Existing law requires the Office of the State Fire Marshal to develop and make available on its internet website a Wildland-Urban Interface Fire Safety Building Standards Compliance training intended for use in the training of local building officials, builders, and fire service personnel, as specified. Existing law authorizes the Office of the State Fire Marshal to allow certification of contractors who conduct defensible space, home hardening, fuel reduction, roadside clearance, and other contracting activities for wildlife resiliency efforts and who have completed specified training programs. Existing law requires the Office of the State Fire Marshal to develop and update a Wildland-Urban Interface Products listing of products and construction assemblies that comply with prescribed regulations regarding building in a wildland-urban interface area. Existing law authorizes the Office of the State Fire Marshal to expend funds from the Building Standards Administration Special Revolving Fund, upon an appropriation by the Legislature, for the purposes of researching and developing the products listing and the educational and training provisions. Existing law requires the Office of the State Fire Marshal to establish the State Fire Marshal's Wildfire Mitigation Advisory Committee. This bill would require, on or before January 1, 2028, the State Fire Marshal's Wildfire Mitigation Advisory Committee to develop an implementation plan for a home hardening certification program that identifies home hardening measures, including defensible space, that can be voluntarily implemented during renovation or property improvement projects, or both, to substantially reduce the risk of loss during a fire and bring existing building stock into alignment with state building standards for wildland-urban interface areas. The bill would require the committee, in developing the implementation plan for the home hardening certification program, to provide specified recommendations. The bill would authorize the Office of the State Fire Marshal to expend funds from the Building Standards Administration Special Revolving Fund, upon an appropriation by the Legislature, for the purposes of developing the implementation plan for the home hardening certification program. The bill would require the committee, on or before January 1, 2028, to provide a report to specified legislative committees on its findings and recommendations pursuant to these provisions. The bill would require, on or before January 1, 2029, the State Fire Marshal to establish the home hardening certification program based on the recommendations made by the Wildfire Mitigation Advisory Committee.
Sponsored bills
Existing law requires the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection to establish a local assistance grant program for fire prevention and home hardening education activities in California and extends eligibility for grants to, among others, local agencies, resource conservation districts, fire safe councils, the California Conservation Corps, certified community conservation corps, Native American tribes, and qualified nonprofit organizations. Existing law requires the department, on or before December 31, 2023, and annually thereafter, to post on its internet website certain information regarding hazardous fuel reduction and vegetation management projects funded or conducted by the department for the preceding fiscal year, including projects funded under the department's Wildfire Prevention Grants Program, as provided. Existing law requires the Director of Forestry and Fire Protection to establish a statewide program to allow qualified entities, as defined, who have completed a specific training program developed and administered by the department to support and augment the department in its defensible space and home hardening assessment and education efforts. This bill would require the department, in consultation with the State Fire Marshal's Wildfire Mitigation Advisory Committee, to establish a wildfire mitigation validation program to provide voluntary official recognition to a community that achieves progress toward community-scale wildfire preparedness and mitigations. The bill would require the department, in consultation with the committee, to (1) set the wildfire mitigations, including, among other things, home hardening and defensible space requirements, and (2) set the minimum percentage of mitigations required to achieve recognition and set increases in those percentages, as provided. The bill would authorize the department, commencing with the 2028–29 fiscal year, to disburse funds appropriated for the Wildfire Prevention Grants Program to recognized communities that partner with fire safe councils or other eligible groups, as provided. The bill would authorize the department to prioritize disadvantaged recognized fire communities pursuant to its established procedures for prioritizing disadvantaged applicants for the Wildfire Prevention Grants Program.
Existing law, the Protecting Our Kids from Social Media Addiction Act, prohibits an operator of an addictive internet-based service or application from providing an addictive feed, as defined, to a user unless the operator does not have actual knowledge that the user is a minor, as specified, or the operator has obtained verifiable parental consent to provide an addictive feed to the user who is a minor. Existing law, the Digital Age Assurance Act, beginning January 1, 2027, requires a person who owns, maintains, or controls a software application, as defined, to request age bracket data sent by a real-time secure application programming interface or operating system with respect to a particular user from an operating system provider or a covered application store when the application is downloaded and launched. This bill would prohibit a covered platform, as defined, from providing an addictive feature, as defined, to a user who is under 16 years of age and would require a covered platform to implement reasonable measures to ensure that users under 16 years of age are not offered or provided any addictive feature on the covered platform. The bill would also authorize the Attorney General to adopt regulations to implement and enforce the bill in order to further the purpose of protecting minors online, including by altering the scope of "covered platform" if the Attorney General determines that doing so is necessary to ensure that "covered platform" applies to internet websites, online services, online applications, or mobile applications that make addictive features, as defined, available to users under 16 years of age. This bill would impose a civil penalty upon a noncompliant platform and would require its provisions to be enforced by a civil action brought only by the Attorney General or a local public prosecutor, as specified. This bill would also establish the e-Safety Advisory Commission within the Department of Justice as an independent advisory body that is only for administrative purposes to advise state government on certain matters related to online safety and would require the commission to, on or before January 1 of each year, report to the Legislature and the Governor on, among other things, its activities under the bill.
Existing law requires the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission (Energy Commission) and the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) , on or before December 15, 2022, and quarterly thereafter, to submit to the Legislature a joint Reliability Planning Assessment that, among other things, includes prospective information on existing and expected resources, including updates on the interconnection status for renewable projects and any delays in interconnection, and expected retirements for both system and local resources. Existing law requires the Energy Commission to report in the energy almanac on California energy resources that serve load in California. This bill would require that the assessment also include the status of utility transmission upgrades and electrical grid infrastructure capacity and PUC approvals of applications for certificates of public convenience and necessity and permits to construct utility and independent projects, as specified.
Existing law establishes the State Water Resources Control Board in the California Environmental Protection Agency (CalEPA) and the California regional water quality control boards which prescribe waste discharge requirements in accordance with the Federal Water Pollution Control Act and the Porter-Cologne Water Quality Control Act. Existing law, the Petroleum Industry Information Reporting Act of 1980, requires refiners, as defined, to report monthly to the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission (Energy Commission) , for each of their refineries, specified information, and requires that any confidential information pertinent to the responsibilities of the Energy Commission, as provided, which is obtained by another state agency be available to the Energy Commission and be treated in a confidential manner. This bill would require, no later than December 31, 2028, every refiner, as defined for purposes of the bill, to submit to CalEPA a retirement plan setting forth information concerning decommissioning and site remediation for every refinery it owns, operates, or controls, as provided. The bill would require the CalEPA, no later than 6 months following the submission of the retirement plan, to review the retirement plan for completeness and reasonableness and to make a determination as to whether the retirement plan complies with the requirements imposed by the bill. The bill would require CalEPA, if it determines that the retirement plan complies with the bill's requirements, to make the retirement plan available on CalEPA's internet website for public comments for not less than 45 days. The bill would authorize CalEPA to require further revisions to the retirement plan after the public comment period, as provided, before it is deemed final. The bill would require CalEPA, after CalEPA has determined that no further revisions are necessary, to promptly post the final retirement plan on its internet website. This bill would require a refiner who, on or after January 1, 2026, gives notice of intent to permanently shut down, shut down to reconfigure, or sell a refinery in a transaction that may result in a refinery shutting down or reconfiguring, as provided, to submit either the required retirement plan, or, if a final retirement plan has been released, an update of the retirement plan within a specified timeframe, as provided. The bill would require, on or before December 31, 2027, CalEPA to publicly provide an overview of the methods, costs, and timelines associated with soil and groundwater remediation that have been employed at refineries that have undergone decommissioning and remediation and to update the overview, as provided. This bill would make information filed pursuant to the above-described provisions confidential information, as provided. The bill would require a refiner to file the final retirement plan concurrently with the Energy Commission and the Division of Occupational Safety and Health. The bill would authorize CalEPA, the Energy Commission, and the Division of Occupational Safety and Health to share the information with the Legislature, any governmental agency, or a local government, including an air pollution control district or an air quality management district, only if the Legislature, the governmental agency, or the local government that receives the information agrees to maintain the confidentiality of the information. The bill would further require any information that is, or may be, accessible by the public, as provided, by CalEPA, the Department of Toxic Substances Control, a certified unified program agency, or a local government, to be made publicly available even if that information is also contained in the retirement plan. This bill would require, on or before December 31, 2027, CalEPA, in coordination with the Energy Commission, to compile a survey of existing local, state, and federal statutory and regulatory requirements applicable to refiners concerning decommissioning, closure, financial assurance, and site remediation obligations, as provided, for a specified purpose. This bill would require CalEPA, no later than one year after the retirement plans are deemed final, to publish publicly on CalEPA's internet website a report assessing the total decommissioning and remediation liabilities for refineries in the state, and identify opportunities for greater transparency prior to the closure notice, as provided. 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.
Existing law vests the Public Utilities Commission with regulatory authority over public utilities, including gas corporations. Existing law authorizes the commission to fix the rates and charges for every public utility and requires that those rates and charges be just and reasonable. Existing law requires, until at least December 31, 2029, each gas corporation to submit to the commission a map that includes, among other things, the location of all potential gas distribution line replacement projects identified in its distribution integrity management plan and any foreseeable gas distribution pipeline replacements, as provided. This bill would require each gas corporation to submit an annual report to the commission that describes its expenditures associated with gas distribution infrastructure replacement and upgrade projects, as provided. The bill would require the commission, as part of its long-term gas planning rulemaking or a successor proceeding, to consider a framework for the depreciation of gas distribution infrastructure that reflects reasonably foreseeable changes in gas demand and is designed to minimize future ratepayer exposure to stranded asset costs, and would authorize the commission to apply the framework in evaluating the depreciation of, and cost recovery for, gas distribution infrastructure replacements and upgrades. Under existing law, a violation of the Public Utilities Act or an order, decision, rule, direction, demand, or requirement of the commission is a crime. Because the above provisions would be part of the Public Utilities Act and a violation of a commission action implementing this bill's requirements would be a crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.
Existing law establishes the Office of Land Use and Climate Innovation in the Governor's office for the purpose of serving the Governor and the Governor's cabinet as staff for long-range planning and research and constituting the comprehensive state planning agency. This bill would require the office, on or before July 1, 2028, to compile, standardize, maintain, and make publicly available through a consolidated online platform a core set of statewide standardized spatial planning datasets, as defined. The bill would require the datasets to include specified categories of information, including hazardous data, natural resource sensitivity data, and agricultural value data, as provided. The bill would also require the office, on or before January 1, 2029, to develop and provide guidance for agencies to inform how to use and integrate the datasets in regional planning processes and products. The bill would require the office to update those datasets as new or revised data becomes available from the originating state or federal agencies. This bill would permit state, regional, and local governments to consider use of the standardized spatial planning datasets published by the office in the development and production of land use and infrastructure plans, as specified. The bill would require the office to provide technical assistance, upon request, for use of the data from these provisions. The bill would specify that it does not create new regulatory requirements, regulate land use or zoning, establish land use designations, or preempt the local land use authority of cities and counties.
Existing law vests the Public Utilities Commission with regulatory authority over public utilities, including electrical corporations. Existing law authorizes the commission to fix the rates and charges for public utilities and requires that those rates and charges be just and reasonable. This bill would require the commission, for each electrical corporation, to consider assigning a reduced return on equity, as a reduction applied each year to the then current authorized rate of return on equity, for specified types of capital costs included in the electrical corporation's rate base, as specified. This bill would require the commission to initiate a rulemaking proceeding to evaluate opportunities for alternative methods of financing capital investments in electrical distribution, electrical generation, and electrical transmission that reduce costs for ratepayers, as specified. As part of the rulemaking, the bill would require the commission to establish categories of alternative financing mechanisms for each electrical corporation to evaluate and report on with respect to opportunities for alternative financing of electrical distribution, electrical generation, and electrical transmission costs, as specified. The bill would require the commission, on or before December 31, 2028, to submit a report to the Legislature outlining any findings and recommendations resulting from the rulemaking, as specified. This bill would require the commission to require each large electrical corporation to make data available to the public that quantifies the potential for increased utilization of segments of its electrical distribution grid, as specified. Under existing law, a violation of the Public Utilities Act or any order, decision, rule, direction, demand, or requirement of the commission is a crime. Because the above provisions would be a part of the act, and because a violation of a commission action implementing those provisions 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 Governor to proclaim various days as days of remembrance or recognition. This bill would require the Governor to annually proclaim September 25 as Dolly Parton Day. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
(1) Existing law establishes the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission and prescribes the authorities, duties, and responsibilities of the commission pertaining to energy matters. Existing law requires the commission, on or before January 1, 2019, in consultation with the Contractors State License Board, local building officials, and other stakeholders, to approve a plan that promotes compliance with specified regulations relating to building energy efficiency standards in the installation of central air-conditioning and heat pumps, as specified. Existing law authorizes the commission to adopt regulations to increase compliance with permitting and inspection requirements for central air-conditioning and heat pumps, and associated sales and installations, consistent with the above-described plan. This bill would establish various requirements and authorizations for the installation of a residential heat pump water heater or heat pump HVAC system, as defined, by, among other things, requiring a city, county, or city and county, beginning July 1, 2027, to adopt and offer asynchronous inspections for installations that do not require a licensed contractor and building inspector to be simultaneously present during the inspection. The bill would additionally require a city, county, or city and county, except as specified, to post specific information online, and on or before July 1, 2028, to implement an online automated permitting process for the installation of a residential heat pump water heater or heat pump HVAC system that issues permits in real time to a licensed contractor that meets certain criteria. The bill would require the criteria to include, among others, that the licensed contractor certify under penalty of perjury that they have performed a load calculation to properly size the new equipment, as specified. By expanding the crime of perjury, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. By imposing these various new duties on the described local entities, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would authorize a city, county, or city and county, except as specified, to require up to one nondiscretionary permit per installation of a residential heat pump water heater or heat pump HVAC system in which the local entity administratively approves an application to install the residential heat pump water heater or heat pump HVAC system. The bill would additionally authorize a city, county, or city and county to apply only certain planning or zoning or workforce labor standards on the installation of a residential heat pump water heater or heat pump HVAC system that are in addition to any state-level requirements. The bill would prohibit a local entity described above from requiring a permit or inspection for plug-in ready window air-conditioner or window heat pump HVAC systems, provided that certain requirements are met, including that the appliance has a voltage rating of 120 volts or less and the appliance is a self-contained unit. The bill would limit the amount a city, county, or city and county may charge as a permit fee for a residential heat pump water heater or heat pump HVAC system, as specified. The bill would require a local entity described above that applies to receive any funding from the commission to self-certify to the commission its compliance with any applicable portions of the bill's provisions. The above provisions would not apply to new residential construction. The bill would include findings and declarations related to these provisions. (2) Existing law, the Davis-Stirling Common Interest Development Act, defines and regulates common interest developments. Among other things, the act makes a provision of the governing document or architectural or landscaping guidelines or policies void and unenforceable if, among other things, the provision prohibits, or includes conditions that have the effect of prohibiting, the use of low water-using plants as a group or as a replacement of existing turf. This bill would additionally make any provision of the governing documents, architectural guidelines, or policies void and unenforceable if the provision prevents the replacement of a fuel-gas-burning appliance with an electric appliance. The bill would also make any covenant, restriction, or condition contained in any, among other specified agreements, deed, and any provision of a governing document, that effectively prohibits or restricts the installation or use of a residential heat pump water heater or heat pump HVAC system, void and unenforceable. The bill would prohibit an association, among other things, from prohibiting or restricting a member from installing, upgrading, replacing, or using a residential heat pump water heater or heat pump HVAC system in the member's separate interest, except as specified. (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 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.