The California FAIR Plan Association is a joint reinsurance association in which all insurers licensed to write basic property insurance participate in administering a program for the equitable apportionment of basic property insurance for persons who are unable to obtain that coverage through normal channels. Existing law requires the Wildfire and Forest Resilience 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. This bill would require the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, on or before June 30, 2027, and in consultation with the Department of Insurance and the California FAIR Plan Association, to make recommendations to the task force regarding specific wildfire risk reduction measures that would reduce the regional risk profile for high-hazard landscapes and communities, particularly those ZIP Codes that have seen the largest increases in FAIR Plan policies sold since 2019.
(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. Existing law requires the state board to prepare and approve a scoping plan for achieving the maximum technologically feasible and cost-effective reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, as provided, and to update the scoping plan at least once every 5 years. Existing law requires the state board to develop a comprehensive strategy to reduce emissions of short-lived climate pollutants in the state. Existing law requires the state board, in consultation with the Department of Food and Agriculture, to adopt regulations to reduce methane emissions from livestock manure management operations and dairy manure management operations by up to 40% below the dairy sector's and livestock sector's 2013 levels by 2030. This bill would require the Department of Food and Agriculture to convene an interagency task force to evaluate the role of alternative manure management practices in achieving certain goals and to make specified findings and recommendations based on its evaluation. The bill would require the task force to include representatives from specified state agencies, external scientific and technical experts, and other stakeholders, as provided. The bill would require the task force to coordinate scenario modeling of alternative manure management practices adoption within the dairy and livestock industry under different policy and funding conditions, assess how alternative manure management practices can help the state meet groundwater sustainability plans, water quality plans, and nature-based climate solutions, and facilitate interagency data sharing, technical consultation, and identification of research needs, as provided. The bill would authorize the state board to incorporate the task force's findings and recommendations into updates to the above-described comprehensive strategy, the 2027 update to the scoping plan, and other planning documents as appropriate. (2) Existing law requires the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery, in partnership with various government agencies, to identify and recommend actions to address, with regard to both state agencies and the federal government, the permitting and siting challenges associated with composting and anaerobic digestion, and to encourage the continued viability of the state's organic waste processing and recycling infrastructure. This bill would require the Department of Food and Agriculture to convene relevant government agencies, with input from the regulated community, to create an efficient and effective process for approving new projects that manage livestock and dairy manure through on-farm composting or by selling or transferring manure to offsite users.
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.
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 Passenger Charter-party Carriers' Act provides for the regulation of charter-party carriers of passengers by the Public Utilities Commission and includes specific requirements applicable to transportation network companies, which are defined as certain organizations that, using an online-enabled application or platform, connect passengers with drivers using a personal vehicle. The act establishes the California Clean Miles Standard and Incentive Program, which requires, by January 1, 2020, that the State Air Resources Board establish a baseline for emissions of greenhouse gases for vehicles used on the online-enabled applications or platforms by transportation network companies on a per-passenger-mile basis, as provided. The act requires, by January 1, 2021, that the state board establish, and the commission implement, annual targets and goals, in accordance with specified requirements, starting in 2023 for the reduction under that baseline for emissions of greenhouse gases per passenger mile driven on behalf of a transportation network company. The act makes a violation of the act, or an order or direction of the commission pursuant to the act, a crime. This bill would require, by January 1, 2028, the state board to adopt, and the commission to implement, updated annual targets and goals starting in 2029 for the reduction under that baseline for emissions of greenhouse gases per passenger mile driven on behalf of a transportation network company in accordance with specified requirements. The bill would prohibit the commission from finding a transportation network company in violation of the program under specified circumstances. The bill would prohibit the commission from adopting or enforcing any penalties against transportation network companies for the failure to meet the targets or goals adopted under the program by the state board applicable before the 2029 calendar year. However, the bill would require a transportation network company to meet specified targets for passenger miles traveled using a zero-emission vehicle in the 2027 and 2028 calendars years. The act requires the state board to delay adoption, and the commission to delay implementation, of the targets and goals adopted pursuant to the program if the state board or commission finds that unanticipated barriers exist to expanding the usage of zero-emission vehicles by transportation network companies. The act requires the state board and commission to review the available data related to barriers to expanding the usage of zero-emission vehicles by transportation network companies no less often than every 2 years. This bill would instead require the state board to adjust the targets and goals, and the commission to delay implementation of those targets and goals, if the state board or the commission makes specified findings, including that barriers exist to expanding the usage of zero-emission vehicles by transportation network companies at the rates established by the state board. The bill would revise the above-described review requirement to instead require the state board and commission, no less often than every 2 years, to review the targets and goals adopted under the program and the available data necessary to make any of those specified findings.
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 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 a lead agency, before releasing an environmental review document for a project, to begin consultation with a California Native American tribe that is traditionally and culturally affiliated with the geographic area of the proposed project, as provided. CEQA authorizes the parties, as a part of the consultation, to propose mitigation measures capable of avoiding or substantially lessening potential significant impacts to a tribal cultural resource or alternatives that would avoid significant impacts to a tribal cultural resource. CEQA defines a tribal cultural resource as including, among other things, a site, feature, place, cultural landscape, sacred place, or object with cultural value to a California Native American tribe that is included or determined to be eligible for inclusion in the California Register of Historical Resources or included in a local register of historical resources, as provided. This bill would modify the definition of tribal cultural resource to, among other things, include a site, feature, place, cultural landscape, sacred place, or object with cultural value to a California Native American tribe that is identified by the Native American Heritage Commission as a sacred place, as provided, or included in a local tribal register and provided to the lead agency by a consulting California Native American tribe. CEQA requires public agencies, when feasible, to avoid damaging effects to tribal cultural resources and specifies mitigation measures that may be considered to avoid or minimize significant adverse impacts to tribal cultural resources if the consultation process fails to result in agreed-upon mitigation measures. This bill would revise and recast those provisions to instead require a lead agency, when feasible, to adopt mitigation measures, as provided, to avoid or minimize the significant adverse impacts to tribal cultural resources. The bill would require avoidance and preservation of the resource in place to be considered when requested by the consulting California Native American tribe, and if avoidance and preservation are determined to not be feasible, the bill would require the lead agency to document the basis for that determination with substantial evidence and, when feasible, to incorporate other measures to avoid or minimize significant adverse impacts to the resource consistent with CEQA. The bill would authorize the consulting California Native American tribe to identify culturally appropriate mitigation measures, which the bill would require the lead agency to consider and incorporate, to the extent feasible, in developing mitigation and treatment measures. This bill would require the lead agency, if archaeological methods and standards are used in the identification of tribal cultural resources instead of tribal methods and standards or tribal traditional knowledge submitted by a California Native American tribe during tribal consultation, to explain its decision to use archaeological methods and standards. The bill would require the lead agency, if treatment and mitigation measures preferred and submitted by a California Native American tribe during tribal consultation are not recommended for adoption by the lead agency, to explain its decision. By imposing additional duties on local agencies in their implementation of CEQA, 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.
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Existing law establishes the Geologic Energy Management Division in the Department of Conservation under the direction of the State Oil and Gas Supervisor, who is required to supervise the drilling, operation, maintenance, and abandonment of oil and gas wells in the state and the operation, maintenance, and removal or abandonment of tanks and facilities related to oil and gas production within an oil and gas field so as to prevent damage to life, health, property, and natural resources. Existing law establishes the California State University under the administration of the Trustees of the California State University as one of the segments of public postsecondary education in the state. This bill would require the department, consistent with its statutory authority and in coordination with other state or federal regulatory agencies, to prioritize granting approvals for specified types of low-carbon or carbon-reducing technologies and applications. The bill would authorize the department to establish the Subsurface Low-Carbon Demonstration Project Program to facilitate partnerships among the state, the California State University system, private industry, and public entities to study and demonstrate innovative subsurface technologies using existing and idle wells. The bill would authorize the department to establish various programs in partnership with the California State University and California State University, Bakersfield, including (1) the Regional Subsurface Energy Transition and Applied Research Program and (2) a subsurface energy research field station for applied research, field testing, monitoring, and demonstration of subsurface technologies. The bill would also authorize the department to (3) collaborate with the California Energy Research Center at California State University, Bakersfield, and recognize the center as a state-affiliated applied research, technical assistance, and policy support partner, as provided, and (4) designate and support the California Core Repository at California State University, Bakersfield, as an official state-affiliated repository, as provided. This bill would authorize the department to establish and administer an official department office at California State University, Bakersfield, and would authorize the California State University to support and collaborate on activities across the full scope of the department's statutory responsibilities, as provided. This bill would explicitly authorize university-based researchers associated with any of the above-described programs to serve on advisory panels, technical working groups, and research committees in an advisory capacity, and provide scientific expertise to inform regulatory development, interagency coordination, and public communication. This bill would make legislative findings and declarations as to the necessity of a special statute for California State University, Bakersfield.
Existing law requires the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission (Energy Commission) , in consultation with the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) , to develop uptime recordkeeping and reporting standards for electric vehicle chargers and charging stations. This bill would require the Energy Commission, on or before December 31, 2028, to conduct and publish on its internet website an assessment of, among other things, the electrical grid energy supply, reliability, and cost implications associated with the state's transition to 100% renewable and zero-carbon energy sources and the target level of grid-integrated vehicle technology vehicle use and grid-integrated charging technology-enabled vehicle use necessary to address those needs, as provided. The bill would require the Energy Commission, on or before December 31, 2029, to adopt and implement standards, in consultation with the State Air Resources Board, the PUC, and other relevant local and state agencies, for grid-integrated vehicle technology and associated grid-integrated charging technology of new vehicles, as provided. The bill would require that these standards establish requirements for on-road vehicles of any weight class sold within the state to incorporate grid-integrated vehicle technology and grid-integrated charging technology to achieve those targets, except as specified, and include specified provisions relating to, among other things, classes and types of grid-integrated vehicle technologies that can satisfy those requirements and alternative compliance mechanisms, as provided. The bill would exempt specified types of vehicles from these requirements adopted by the Energy Commission, including, among others, authorized emergency vehicles, as provided. The bill would require the Energy Commission, if it adopts requirements that would require the inclusion of grid-integrated charging technology or grid-integrated vehicle technology on a specific vehicle model or type within a weight class, to adopt a process for a manufacturer to apply for a waiver from that requirement if implementation is not feasible for the vehicle model.
(1) Existing law, until January 1, 2030, generally prohibits a person from possessing, importing, shipping, or transporting in the state, or from placing, planting, or causing to be placed or planted in any water within the state, invasive mussels, as defined. Existing law requires a public or private agency that operates a water supply system to cooperate with the Department of Fish and Wildlife (department) to implement measures to avoid infestation by invasive mussels and to control or eradicate any infestation that may occur in a water supply system, and, if invasive mussels are detected, to prepare and implement a plan, as specified, to control or eradicate invasive mussels within the system (control plan) . Existing law prohibits the importation, transportation, possession, or live release of specified wild animals, except under a revocable, nontransferable permit, known as a restricted species permit, issued by the department, in cooperation with the Department of Food and Agriculture, and only if certain requirements are met. This bill would exempt from the requirement to obtain a restricted species permit for invasive mussels a public or private agency that operates a water supply system and has submitted a control plan to the department for maintenance, operational, and research activities within the water supply system, as specified. The bill would exempt from the requirement to obtain a restricted species permit for dead invasive mussels a public or private agency that operates a water supply system and has submitted a control plan to the department for research, outreach, education, species verification, training, or other purposes deemed by the department to be in the best interest of the state. The bill would provide that these exemptions remain in effect for a particular public or private agency until the department determines the agency's control plan does not meet the statutory requirements for control plans or approves the control plan. This bill would require the department's Invasive Species Program to develop, by April 1, 2027, voluntary guidance for public and private agencies that operate water supply systems to develop effective control plans. The bill would also require the department's Invasive Species Program to develop and publish, by April 1, 2027, guidance for scientific research conducted by or for public and private agencies that operate water supply systems to prevent and control the spread of invasive mussels, as specified. This bill would require the department to update the spatial distribution maps of invasive mussel-infested water bodies posted on its internet website no less than quarterly based on monitoring and reported detections, as prescribed. (2) Existing law requires every manufacturer of, importer of, or dealer in any pesticide, except as specified, to obtain a certificate of registration from the Department of Pesticide Regulation before the pesticide is offered for sale. Existing law requires the Director of Pesticide Regulation to endeavor to eliminate from use in the state specified pesticides, and in carrying out this responsibility, to develop an orderly program for the continuous evaluation of all pesticides actually registered, as specified. 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 and the national pollutant discharge elimination system permit program. This bill would require, in response to an invasive species threat, including, but not limited to, the threat of golden mussels, the department, state board, and regional boards to work with state and local agencies in order to quickly and efficiently respond to the threat. The bill would require the department and state board to identify any tools available to assist a state or local agency in rapidly responding to the invasive species threat and to help identify any existing processes that allow for the rapid use of any tool that could be used to address the invasive species threat and enables a streamlined or faster administrative or procedural process. The bill would require the state board, if necessary, to help coordinate efforts between the regional boards in response to a threat of an invasive species. (3) This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
Existing law requires the State Air Resources Board, by July 1, 2022, consistent with federal law, to adopt cost-effective and technologically feasible regulations to prohibit engine exhaust and evaporative emissions from new small off-road engines, as defined by the state board. Existing law requires those regulations to apply to engines produced on or after January 1, 2024, or as soon as the state board determines is feasible, whichever is later, and requires the state board to identify, and, to the extent feasible, make available, funding for commercial rebates or similar incentive funding, as specified. This bill would require, to the extent that funding is appropriated by the Legislature, each large and medium air pollution control and air quality management district, no later than January 1, 2028, to implement and maintain a commercial voucher program to support the transition to zero-emission small off-road equipment consistent with specified requirements. By requiring districts to establish a new program, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would also require a small rural district or local government that chooses to adopt such a program to comply with specified requirements in administering the program. This bill would prohibit the punishment of a violation of an ordinance adopted by a local government governing the use of any small off-road engine landscaping equipment as an infraction or misdemeanor, and would provide that the ordinance is only punishable by an administrative fine imposed in accordance with specified requirements. 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. 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. 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.
