those plans supersede regional water quality control plans for the same waters. This bill would authorize the state board to adopt water quality control plans for nexus waters, which the bill would define as all waters of the state that are not also navigable, except as specified. The bill would require any water quality standard that was submitted to, and approved by, or is awaiting approval by, the United States Environmental Protection Agency or the state board that applied to nexus waters as of May 24, 2023, to remain in effect, as provided. The bill would require the state board and regional boards to include nexus waters in all federal Clean Water Act processes, including, but not limited to, the California Integrated Report and the establishment of total maximum daily loads, as specified. (2) Existing law requires a regional board, after any necessary hearing, to prescribe requirements as to the nature of any proposed discharge, existing discharge, or material change in an existing discharge, except discharges into a community sewer system, with relation to the conditions existing in the disposal area or receiving waters upon, or into which, the discharge is made or proposed and sets forth what the requirements are to include. This bill would require the above-described discharge requirements to, in the case of discharges from any point source to nexus waters, implement, at a minimum, the requirements of provisions implementing the Federal Water Pollution Control Act and acts amendatory thereof or supplementary thereto. (3) The act authorizes the imposition of civil penalties for violations of certain waste discharge requirements, including violation of a cease and desist order or a cleanup and abatement order, and requires that penalties imposed pursuant to these provisions be deposited into the Waste Discharge Permit Fund, to be expended by the state board, upon appropriation by the Legislature, for specified purposes related to water quality. For violations of certain other waste discharge requirements, the act imposes specified civil penalties, the proceeds of which are deposited into the continuously appropriated State Water Pollution Cleanup and Abatement Account. This bill would require, commencing January 1, 2026, and each calendar year thereafter, the state board's executive director to adjust civil monetary penalties, as specified, including the civil penalties for the above-described provisions. The bill would require moneys collected in accordance with these annual adjustments to be deposited into the Penalty Adjustment Account, that the bill would establish within the Waste Discharge Permit Fund, and upon appropriation by the Legislature, be expended by the state board for purposes of cleaning up and abating the effects of waste on waters of the state. (4) Existing law generally provides for enforcement and implementation of the act. This bill would authorize specified entities, including the Attorney General and the state board, to bring an action to enforce certain provisions related to nexus waters or waste discharge requirements for nexus waters, as provided. (5) The act provides various provisions related to waste discharge to ensure consistency with the requirements for state programs implementing the Federal Water Pollution Control Act and acts amendatory thereof or supplementary thereto. The act defines the terms "navigable waters," "administrator," "pollutants," "biological monitoring," "discharge," and "point sources" as having the same meanings as in the Federal Water Pollution Control Act. This bill would provide that "waste discharge requirements" include waste discharge requirements issued for discharges to nexus waters, and "discharge" includes any addition of a pollutant to a nexus water from any point source. The bill would provide that for purposes of compliance with the Federal Water Pollution Control Act, nexus waters shall be treated as though they are navigable waters and navigable waters of the United States. The bill would require waste discharge requirements adopted or amended for discharges to nexus waters to be adopted pursuant to and in accordance with the requirements of provisions implementing the Federal Water Pollution Control Act and acts amendatory thereof or supplementary thereto, as specified. (6) The act requires a person who discharges pollutants or proposes to discharge pollutants to the navigable waters of the United States within the jurisdiction of this state or a person who discharges dredged or fill material or proposes to discharge dredged or fill material into the navigable waters of the United States within the jurisdiction of this state to file a report of the discharge, except as specified. The act prohibits the discharge of pollutants or dredged or fill material or the operation of a publicly owned treatment works or other treatment works treating domestic sewage by any person, except as authorized by waste discharge requirements or dredged or fill material permits. This bill would require a person to file a report for discharges to nexus waters. The bill would apply the above-described prohibition to nexus waters.
This measure would request that the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management hold public hearings in California on the proposed 2026–2031 National Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program, prepare an environmental impact statement to accompany the program, and provide the public the opportunity to comment on a draft programmatic environmental impact statement for potential offshore oil and gas leasing in California. The measure would strongly and unequivocally oppose any new offshore drilling and declare unequivocal support for the current federal prohibition on new oil or gas drilling in federal waters offshore of the Pacific coast.
Under existing law, the purpose of the California Alternative Energy and Advanced Transportation Financing Authority Act is to advance the state's goals of reducing the levels of greenhouse gas emissions, increasing the deployment of sustainable and renewable energy sources, implementing measures that increase the efficiency of the use of energy, creating high quality employment opportunities, and lessening the state's dependence on fossil fuels and to that end to provide an alternative method of financing in providing and promoting the establishment of facilities utilizing alternative methods and sources of energy and facilities needed for the development and commercialization of advanced transportation technologies. Existing law establishes the California Alternative Energy and Advanced Transportation Financing Authority to carry out that purpose. Existing Public Utilities Commission decisions established the California Hub for Energy Efficiency Financing program, administered by the authority and funded through charges collected by specified electrical corporations and gas corporations from their ratepayers. This bill would require the authority to administer the GoGreen Program, previously known as the California Hub for Energy Efficiency Financing program, and would authorize the authority to use moneys collected from the ratepayers of electrical and gas corporations, as directed by the commission, and other available funding sources, consistent with the program's purposes. The bill would require the program to provide financing assistance to participating lenders to support residents in financing eligible energy efficiency and decarbonization measures at costs that are competitive with or below market rates. The bill would authorize the authority to receive, administer, and deploy additional moneys from federal, state, local, or private sources to support and expand the GoGreen Program, if those moneys are used in a manner consistent with the program's goals and the parameters of the funding source. The bill would create the GoGreen Program Fund in the State Treasury and would make all moneys in the fund available, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to the authority for expenditure, as provided.
Existing law requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction, the Controller, and the Director of Finance to develop and update as necessary, standards and criteria to be reviewed and adopted by the State Board of Education and to be used by local educational agencies in the development of annual budgets and the management of subsequent expenditures from that budget, as specified. Existing law requires these standards and criteria to include, among other things, multiyear commitments, including cost-of-living adjustments. This bill would specify that the multiyear commitments are for only the current fiscal year and the subsequent fiscal year. The bill would require the state board, on or before March 1, 2027, to amend specified related regulations, as provided, and would require the State Department of Education to modify the Standardized Account Code Structure reporting software infrastructure to eliminate reporting fields for a 2nd subsequent fiscal year and, commencing with the 2027–28 fiscal year, ensure that the system reflects a 2-year operational and forecasting structure. Existing law requires the governing board of a school district and each county board of education, on or before July 1 of each year, to adopt a budget, as specified, and requires that budget to be filed with the county superintendent of schools or the Superintendent, respectively. Existing law requires the county superintendent of schools or the Superintendent, as applicable, to, among other things, examine the adopted budget to determine whether it complies with the standards and criteria adopted by the state board for local educational agency budgets and determine whether the adopted budget (1) will allow the school district or county office of education to meet its financial obligations during the fiscal year and (2) is consistent with a financial plan that will enable the school district or county office of education to satisfy its multiyear financial commitments. Existing law requires the governing board of each school district and each county superintendent of schools to certify whether the school district or county office of education is able to meet its financial obligations for the remainder of the fiscal year and for the subsequent 2 fiscal years. Existing law requires (1) a negative certification to be assigned to any school district or county office of education that will be unable to meet its financial obligations for the remainder of the fiscal year or the subsequent fiscal year, (2) a qualified certification to be assigned to the school district or county office of education that may not meet its financial obligations for the current fiscal year or 2 subsequent fiscal years, and (3) a positive certification to be assigned to a school district or county office of education that will meet its financial obligations for the current fiscal year and subsequent 2 fiscal years. Existing law requires a copy of the school district's or county superintendent's certification to be filed with the county superintendent of schools or the Superintendent, respectively. The bill would instead only require certification for the current fiscal year and the subsequent fiscal year, and would require determinations for qualified and positive certifications to instead be assigned based only on the current fiscal year and the subsequent fiscal year. The bill would also make conforming changes to related provisions.
The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) requires a lead agency, as defined, to prepare, or cause to be prepared, and certify the completion of an environmental impact report (EIR) on a project that the lead agency proposes to carry out or approve that may have a significant effect on the environment or to adopt a negative declaration if it finds that the project will not have that effect. CEQA also requires a lead agency to prepare a mitigated negative declaration for a project that may have a significant effect on the environment if revisions in the project would avoid or mitigate that effect and there is no substantial evidence that the project, as revised, would have a significant effect on the environment. This bill would exempt from CEQA projects that consist of the inspection, maintenance, repair, restoration, reconditioning, reconductoring with advanced conductors, replacement, or removal of an existing transmission wire or cable used to conduct electricity or other piece of equipment that is directly attached to the wire or cable and that meet certain requirements, including, among other things, that for a project that is not located on a sensitiva site, the project is undertaken entirely within an existing right-of-way. For projects that are located on a sensitive site, as defined, the bill would also require that the project not increase the footprint of the existing transmission line by more than 10%. In addition to those requirements, for projects that are located within a national park, a national monument, a national wilderness area, or a national recreation area, the bill would also require that the existing right-of-way that the project is undertaken within have a certified EIR, negative declaration, or mitigated negative declaration. For any of these above-described projects that are undertaken within a private right-of-way, the bill would require the project applicant to obtain permission from each underlying property owner to access the property for the project and to enter into an agreement to restore the right-of-way to its condition before the commencement of the project. If a lead agency determines that a project is exempt from CEQA pursuant to the above-described provision, the bill would require the lead agency to file a notice of exemption with the Office of Land Use and Climate Innovation and the county clerk in each county in which the project is located, as provided. By increasing the duties of a lead agency, 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 gives a person the right of protection from bodily harm and the right to possess and use property. If a person suffers bodily harm or a loss of their property because of the unlawful act or omission of another, existing law authorizes them to recover compensation from the person at fault, which is known as damages. Existing law authorizes the Attorney General to bring various civil actions due to damage or loss. This bill would authorize the Attorney General to bring a civil action against specified fossil fuel companies for climate-attributable damage to recover costs and losses suffered by the California FAIR Plan Association, funds borrowed from the California Infrastructure and Economic Development Bank, or costs and losses incurred by insurance policyholders. The bill would make those companies strictly liable without regard to fault for any relief granted. The bill would authorize the court and jury to use market share and alternate liability principles to determine proportionate liability of those companies for the climate-attributable damage, as described. This bill would make it an unlawful business practice for the company or affiliated entity to recover from California consumers, through retail or wholesale prices, charges, fees, surcharges, or any other adjustment to the price of gasoline or other motor fuels, for any costs and expenses incurred in connection with such a civil action, as defined. This bill would create the Attorney General Climate Disaster Fund into which the monetary relief recovered by the Attorney General would be deposited, and would set forth specified uses for the account upon appropriation by the Legislature. The bill would make related findings and declarations.
(1) The California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 establishes the State Air Resources Board as the state agency responsible for monitoring and regulating sources emitting greenhouse gases. The act requires the state board to adopt rules and regulations to achieve the maximum technologically feasible and cost-effective greenhouse gas emissions reductions to ensure that the statewide greenhouse gas emissions are reduced to at least 40% below the statewide greenhouse gas emissions limit, as defined, no later than December 31, 2030. Pursuant to the act, the state board has adopted the Low Carbon Fuel Standard regulations. The act authorizes the state board to include in its regulation of those emissions the use of market-based compliance mechanisms. Existing law requires all moneys, except for fines and penalties, collected by the state board from the auction or sale of allowances as part of a market-based compliance mechanism to be deposited in the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund. This bill would suspend the Low Carbon Fuel Standard regulations for one year. The bill would also exempt suppliers of transportation fuels from regulations for the use of market-based compliance mechanisms for one year. This bill would direct the Controller to transfer a specified amount from the General Fund to the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund. By transferring General Fund moneys to a partially continuously appropriated fund, this bill would make an appropriation. (2) Existing law, the Motor Vehicle Fuel Tax Law, imposes a tax upon each gallon of motor vehicle fuel removed from a refinery or terminal rack in this state, entered into this state, or sold in this state, at a specified rate per gallon. This bill would suspend the imposition of the tax on motor vehicle fuels for one year. The bill would require a seller of motor vehicle fuels to provide a receipt to a purchaser that indicates the amount of tax that would have otherwise applied to the transaction. This bill would also direct the Controller to transfer a specified amount from the General Fund to the Motor Vehicle Fuel Account in the Transportation Tax Fund. By transferring General Fund moneys to a continuously appropriated account, this bill would make an appropriation. (3) Existing unfair competition laws establish a statutory cause of action for unfair competition, including any unlawful, unfair, or fraudulent business act or practice and unfair, deceptive, untrue, or misleading advertising and acts prohibited by false advertisement laws. This bill would require that all savings realized based on the suspension of the motor vehicle fuels tax, the suspension of the Low Carbon Fuel Standard regulations, and the exemption of suppliers of transportation fuels from regulations for use of market-based compliance mechanisms by a person other than an end consumer, as defined, be passed on to the end consumer, and would make the violation of this requirement an unfair business practice, in violation of unfair competition laws, as provided. (4) This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
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 Polluters Pay Climate Superfund 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 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.
The California Beverage Container Recycling and Litter Reduction Act, which is administered by the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery, is established to promote beverage container recycling. The act defines "beverage container" to mean the individual, separate bottle, can, jar, carton, or other receptacle, however denominated, in which a beverage is sold, and that is constructed of metal, glass, or plastic, or other material, or any combination of these materials, but does not include cups or other similar open or loosely sealed receptacles. A violation of the act is a crime. Existing law authorizes the department, subject to the availability of funds, to pay a quality incentive payment of up to $180 per ton to qualified recyclers for thermoform plastic containers diverted from curbside recycling programs, as provided. This bill would delete that authorization. The bill would instead require, on and after January 1, 2027, if a beverage is subject to the act and offered for sale in a plastic beverage container with a plastic cap, beverage manufacturers to ensure that the container has a cap that is tethered to the container that prevents the separation of the cap from the container when the cap is removed from the container by the consumer. The bill would exempt, until January 1, 2028, any type of beverage container with a recycling rate of better than 70% for calendar years 2022 and 2023, as determined by the department, from compliance with that requirement. The bill would exempt beverage containers with a capacity of 2 liters or more and beverage containers that contain beer or other malt beverages, wine or distilled spirits, or 100% fruit juice from the scope of the bill. The bill would also exempt a refillable plastic beverage container and a beverage manufacturer that sold or transferred 16,000,000 or fewer plastic beverage containers, as provided, during the previous calendar year from the scope of the bill. By creating a new requirement under the act, a violation of which 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.
