Environment

Existing law requires the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission to prescribe, by regulation, lighting, insulation, climate control system, and other building design and construction standards, and energy and water conservation design standards, for new residential and new nonresidential buildings to reduce the wasteful, uneconomic, inefficient, or unnecessary consumption of energy, as specified. This bill would require the commission to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of passive house energy efficiency standards by California climate zone, using commission-adopted metrics such as long-term system cost. The bill would require the commission to evaluate the use of the 2 passive house energy models currently required for passive house certification in its analysis and the cost-effectiveness of passive house construction compared to existing construction, as specified. The bill would require the commission, on or before July 1, 2028, to submit a report to the Legislature documenting its findings and recommendations.

Existing law, the Personal Income Tax Law and the Corporation Tax Law, in conformity with federal income tax law, generally defines "gross income" as income from whatever source derived, except as specifically excluded, and provides various exclusions from gross income. Existing federal law authorizes an applicable entity, as defined, to receive a refund for specified environmental credits against the taxes imposed under federal law and excludes a refund payment made pursuant to that law from gross income. Existing federal law also authorizes an eligible taxpayer, as defined, to transfer the value of that refundable credit and exempts from gross income payment received by the transferor as consideration for the transfer. Existing federal law prohibits the transferee from deducting the amount paid as consideration for the transfer. This bill, in conformity with federal law, for taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2026, and before January 1, 2031, would exclude from gross income a refund payment made for the specified federal environmental credits described above and any payment received by a transferor as consideration for a transfer, as provided. The bill would also prohibit a transferee from deducting the amount paid as consideration for the transfer, in conformity with federal law. Existing law requires a bill authorizing a new tax expenditure to contain, among other things, specific goals, purposes, and objectives the tax expenditure will achieve, detailed performance indicators, and data collection requirements. This bill would include additional information required for any bill authorizing a new tax expenditure. This bill would take effect immediately as a tax levy.

Existing law requires each utility, on and after January 1, 2017, to, upon the request and authorization of the owner, owner's agent, or operator of a covered building, as defined, deliver or otherwise provide aggregated energy usage data for a covered building to the owner, owner's agent, or building operator, or to the owner's account in the ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager, as specified. This bill would authorize a utility to satisfy that requirement by delivering or otherwise providing aggregated energy usage data to the owner's account in any alternative system or tool approved by the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission.

(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, dreissenid mussels, and authorizes the Director of Fish and Wildlife or the director's designee to engage in various enforcement activities with regard to dreissenid mussels. Existing law requires any person, or federal, state, or local agency, district, or authority that owns or manages a reservoir, as defined, where recreational, boating, or fishing activities are permitted, except as specified, to develop and implement a program designed to prevent the introduction of nonnative dreissenid mussel species, as provided. Under existing law, except as otherwise provided, any violation of the Fish and Game Code, or of any rule, regulation, or order made or adopted under the code, is a crime. This bill would expand the scope of the above-described provisions relating to dreissenid mussels to instead apply to invasive mussels, defined to mean any nonnative detrimental mussel species, as provided. By expanding the scope of a crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. Existing law requires a public or private agency that operates a water supply system to cooperate with the Department of Fish and Wildlife to implement measures to avoid infestation by dreissenid mussels and to control or eradicate any infestation that may occur in a water supply system, and, if dreissenid mussels are detected, to prepare and implement a plan, as specified, to control or eradicate dreissenid mussels within the system. Existing law requires any person or entity that manages any aspect of the water in a reservoir, as defined, where recreational, boating, or fishing activities are permitted, to be eligible to receive a grant for the reasonable regulatory costs incident to the implementation of a dreissenid mussel infestation prevention plan. This bill would instead apply the above-described provisions to invasive mussels, as defined. The bill would require the department to, on or before December 31, 2026, review all approved plans and require all plans that do not specifically address all invasive mussel species known to be present in bodies of water in the state as of January 1, 2026, to be updated or revised, as provided. The bill would require every invasive mussel species to be addressed in a plan within a specified timeframe. By expanding the scope of a crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would require the department to either approve the plan or provide written comments and suggestions on plan review deficiencies, as provided. Existing law requires the owner of a vessel, as described, to register the vessel in accordance with prescribed requirements governing the registration and transfer of vessels. Existing law requires vessel registration to be renewed every 2-year period, as specified. Existing law establishes a registration fee and a renewal fee for vessels, and imposes an additional fee, known as the quagga and zebra mussel infestation prevention fee, in specified amounts, as determined by the Division of Boating and Waterways in the Department of Parks and Recreation, on a vessel required to pay the registration fee or renewal fee. Existing state regulations require the quagga and zebra mussel infestation prevention fee to be payable in specific instances of vessel registration or renewal. Existing law requires that all revenues collected from the quagga and zebra mussel prevention fee be deposited into the Harbors and Watercraft Revolving Fund created in the State Treasury, and, upon appropriation by the Legislature, expended for specified purposes. This bill would instead apply the above-described provisions to invasive mussels, as defined, including renaming the quagga and zebra mussel infestation prevention fee as the invasive mussel infestation prevention fee. The bill would, for invasive mussel infestation prevention fees due in the 2026 calendar year, and each year thereafter, increase the fee in specified amounts, and would require the amounts to be adjusted for inflation, as provided. Existing law authorizes a vessel operator to be issued a citation for operating a recreational vessel in nonmarine waters without a valid state-issued quagga and zebra mussel infestation prevention sticker. This bill would instead rename the quagga and zebra mussel infestation prevention sticker the invasive mussel infestation prevention sticker and would require the department to issue the sticker upon payment of the invasive mussel infestation prevention fee. (2) Existing law, the Farmer Equity Act of 2017, requires the Department of Food and Agriculture to ensure the inclusion of socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers, as defined, in the development, adoption, implementation, and enforcement of food and agriculture laws, regulations, and policies and programs, as specified. This bill would require the department, in consultation with certain entities, to establish the Regional Farmer Equipment and Cooperative Resources Assistance Pilot Program as part of the Farmer Equity Act of 2017 to provide financial and technical assistance to support regional farm equipment sharing and enhance cooperative benefits for socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers, with preference to be provided under the program in accordance with specified requirements. The bill would specify the entities eligible for financial assistance under the program and would require that applications for financial assistance to develop and expand equipment sharing programs include certain information. The bill would make the operation of the program contingent upon the Legislature making an appropriation for purposes of the program. The bill would repeal these provisions on January 1, 2030. (3) Existing law establishes in the Natural Resources Agency the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL-FIRE) under the control of an executive officer known as the Director of Forestry and Fire Protection. Existing law requires CAL-FIRE, in accordance with a plan approved by the State Board of Forestry and Fire Protection, to, among other things, provide fire prevention and firefighting implements, organize crews and patrols, and employ people to effect the plan. Existing law requires CAL-FIRE, subject to an appropriation of funds, to begin to employ sufficient permanent firefighting personnel to increase the base period hand crew staffing levels. This bill would instead require CAL-FIRE, subject to an appropriation of funds, to begin to employ sufficient permanent firefighting personnel to increase the base period staffing levels, without the limitation to hand crew staffing levels. (4) 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 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. CEQA exempts from its requirements activities or approvals necessary to the bidding for, hosting or staging of, and funding or carrying out of an Olympic Games under the authority of the International Olympic Committee, except for the construction of facilities necessary for the Olympic Games. This bill would revise the above-described exemption to exempt from CEQA activities or approvals for the bidding, hosting or staging of, and funding of an Olympic Games or a Paralympic Games under the authority of the International Olympic Committee or the International Paralympic Committee. The bill would also exempt from CEQA the construction of temporary facilities, as defined, for the 2028 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games. The bill would require public notice of any confirmed changes to the location of competition venues of the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games, as specified. Because a lead agency would be required to determine whether a project qualifies for this exemption, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. Existing law, the California Coastal Act of 1976, among other things, requires anyone wishing to perform or undertake any development in the coastal zone, except as specified, in addition to obtaining any other permit required by law from any local government or from any state, regional, or local agency, to obtain a coastal development permit from the California Coastal Commission or a local government, as provided. The act provides that a coastal development permit is not required for specified types of development in specified areas, including, among other things, any proposed development that the executive director of the commission finds to be a temporary event that does not have any significant adverse impact on coastal resources, as provided. This bill would specify that all temporary development undertaken under the authority of the International Olympic Committee, the International Paralympic Committee, or the Los Angeles Organizing Committee for the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games as part of hosting, staging, and carrying out the 2028 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games are considered temporary events and are exempt from the requirement to obtain a coastal development permit. The bill would require those temporary developments to avoid and minimize significant impacts to coastal resources to the extent feasible. The bill would specify that the exemption does not apply to development intended to last after December 31, 2028. The bill would be repealed by its own terms on January 1, 2029. To the extent this bill would create additional duties for a local government, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (5) The Safe Drinking Water, Wildfire Prevention, Drought Preparedness, and Clean Air Bond Act of 2024 (act) , approved by the voters as Proposition 4 at the November 5, 2024, statewide general election, authorized the issuance of bonds in the amount of $10,000,000,000 pursuant to the State General Obligation Bond Law to finance projects for safe drinking water, drought, flood, and water resilience, wildfire and forest resilience, coastal resilience, extreme heat mitigation, biodiversity and nature-based climate solutions, climate-smart, sustainable, and resilient farms, ranches, and working lands, park creation and outdoor access, and clean air programs. Existing law, the Administrative Procedure Act, sets forth the requirements for the adoption, publication, review, and implementation of regulations by state agencies. This bill would authorize certain regulations needed to effectuate or implement the programs of the act to be adopted as emergency regulations in accordance with the Administrative Procedure Act, as provided. The bill would require those emergency regulations to be filed with the Office of Administrative Law and would require the emergency regulation to remain in effect until repealed or amended by the adopting state agency. The act makes $135,000,000 available, upon appropriation by the Legislature, for deposit into the California Ocean Protection Trust Fund for grants to increase resilience from the impacts of climate change, as specified. This bill would instead make those funds available, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to the Ocean Protection Council for those purposes. The act requires $20,000,000, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to be deposited into the Invasive Species Account for purposes of funding invasive species projects and activities recommended by the Invasive Species Council of California, as specified. This bill would instead make those funds available, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to the Department of Food and Agriculture for those purposes. The act makes $870,000,000 available, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to the Wildlife Conservation Board for grant programs to protect and enhance fish and wildlife resources and habitat and achieve the state's biodiversity, public access, and conservation goals, as provided. This bill would appropriate the sum of $20,000,000, pursuant to the above provision, from the Safe Drinking Water, Wildfire Prevention, Drought Preparedness, and Clean Air Fund to the Wildlife Conservation Board to be granted to the Department of Fish and Wildlife for the 2025–26 fiscal year to address invasive mussel infestations, including the golden mussel. (6) This bill would make legislative findings and declarations as to the necessity of a special statute for the 2028 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games. (7) This bill would incorporate additional changes to Section 21080 of the Public Resources Code proposed by AB 1156 to be operative only if this bill and AB 1156 are enacted and this bill is enacted last. (8) The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that 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. (9) This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as a bill providing for appropriations related to the Budget Bill.

Existing law, the California Farmland Conservancy Program Act, establishes within the Department of Conservation the California Farmland Conservancy Program. Existing law authorizes the program to offer financial assistance, including grants or contracts, for projects and activities on agricultural lands, as defined, that support agricultural conservation and sustainable land management. This bill would require the department, in collaboration with the California Agricultural Land Equity Task Force, to establish the Farmland Access and Conservation for Thriving Communities Program in the department to provide financial and technical assistance to support agricultural land acquisition and protection. The bill would require the department, subject to specified requirements, to provide financial assistance under the program to qualified entities for the purpose of acquiring agricultural lands to transfer or provide long-term leases to qualified farmer participants, as specified. The bill would establish the Farmland Access Fund in the State Treasury and would make moneys in the fund available, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to the department for program expenditures. The bill would authorize the department to contract with one or more nonprofit organizations to administer the program. The bill would make the operation of the program contingent upon the Legislature making an appropriation for purposes of the program.

(1) Existing law, 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 provided. Under existing law, the Department of Fish and Wildlife may authorize, by permit, the taking of a western Joshua tree if certain conditions are met, including, among other conditions, that the permittee mitigates all impacts to, and the taking of, the western Joshua tree. Existing law authorizes the department to enter into an agreement with any county or city to delegate to the county or city the ability to authorize the taking of a western Joshua tree associated with developing single-family residences, multifamily residences, accessory structures, and public works projects concurrent with its approval of the project if certain conditions are met. Existing law authorizes any person or public agency receiving a take authorization for a project to pay specified fees in lieu of satisfying the mitigation obligation on several bases, including if the project receives a permit issued by a county or city. This bill would additionally authorize the department to enter into an agreement with any city to delegate to the city the ability to authorize the taking of western Joshua trees associated with developing commercial and industrial projects. The bill would, relative to other project types subject to delegated local mitigation authority, limit the bases for commercial or industrial projects to pay specified fees in lieu of satisfying the mitigation obligation, as provided. (2) Existing law authorizes the department to issue a permit to authorize either the removal or trimming of a dead western Joshua tree or the trimming of a live western Joshua tree. This bill would remove the reference to a dead or live western Joshua tree, thereby authorizing the department to issue a permit to authorize either the removal or trimming of any western Joshua tree. Existing law authorizes the department to issue a permit for these purposes, without the payment of fees or other mitigation, provided that a dead western Joshua tree or any limbs to be removed meet at least one of a specified list of conditions. This bill would revise and recast this provision to instead authorize the department to issue a permit, without the payment of fees or other mitigation, if either the western Joshua tree is located within 100 feet of an existing single-family home and any associated accessory structure or that removal or trimming is necessary for the homeowner to meet defensible space requirements, as provided.

Under existing law, the State Water Resources Control Board and the California regional water quality control boards prescribe waste discharge requirements in accordance with the Federal Water Pollution Control Act and the Porter-Cologne Water Quality Control Act. Under federal law, any applicant seeking a federal license or permit for an activity that may result in any discharge into the navigable waters of the United States is required to first seek a state water quality certification, as specified. The Porter-Cologne Water Quality Control Act authorizes the state board to certify or provide a statement to a federal agency, as required pursuant to federal law, that there is reasonable assurance that an activity of any person subject to the jurisdiction of the state board will not reduce water quality below applicable standards. The federal act provides that if a state fails or refuses to act on a request for this certification within a reasonable period of time, which shall not exceed one year after receipt of the request, then the state certification requirements are waived with respect to the federal application. This bill would require the state board, if requested by the applicant within 14 days of an initial draft certification being issued, to hold a public hearing at least 21 days before taking action on an application for certification for a license to operate a hydroelectric facility, as provided. The bill would, if a public hearing is requested on the draft certification, prohibit the authority to issue a certification for a license to operate a hydroelectric facility from being delegated. The bill would authorize the state board to include in its fee schedule for hydroelectric facility applicants an amount up to the reasonable costs incurred by the state board in implementing these provisions.

(1) The Bergeson-Peace Infrastructure and Economic Development Bank Act establishes the California Infrastructure and Economic Development Bank (I-Bank) in the Governor's Office of Business and Economic Development, governed by a board of directors. The act, among other things, authorizes the I-Bank to make loans, issue bonds, and provide financial assistance for various types of projects that qualify as economic development or public development facilities. The Climate Catalyst Revolving Fund Act of 2020 authorizes the I-bank, under the Climate Catalyst Revolving Fund Program, to provide financial assistance to any eligible sponsor or participating party in connection with the financing or refinancing of a climate catalyst project, either directly to the sponsor or participating party or to a lending or financial institution, as provided. The act requires the I-Bank to adopt climate catalyst financing plans for specified categories of climate catalyst projects, as specified, after meeting and conferring with the appropriate consulting agencies for those specified categories of climate catalyst projects. This bill would authorize the I-bank to provide financial assistance in connection with the financing or refinancing of a new category of climate catalyst projects, those that enable the decarbonization of industrial facilities' use of heat and power, including, but not limited to, industrial heat pump and thermal energy storage projects, as specified, with the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission and the State Air Resources Board as consulting agencies. The bill would specify conditions to be satisfied regarding these projects. The bill would make implementation of the financial assistance for this new category of climate catalyst projects contingent upon an appropriation by the Legislature. (2) Existing law requires the commission to establish and implement the Long-Duration Energy Storage Program to provide financial incentives for eligible projects, including thermal storage, that have power ratings of at least one megawatt and are capable of reaching a target of at least 8 hours of continuous discharge of electricity in order to deploy innovative energy storage systems to the electrical grid for purposes of providing critical capacity and grid services. Existing law requires the commission to give preference to eligible projects that have certain impacts, including those that increase the use of renewable energy. This bill would establish and implement an Industrial Facilities Thermal Energy Storage Program within the Long-Duration Energy Storage Program to provide financial incentives for eligible projects to decarbonize industrial facilities' use of heat and power, as specified. The bill would include thermal energy storage, as defined, rather than thermal storage, as an eligible project. The bill would require the commission to give preference to eligible projects that increase the use of renewable energy through reducing curtailment and shifting power usage from peak to off-peak times, rather than to all projects that increase the use of renewable energy. The bill would prohibit, after January 1, 2027, the commission from providing these financial incentives to projects that involve the performance of work by contractors in the construction industry unless that work is performed under a project labor agreement, as provided. (3) Existing law requires the commission to establish and administer the Industrial Grid Support and Decarbonization Program to provide financial incentives for the implementation of eligible projects at eligible industrial facilities to provide significant benefits to the electrical grid, reduce emissions of greenhouse gases, achieve the state's clean energy goals, and exceed compliance requirements. Existing law subjects projects to certain conditions of eligibility for these financial incentives. Existing law requires the commission, in providing financial incentives, to give preference to certain types of projects. This bill would rename the program the Industrial Decarbonization and Improvement of Grid Operations Program and would add, among its purposes, reducing emissions of health-harming pollutants. The bill would revise some of the conditions for eligible projects. The bill would make, after January 1, 2027, projects that involve the performance of work by contractors in the construction industry ineligible for these financial incentives unless the work is performed under a project labor agreement, as provided. The bill would require, after January 1, 2027, an eligible project for a facility that has a record of air permit violations to separately develop a plan for pollution remediation, including for ecological and public health harms. The bill would require the commission to also give preference, in providing financial incentives, to an eligible project that is located in an under-resourced community, as defined, and an eligible project that develops a community benefit fund or agrees to pursue a community benefits agreement with the surrounding community and other affected stakeholders.

The Porter-Cologne Water Quality Control Act establishes a statewide program for the control of the quality of all the waters in the state and makes certain legislative findings and declarations. Existing law establishes the State Water Resources Control Board to exercise the adjudicatory and regulatory functions of the state in the field of water resources. Pursuant to its authority, the board adopted the Water Quality Control Plan for the San Francisco Bay/Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Estuary (Bay-Delta Plan) that, among other things, establishes objectives to protect the beneficial uses of the water and prevent nuisance within the waters specified in the Bay-Delta Plan. Existing law, 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, except as provided, when a regulatory program of a state agency requires a plan or other written documentation containing environmental information, authorizes that plan or other information to be submitted in lieu of the EIR if the Secretary of the Natural Resources Agency has certified that regulatory program, as specified. This bill would require the board to adopt an update to the Bay-Delta Plan that addresses the Sacramento River and its tributaries, Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta (Delta) eastside tributaries, and the Delta no later than August 31, 2026. The bill would exempt the board from the requirements to prepare, provide for review, transmit to state agencies, and include written or oral responses to comments on a specified draft substitute environmental document, as provided.

The California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 designates the State Air Resources Board as the state agency charged with monitoring and regulating sources of emissions of greenhouse gases. 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. Existing law continuously appropriates 25% of the annual proceeds of the fund to the High-Speed Rail Authority for certain purposes. This bill would suspend the appropriation to the High-Speed Rail Authority for the 2026–27 and 2027–28 fiscal years and would instead require those amounts from moneys collected by the state board to be transferred to the General Fund. The bill would specify that the transferred amounts shall be available, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to augment funding for water infrastructure and wildfire prevention.