The California Air Resources Board (ARB) has released the Proposed First Update to the AB 32 Scoping Plan for public review and comment. A discussion draft was released in late 2013 which featured consideration of tougher regulations on landfills, a proposal to employ greater regulatory oversight to groundwater management, and a very limited plan to restore Williamson Act subventions to at-risk agricultural and rangelands on the urban/suburban edge. The discussion draft also featured a markedly deficient plan for the forest sector, with no goals of fuels treatment programs or wildfire prevention measures in the short term.
The Proposed First Update maintains the aggressive regulatory plan for the waste management sector, and has been updated to include drought measures and a proposal to modify water policies and permits to promote water conservation and recycling. The Proposed First Update also includes the development of a “Forest Carbon Plan” to set targets and evaluate strategies to increase net carbon storage in the forests, as well as plans to establish an investment working group to evaluate funding needs, opportunities and priorities in the natural and working lands sector.
Interested parties can file comments now at the ARB website, but a final due date will be set for late April 2014 with the release of the Scoping Plan Economic Analysis in March. All Scoping Plan documents, as well as instructions on how to file comments, can be accessed here.
For additional information, please contact RCRC Regulatory Affairs Advocate Staci Heaton at 916.447.4806 or sheaton@rcrcnet.org.