(1) The California Beverage Container Recycling and Litter Reduction Act requires the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery to designate convenience zones annually and to ensure that at least one certified recycling center that meets specific requirements is located within each convenience zone. The act defines a "convenience zone" as the area within a one-mile radius of a supermarket, as defined. Under the act, a reverse vending machine, as defined, may be certified as a recycling center, as prescribed. The act establishes the California Beverage Container Recycling Fund, and continuously appropriates moneys in the fund to the department for specified purposes, including the amount necessary to pay processing payments to recycling centers and to pay handling fees to certain types of recyclers to provide an incentive for the redemption of empty beverage containers in convenience zones. The act prohibits processing payments, handling fees, and administrative fees for dealer cooperatives if a certified recycling center operates in a convenience zone where a dealer participating in the dealer cooperative is located. A violation of the act is a crime. This bill would specify that a reverse vending machine certified to operate as a recycling center does not make an unserved convenience zone served, that a dealer cooperative or a mobile unit is not precluded from operating and receiving program payments in the same convenience zone as a reverse vending machine, and that an existing certified recycling center is not ineligible for handling fees if a reverse vending machine is located in the same convenience zone. (2) The act defines a "supermarket" as a full-line, self-service retail store with gross annual sales of $2,000,000 or more that sells specified items and some perishable items. This bill would revise that definition by increasing the minimum gross annual sales to $6,000,000, revising the description of the required items for sale, causing recycling centers that are supermarkets eligible to receive handling fees under existing law to continue to be eligible to receive handling fees, and requiring the department to consult the most recent annual update to the Progressive Grocer Marketing Guidebook and other relevant updates to the guidebook to determine which dealers are supermarkets, as specified. (3) The act requires, until June 30, 2027, the handling fee to be determined using a methodology established by the department through emergency regulations, and requires those regulations to remain in effect through that date, as specified. This bill would extend the application of those regulations through June 30, 2032. (4) This bill would make an appropriation by expanding the entities that would be eligible at any given time for program payments, and by changing the calculation of handling fees, paid by the department from the continuously appropriated fund. (5) By adding new requirements to the act, this bill would expand the scope of crimes, thereby imposing a state-mandated local program. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
The Western Joshua Tree Conservation Act prohibits any 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 specified. The act authorizes the Department of Fish and Wildlife to permit the taking of a western Joshua tree if specified conditions are met, including, but not limited to, that the permittee mitigates all impacts to, and taking of, the western Joshua tree through measures that are roughly proportional in extent to the impact of the authorized taking of the western Joshua tree. The act authorizes, in lieu of completing the mitigation measures, a permittee to elect to satisfy the mitigation obligation by paying fees pursuant to a specified fee schedule, as provided. Existing law requires the department to annually adjust the fees, as specified. This bill would require the department to consider making the fees proportionate to the impact of a project and the use of tiered fees by project type, size, or other criteria. This bill would incorporate additional changes to Section 1927.8 of the Fish and Game Code proposed by AB 1808 to be operative only if this bill and AB 1808 are enacted and this bill is enacted last.
Existing law establishes the State Seal of Civic Engagement to recognize pupils who have demonstrated excellence in civics education and participation and have demonstrated an understanding of the United States Constitution, the California Constitution, and the democratic system of government, as provided, and establishes the State Seal of Biliteracy to recognize high school graduates who have attained a high level of proficiency in speaking, reading, and writing in one or more languages in addition to English. Commencing January 1, 2027, existing law vests all executive and administrative functions of the State Department of Education in an Education Commissioner. This bill would establish the State Seal of Climate Literacy for the purpose of giving high school pupils personal agency to help them and their communities understand and adapt to the effects of climate change. The bill would require the Education Commissioner, on or before December 31, 2027, to recommend to the State Board of Education criteria for awarding a State Seal of Climate Literacy to pupils who have demonstrated mastery in climate literacy disciplines, green skills or technical green skills, as defined, and any and all other best practices for climate literacy. The bill would require the Commissioner, in developing the criteria, to consider including (1) the successful completion of at least 2 approved courses in the area of climate literacy and (2) the successful completion and presentation of a climate literacy final experiential learning project, as provided. The bill would require the state board, on or before January 31, 2029, to adopt, or adopt with modifications, the criteria recommended by the Commissioner. The bill would require the Commissioner to, among other things, prepare and deliver to participating local educational agencies an appropriate insignia to be affixed to the diploma or transcript of the pupil indicating that the pupil has been awarded a State Seal of Climate Literacy by the Commissioner. The bill would make a local educational agency's participation in awarding the State Seal of Climate Literacy voluntary. For a local educational agency that chooses to participate, the bill would require the local educational agency, on or after the date that the state board adopts criteria, to, among other things, establish a process for determining if a pupil has met the criteria necessary to earn a State Seal of Climate Literacy.
The California Beverage Container Recycling and Litter Reduction Act requires a beverage manufacturer to pay to the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery a processing fee for each beverage container, as defined, sold or transferred in this state. The act requires the department to deposit the fee into the California Beverage Container Recycling Fund, a continuously appropriated fund. The act requires the department to pay processing payments to processors and recycling centers from the fund, as specified. The act requires the processing payment to be at least equal to the difference between the scrap value of the beverage containers and the sum of certain actual operational costs for certified recycling centers and a reasonable financial return for recycling centers, as specified. The act requires the processing fee to be 65% of the processing payment, except as specified. This bill would limit the processing fee for bag in box beverage containers to not more than $0.12 per container sold or offered for sale. The bill would define "bag in box" for purposes of the bill to mean a container for certain alcoholic beverages that has an interior flexible bag with a valve to dispense a beverage and a rigid cardboard or corrugated paper box designed to contain the bag, as provided. The bill would authorize the department to provide a credit toward the 2027 processing fees to beverage producers who paid the 2026 processing fee, as provided. If the amount needed to make processing payments to recyclers for bag in box beverage containers exceeds the amount of processing fee revenue available, the bill would authorize the department to expend funds to pay the processing payments in full, as specified. The bill would repeal these provisions on January 1, 2031. By expanding the purposes for which a continuously appropriated fund may be expended, the bill would make an appropriation.
Existing law generally designates the State Air Resources Board as the state agency with the primary responsibility for the control of vehicular air pollution. Existing law requires the state board to develop and implement a Heavy-Duty Vehicle Inspection and Maintenance Program for nongasoline heavy-duty onroad motor vehicles with a gross vehicle weight rating of more than 14,000 pounds. Existing law requires that the program include, among other things, test procedures for different motor vehicle model years and emissions control technologies that measure the effectiveness of the control of emissions of oxides of nitrogen and particulate matter. Existing law requires, as part of the program, the state board to develop a Heavy-Duty Vehicle Inspection and Maintenance Compliance Certificate. Existing law requires the state board to issue the certificate to the legal owner, registered owner, or designee of a vehicle that, at the discretion of the state board, meets the requirements of the program so that vehicle owners and operators may easily demonstrate proof of compliance for specified purposes. This bill would limit specified testing of all nongasoline heavy-duty onroad motor vehicles with a gross vehicle weight rating of more than 14,000 pounds that are considered low use, as defined, that have an engine that is from the 2012 model year or older, and that are registered in this state, to not more frequently than annually. The bill would require the state board to adopt rules and regulations to implement this provision.
Existing law prohibits the disconnection, modification, or alteration of required motor vehicle pollution control devices. Existing law exempts from the prohibition an alteration, modification, or modifying device, apparatus, or mechanism that is covered by a resolution of the State Air Resources Board that makes specified findings. Under existing regulations, the executive officer of the state board is authorized to exempt add-on and modified parts for on-road vehicles or engines from the above prohibition based on an evaluation conducted in accordance with certain procedures. Existing law requires the state board to undertake a public process to review the existing procedures for exempting parts for on-highway vehicles under those resolutions with the goal of streamlining the process for issuing executive orders. Existing law authorizes the state board to adopt a schedule of fees to cover all or a portion of the state board's reasonable costs for the certification, audit, and compliance of aftermarket parts sold in the state, as specified. This bill would authorize a manufacturer of an add-on or modified part for on-road vehicles or engines to request the state board issue a conditional approval to sell an add-on or modified part before issuance of an executive order while the applicant is awaiting final determination for the add-on or modified part, as specified. The bill would require the state board to make a determination on whether the application is complete and satisfies other specified requirements and, if it determines those requirements are met, to grant a conditional approval. If the state board does not make a determination within 30 days of receipt of a request, the bill would deem the request conditionally approved, except as specified. The bill would authorize, upon the effective date of a conditional approval, the add-on or modified part specified in the application to be sold, offered for sale, advertised, or installed in the state. The bill would require a conditional approval to expire 2 years from the effective date of the conditional approval, unless extended by the executive officer, or upon issuance of an executive order, whichever occurs sooner.
Existing law establishes the Wildfire and Forest Resilience Task Force and requires the task force to develop a comprehensive implementation strategy to track and ensure the achievement of the goals and key actions identified in the state's Wildfire and Forest Resilience Action Plan, as provided. Existing law requires, on or before March 1, 2026, and every 5 years thereafter, the task force to update the action plan. The Budget Act of 2025 provided for a community hardening program in the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection that includes home hardening certification and a wildfire county coordinator program, appropriated $9,500,000 to the department to make available to the California Fire Safe Council for the Wildfire County Coordinator Program, and required the county coordinators to prioritize home hardening, defensible space, planning, and education for community-level wildfire mitigation efforts. This bill would require the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection to establish the California Wildfire Preparedness Program to (1) establish recommended guidance for the use of available wildfire risk modeling and analysis tools by organizations, as specified, (2) develop guidance and tools related to wildfire risk assessments, (3) support the development or updating of county-level wildfire risk assessments, (4) maintain oversight authority for the Wildfire County Coordinator Program, as provided, and (5) develop guidance and templates for the creation or revision of county-level wildfire preparedness prioritization and implementation plans, and accompanying guidance for integrating these plans with related wildfire resilience programs, as provided. This bill would provide in code for the Wildfire County Coordinator Program to support countywide coordination of and capacity for community wildfire mitigation, prevention, preparedness, and recovery activities, as specified. The bill would require the department to enter into an agreement with the California Fire Safe Council to administer and deliver the program. The bill would require the program to, among other things, establish capacity in participating counties to plan and execute specified activities in support of the Wildfire and Forest Resilience Action Plan and collect data on local mitigation and preparedness activities, including costs and outcomes, as provided.
Existing law, the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Reform Act of 2009, declares that the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta (Delta) is a critically important natural resource for California and the nation and it serves as both the hub of the California water system and the most valuable estuary and wetland ecosystem on the west coast of North and South America. Existing law establishes in the Natural Resources Agency the Department of Water Resources (department) . Existing law requires the department and the Department of Fish and Wildlife to determine the principal options for the Delta and requires the department to evaluate and comparatively rate each option for its ability to do specified things, including, among others, to maintain Delta water quality for Delta users, and to preserve, protect, and improve Delta levees. Existing law establishes in the agency the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Conservancy. Existing law requires the conservancy to act as a primary state agency to implement ecosystem restoration in the Delta and to support efforts that advance environmental protection and the economic well-being of Delta residents. Existing law provides for the preservation of specified management areas of the Suisun Marsh, pursuant to a protection plan prepared and adopted by the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission, as provided. Existing law establishes the Delta Stewardship Council, and requires the council to develop, adopt, and implement a comprehensive long-term management plan for the Delta, known as the Delta Plan, as provided. Existing law requires the department, upon appropriation, to reimburse an eligible local agency for costs incurred for the maintenance or improvement of specified levees, in an amount not to exceed 75% of costs incurred in excess of a set amount per mile, as provided. This bill would require the department to reimburse 100% of the excess costs if a local agency demonstrates economic hardship and the reimbursement is for a project that addresses a threat to life, property, water supply, or habitat. This bill would establish the Delta Levees and Canal Subsidence Fund in the State Treasury and, upon appropriation, would make the moneys in the fund available to the Secretary of the Natural Resources Agency for expenditure consistent with the allocations described below. The bill would authorize the secretary to seek out, and the fund to accept, state moneys from, among other sources, any bond funds, the General Fund, or the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund. The bill would authorize the fund to accept moneys from nonstate sources, including federal and private moneys, and would continuously appropriate those moneys without regard to fiscal year, for allocation as described below, thereby making an appropriation. The bill would require the secretary to allocate moneys in the fund, as specified, subject to funding availability, as follows: (1) to the department for the purposes of supporting capital improvements to restore the original design water conveyance capacity for state water conveyance systems, as defined, impacted operationally by land subsidence, and (2) to the department for projects in the Delta or Suisun Marsh to improve existing levees, as specified. The bill would require the conservancy to convene a working group with specified representation to develop a list of recommended projects, as provided. The bill would require the conservancy to publish the list on its internet website, allow 45 days for public comment, and hold at least one community meeting before the list is approved by the conservancy's governing board. The bill would require the department to administer any grants or funding agreements from the list of projects. The bill would require at least 15% of the funds for projects in the Delta or Suisun Marsh, as described in (2) above, to be for Delta levee projects from the list developed by the working group, as provided. The bill would authorize the department to impose additional requirements on projects to meet the conditions of the funding source, as provided. The bill would prohibit these moneys from being expended to pay the costs of the design, construction, operation, mitigation, or maintenance of any additional Delta conveyance facilities, as provided. The bill would require the secretary, no later than January 1, 2032, and by January 1 every 5 years thereafter, to report to the Legislature on expenditures, as provided. This bill would also require the department to provide a report to the budget committees of the Assembly and Senate no later than May 1, 2027, and biennially thereafter, that contains a 5-year spending plan detailing the engineering and capital improvements necessary to address state water conveyance systems impacted operationally by land subsidence, as provided. The bill would authorize the department to charge the state water supply contractors for the actual and reasonable cost of developing the plan.
(1) The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) requires a lead agency, as defined, to prepare, or cause to be prepared, and certify the completion of, an environmental impact report on a project that it proposes to carry out or approve that may have a significant effect on the environment or to adopt a negative declaration if it finds that the project will not have that effect. CEQA also requires a lead agency to prepare a mitigated negative declaration for a project that may have a significant effect on the environment if revisions in the project would avoid or mitigate that effect and there is no substantial evidence that the project, as revised, would have a significant effect on the environment. CEQA requires the Office of Land Use and Climate Innovation to prepare and propose guidelines for the implementation of CEQA by public agencies and requires the Secretary of the Natural Resources Agency to certify and adopt the guidelines. CEQA requires the guidelines to include a list of classes of projects that have been determined not to have a significant effect on the environment and that are exempt from CEQA, commonly known as categorical exemptions. This bill would define "data center" for the purposes of CEQA and prohibit the application of categorical exemption to a project for the development and operation of a data center, as specified. By increasing the duties of a lead agency in relation to the environmental review of a data center project, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (2) The Jobs and Economic Improvement Through Environmental Leadership Act of 2021 authorizes the Governor, until January 1, 2032, to certify environmental leadership development projects that meet specified requirements for certain streamlining benefits related to CEQA. The act, among other things, requires a lead agency to prepare the record of proceedings for an environmental leadership development project concurrent with the administrative process and to provide a specified notice within 10 days of the Governor certifying the project. The act specifies the process for the quantification and mitigation of impacts from emissions of greenhouse gases of certain environmental leadership projects, as provided. The act is repealed by its own terms on January 1, 2034. This bill would authorize the Governor to certify a data center project that is certified by the lead agency to meet specified conditions as an environmental leadership development project. The bill would require the Office of Land Use and Climate Innovation, in consultation with the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission and other state agencies, as necessary, to develop uniform statewide standards for satisfying those conditions for data centers, as specified. The bill would also authorize the Governor to certify a geothermal powerplant that is certified by the lead agency to meet certain criteria as an environmental leadership development project. The bill would require the quantification and mitigation of impacts for emissions of greenhouse gases of a data center project and geothermal powerplant projects to be determined in the same manner as for those certain environmental leadership projects. By increasing the duties of a lead agency, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (3) 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.
(1) Existing law requires the Secretary for Environmental Protection to implement a unified hazardous waste and hazardous materials management regulatory program, known as the unified program. Existing law requires every county to apply to the secretary to be certified to implement the unified program, and authorizes a city or local agency that meets specified requirements to apply to the secretary to be certified to implement the unified program, as a certified unified program agency. Existing law authorizes a state or local agency that has a written agreement with a certified unified program agency, and is approved by the secretary, to implement or enforce one or more of the unified program elements as a participating agency. Existing law requires the certified unified program agency in each jurisdiction, in conjunction with participating agencies, to develop and implement a single, unified inspection and enforcement program to ensure coordinated, efficient, and effective enforcement of the unified program and any local ordinance or regulation pertaining to the handling of hazardous waste or hazardous materials. Existing law requires the secretary to establish a statewide information management system capable of receiving all data collected by the unified program agencies and reported by regulated businesses and to make all nonconfidential data available on the internet. This bill would prohibit a city or county, or city and county, from approving a building permit for a new reactive chemical storage facility, as defined, with the potential for an explosion, including, but not limited to, due to thermal runaway reaction, that may cause injury or death, unless the proposed facility has a backup cooling system or other contingency system approved by the unified program agency and is not adjacent to a home. The bill would require a city council or county board of supervisors, before approving a building permit for that purpose, to provide the public with notice and the opportunity to comment. If a city or county, or city and county, approves a building permit for that purpose, the bill would require the city or county, or city and county, to notify the Office of Emergency Services and the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment. The bill would make the approval of a building permit for certain reactive chemical storage facilities ineligible for a specified exemption from the California Environmental Quality Act. The bill would require a city, county, or city and county to include in the next revision of its emergency operations plan a specific designation for which emergency response department will serve as the lead agency for responding to hazardous materials incidents. By imposing additional requirements on cities and counties, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would require the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment to consider reactive chemical storage facilities as a factor in identifying disadvantaged communities for various purposes under existing law. This bill would revise the requirement for the secretary to make available on the internet all nonconfidential data collected by the unified program agencies and reported by regulated businesses to specifically authorize the secretary to determine the form and manner of making that data available on the internet. This bill would require the unified program agency in each jurisdiction to routinely conduct an inspection of each reactive chemical storage facility in its jurisdiction no less than once every 3 years. The bill would require the unified program agency to report the results of the inspection to the California Environmental Protection Agency, the Office of the State Fire Marshal, and the Office of Emergency Services. By imposing additional requirements on unified program agencies, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (2) Existing law requires the California Environmental Protection Agency to obtain and maintain state delegation of, and to implement, the federal accidental release prevention program, with certain amendments specific to the state. Pursuant to these provisions, a stationary source, as defined, with a process that has a regulated substance present in more than a threshold quantity is required to prepare and submit to the United States Environmental Protection Agency and the unified program agency a risk management plan, unless the unified program agency makes a specified determination to exempt the stationary source from the program. Existing law imposes criminal penalties upon a stationary source that knowingly violates the requirements of the program. This bill would expand the program's definition of "regulated substance" to include methyl methacrylate and would require the California Environmental Protection Agency to adopt a state threshold quantity applicable to methyl methacrylate through regulation. By adding an additional substance to the program, the bill would expand the scope of a crime and impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would provide that a stationary source that stores or uses methyl methacrylate is not eligible for exemption from the program. Because the bill would make changes to provisions enforced by unified program agencies, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (3) The bill would include findings that changes proposed by this bill address a matter of statewide concern rather than a municipal affair and, therefore, apply to all cities, including charter cities. (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 with regard to certain mandates no reimbursement is required by this act for specified reasons. 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.
