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, develop, and transmit to the Secretary of the Natural Resources Agency for certification and adoption proposed revisions to the CEQA implementation guidelines to establish criteria for determining the significance of transportation impacts of projects within transit priority areas, and requires the criteria to promote the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, the development of multimodal transportation networks, and a diversity of land uses. CEQA requires the office to recommend potential metrics, including, among other metrics, vehicle miles traveled, to measure these transportation impacts. This bill would require the Department of Transportation, in consultation with specified entities, to, on or before December 31, 2030, develop guidance on vehicle-miles-travel mitigation measures for transportation projects in nonmetropolitan counties, as provided. The bill would require the department to publish the guidance on its internet website and add the guidance as an addendum to the Transportation Analysis Framework and the Transportation Analysis under CEQA. The bill would specify that a transportation project for which the lead agency has issued a notice of preparation for the project's environmental impact report on or before December 31, 2031 is presumed to have a less than significant transportation impact as determined by the vehicle-miles-traveled metric if at least 70% of the project lies within one or more nonmetropolitan counties. Because the bill would impose additional duties on a lead agency in its analysis of significant transportation impacts, 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.
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. This bill would express the intent of the Legislature to enact subsequent legislation relating to environmental quality.
Existing law authorizes various conservancies to acquire, manage, direct the management of, and conserve lands in the state. This bill would establish the Grassland Ecological Area Conservancy within the Natural Resources Agency, with jurisdiction over the Grassland Ecological Area and the Grassland Focus Area, as defined, for specified purposes, including to protect, conserve, and restore the physical, cultural, archaeological, historical, and living resources of the Grassland Ecological Area and the Grassland Focus Area and to provide increased opportunities for tourism and recreation. The bill would require the conservancy to be governed by a board composed of designated voting members, including certain members appointed by certain local agencies, and nonvoting liaison advisers. The bill would set forth the powers, duties, and limitations of the governing board and the conservancy, as provided. The bill would create the Grassland Ecological Area Conservancy Fund and would make moneys in the fund available for expenditure by the conservancy, upon appropriation by the Legislature, only for the purposes of these provisions. The bill would require all funds or income received by the conservancy, including proceeds from donations or a lease, rental, sale, exchange, or transfer of an interest or option in real property, to be deposited into the fund. By imposing new duties on local agencies, the bill would create 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, 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.
Existing law requires the Department of Fish and Wildlife to require the purchase of an entry permit for nonconsumptive uses of department-managed lands if the department finds that it is practical and would be cost effective for the state to collect entry permit fees, and imposes specified requirements if the department does so, including requiring the department to use the Automated License Data System to sell that entry permit. Existing law authorizes the department to lease department-managed lands for agricultural activities if certain conditions are met and requires money collected from the lease of these lands to be deposited by the department into the Wildlife Restoration Fund or the Fish and Game Preservation Fund, and authorizes the department, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to use the funds to support the management, maintenance, restoration, and operations of department-managed lands. This bill would require the department to use the Automated License Data System to sell an entry permit for consumptive use and would authorize the department to use the Automated License Data System to sell an entry permit for nonconsumptive use if the department requires the purchase of an entry permit for nonconsumptive uses of department-managed lands, as described above. The bill would require, upon appropriation by the Legislature, the above-described agricultural lease funds to be used by the department to support the management, maintenance, restoration, and operations of department-managed lands. Existing law requires the department to annually provide an opportunity for licensed hunters to comment and make recommendations on public hunting programs, including anticipated habitat conditions in hunting areas on Type A and Type B Wildlife Areas, as provided. This bill would add wetland floodup to the topics that the department is required to provide an opportunity for comment and recommendation on as described above. This bill would create the Waterfowl Management Areas Operations and Maintenance Fund in the State Treasury and would require all revenues generated from the sale of waterfowl hunting reservation applications and daily and season long entry passes from Type A and Type B Wildlife Areas to be deposited into the fund. The bill would require the department to, upon appropriation by the Legislature, expend those revenues for the operation and maintenance of, and the reasonable administrative costs directly related to, the public hunting programs for Type A and Type B Wildlife Areas. The bill would require the department to, on or before October 1, 2033, prepare and submit a report to the appropriate policy and budget committees of the Legislature, as specified.
Existing law vests the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) with regulatory authority over public utilities, including electrical corporations. Existing law requires the PUC, in consultation with the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission and the Independent System Operator, to take specified actions to facilitate the commercialization of microgrids for distribution customers of large electrical corporations, including developing microgrid service standards necessary to meet state and local permitting requirements and developing methods to reduce barriers for microgrid deployment without shifting costs between ratepayers. This bill would require a large electrical corporation, upon request, to collaborate with local governments, tribal governments, or community choice aggregators within its service area to support resiliency planning, as provided. The bill would require large electrical corporations to provide local governments, tribal governments, and community choice aggregators with access to data, including electrical distribution equipment data, transmission and distribution circuit data, grid hardening plans, and other information as directed by the commission, to support resiliency planning by local governments and tribal governments to ensure local governments, tribal governments, and community choice aggregators are able to plan potential microgrid projects to support critical facilities. The bill would authorize the commission to require large electrical corporations to share this information in aggregated and anonymized form to protect customer privacy and electrical grid security. Under existing law, a violation of any order, decision, rule, direction, demand, or requirement of the PUC is a crime. Because the violation of a PUC action implementing the bill's requirements 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.
Existing law requires the Department of General Services, beginning no later than the 2024–25 fiscal year, to ensure at least 50% of the light-duty vehicles purchased for the state vehicle fleet each fiscal year are zero-emission vehicles, except as provided. This bill would make nonsubstantive changes to that requirement.
Existing law establishes the Transportation Agency, which has the power of general supervision over specified state entities. Existing law requires the agency to develop and report on legislative, budgetary, and administrative programs to accomplish comprehensive, long-range, coordinated planning and policy formation in the matters of public interest related to the agency. This bill would establish specified goals for the Climate Action Plan for Transportation Infrastructure (CAPTI) , consistent with state law.
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. Existing law requires the state board to approve and begin implementing a comprehensive short-lived climate pollutant strategy, as specified, to achieve a reduction in the statewide emissions of methane by 40% below 2013 levels by 2030, and requires methane emissions reduction goals to include specified targets to reduce the landfill disposal of organics. The state board has implemented regulations pursuant to the act for the purpose of reducing methane emissions from municipal solid waste landfills. This bill would require the state board to post on its internet website temperature and monitoring data received by the state board regarding methane emissions from landfills.
(1) The hazardous waste control laws require the Department of Toxic Substances Control to regulate the handling and management of hazardous waste and hazardous materials. A violation of the hazardous waste control laws is a crime. Existing law prohibits an owner or operator of a storage facility, treatment facility, transfer facility, resource recovery facility, or disposal site from accepting, treating, storing, or disposing of a hazardous waste at the facility, area, or site, unless the owner or operator holds a hazardous waste facilities permit, as provided. Existing law provides that a facility with the onsite accumulation of hazardous waste for a specified period of time by a generator of less than 1,000 kilograms of hazardous waste in any calendar month is not a storage facility if the quantity of hazardous waste accumulated onsite never exceeds 6,000 kilograms, the generator is in compliance with certain federal regulations, and the generator does not hold acutely or extreme hazardous waste in an amount greater than one kilogram for a specified period of time. Existing state regulations authorize a small quantity generator to accumulate various quantities of hazardous waste without a permit if certain conditions are met. This bill would instead provide that a facility with the onsite accumulation of hazardous waste for a specified period of time by a generator of less than 1,000 kilograms of hazardous waste in any calendar month is not a storage facility if the generator complies with those state regulations. Existing law imposes various manifest requirements for transporting hazardous waste, including, among others, requiring any person generating hazardous waste that is transported, or submitted for transportation, for offsite handling, treatment, storage, disposal, or any combination thereof, to complete a manifest. Existing law authorizes specified manifest requirements for transporting hazardous waste to be satisfied through the use of the United States Environmental Protection Agency electronic manifest (e-Manifest) system. This bill would require certain reports required to be submitted to the department when a manifest is not received to instead be submitted to the e-Manifest system. For purposes of the hazardous waste control laws, "treatment" means any method, technique, or process that is not otherwise excluded from the definition pursuant to these laws and that is designed to change the physical, chemical, or biological character or composition of any hazardous waste or any material contained therein, or that removes or reduces its harmful properties or characteristics for any purpose. Existing law excludes from that definition of "treatment" specified activities. This bill would exclude from that definition of "treatment" the compaction of hazardous waste under specified conditions, including, among others, requiring that the waste being compacted is not a free liquid, as defined, is not a solid that meets the ignitability or reactivity characteristic, as described, does not alter the physical, chemical, or biological character or composition of the waste, other than physical changes inherent to compaction, and does not result in fugitive dust, fire, or explosion. Existing law designates certain generators of hazardous waste as a very small quantity generator if they generate less than certain amounts, based on type, of hazardous waste per calendar month established in a specified federal regulation. This bill would delete the reference to that federal regulation and instead designate as very small quantity generators those that generate less than certain amounts established in a state regulation with identical thresholds as the federal regulation for the generation of acute and nonacute hazardous waste, except as provided. This bill would also make other changes related to hazardous waste and nonsubstantive changes. To the extent this bill changes the conduct that constitutes the crime of violating the hazardous waste control laws, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (2) Existing law establishes the Board of Environmental Safety in the Department of Toxic Substances Control with specified duties. Existing law requires the board to annually prepare and transmit to the Secretary for Environmental Protection an annual review of the department's performance as compared to its objectives, including, but not limited to, the performance of the Director of Toxic Substances Control. This bill would require the board to post that review on its internet website. The bill would authorize the review to include, to the extent feasible using existing resources, other reviews, recommendations, and findings related to the department's performance, as specified. (3) The Aboveground Petroleum Storage Act (the act) generally regulates aboveground storage tanks that contain petroleum and that meet certain requirements. The act requires its provisions to be implemented by a unified program agency, as provided, and requires the Office of the State Fire Marshal to adopt regulations implementing these provisions. A knowing violation of specified provisions of the act after reasonable notice of the violation is a crime. The act specifically excludes from the definition of an "aboveground storage tank" for purposes of the act oil-filled electrical equipment if the oil-filled electrical equipment meets specified conditions. The act further excludes from that definition a tank in an underground area that has the capacity to store less than 55 gallons of petroleum, has secondary containment, and is inspected monthly, if a specified condition is met. For purposes of the act, a "tank in an underground area" means a stationary storage tank that meets specified criteria and, among other things, the structure in which the storage tank is located, at a minimum, provides for secondary containment, as provided. For purposes of this definition, a shop-fabricated double-walled storage tank with a mechanical or electronic device used to detect leaks in the interstitial space meets the requirement for secondary containment of the contents of the tank. This bill would revise the exemption for oil-filled electrical equipment by clarifying that it applies if the single piece of equipment meets those conditions. The bill would revise the exemption for a tank in an underground area that has the capacity to store less than 55 gallons of petroleum by requiring the tank to have secondary containment of the contents of the tank, associated piping, and ancillary equipment, until cleanup occurs, and if the tank, piping, and ancillary equipment are inspected monthly. To the extent that the revisions to these exemptions would impose a higher level of service on local agencies, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The act further requires each owner or operator of a tank facility to immediately, upon discovery, notify the Office of Emergency Services and the unified program agency of the occurrence of a spill or other release of petroleum, as specified, that is required to be reported pursuant to specified water control laws imposing water discharge notice requirements. Existing water control laws exempt a discharge in compliance with waste discharge requirements or other water control laws from that notification requirement. This bill would instead make that notification requirement applicable to a discharge of any petroleum into or upon any waters of the state. The bill would make the exemption pursuant to the water control laws applicable to that notification requirement. By expanding the scope of a crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. This bill would also make clarifying changes to the act. (4) Existing law provides for the regulation of underground storage tanks by the State Water Resources Control Board and the unified program agency. Existing law defines an "underground storage tank" for these purposes. Existing law requires the interstitial space of the underground storage tank to be maintained under constant vacuum or pressure such that a breach in the primary or secondary containment is detected before the liquid or vapor phase of the hazardous substance stored in the underground storage tank is released into the environment. This bill would make that requirement applicable to the interstitial space of the underground storage tank that is buried. Existing law requires a local agency to inspect every underground tank system within its jurisdiction at least once every year. Existing law requires a local agency to prepare a compliance report detailing the inspection and to send a copy of this report to the permitholder and the owner or operator, if the owner or operator is not the permitholder. Existing law requires, within 60 days after receiving a compliance report or special inspection report, the permitholder to file with the local agency a plan to implement all recommendations contained in the compliance report or to demonstrate, to the satisfaction of the local agency, why these recommendations should not be implemented. This bill would instead require the permitholder to return to compliance within 30 days after receiving a compliance report or special inspection report and would eliminate the option to file a plan to implement all recommendations. The bill would authorize the local agency to approve a plan to return to compliance in excess of 30 days, as long as the plan to return to compliance is received by the local agency within 30 calendar days of the permitholder receiving the compliance report or special inspection report. (5) Existing law requires a business to establish and implement a business plan for emergency response to a release or threatened release of a hazardous material in accordance with prescribed standards if the business meets specified conditions at any unified program facility, including, among other conditions, if the business handles a hazardous material or a mixture containing a hazardous material that has a quantity at any one time during the reporting year that is equal to, or greater than, 55 gallons for materials that are liquids, 500 pounds for solids, or 200 cubic feet for compressed gas. This bill would provide that the above provision does not apply to specified gasses, including oxygen, nitrogen, or nitrous oxide, as provided. (6) 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 specified reasons.
(1) Existing law prohibits the dumping of waste matter upon a road or highway or in other locations, as specified. A violation of this prohibition, generally, is an infraction punishable by specified fines that escalate for subsequent convictions. Under existing law, the dumping of commercial quantities of waste, as defined, is punishable as a misdemeanor and also includes escalating fines. Under existing law, each day that waste is placed, deposited, or dumped in violation of these provisions is a separate violation. This bill would repeal that latter provision making each day a separate violation. The bill would increase the fine for the dumping of commercial quantities of waste from not less than $3,000 nor more than $6,000 to not less than $4,500 nor more than $8,000 for the 2nd conviction and from not less than $6,000 nor more than $10,000 to not less than $8,000 nor more than $10,000 for the 3rd and any subsequent convictions. The bill would increase the fine for the dumping of commercial quantities of waste by a business that employs more than 10 employees from not less than $3,000 nor more than $10,000 to not less than $6,000 nor more than $10,000 for the 2nd conviction and from not less than $6,000 nor more than $20,000 to not less than $15,000 nor more than $25,000 for the 3rd and any subsequent convictions. (2) Existing law establishes the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery and vests the department with all of the authority, duties, powers, purposes, responsibilities, and jurisdiction of the former California Integrated Waste Management Board, except as specified. This bill would require the department to be the lead state agency to act as a resource for cities and counties to address illegal dumping and would require the department to create an internet website with resources to help cities and counties combat, prevent, and clean up illegal dumping, as specified.
