Information related to the current status of legislation and regulations impacting California’s rural counties.
ACR 33 (Friedman): Wildfire mitigation: Wildfire mitigation: ACR 33 would state the Legislature’s commitment to improving wildfire outcomes in the State of California by investing in science-based wildfire mitigation strategies that will benefit the health of California forests and communities. The measure would also state that the Legislature calls upon public and private stakeholders to work jointly to identify, discuss, and refine, as necessary, procedures concerning treatment of forested lands for the purpose of, among other things, wildfire risk mitigation. Status: ACR 33 awaits consideration from the Assembly Natural Resources Committee. RCRC Status: Support
Assembly Bill 1 (C. Garcia): Hazardous Waste: Assembly Bill 1 establishes several new governance, policy, and fiscal reforms to improve the Department of Toxic Substances Control, including significantly increasing several fees and repealing several important fee exemptions. Status: AB 1 is awaiting consideration by the Assembly Environmental Safety and Toxic Materials Committee. RCRC Status: Pending
Assembly Bill 267 (Valladeres): California Environmental Quality Act: Assembly Bill 267 exempts from the requirements of CEQA prescribed fire, thinning, or fuel reduction projects undertaken on federal lands to reduce the risk of high-severity wildfire that have been reviewed under the federal National Environmental Policy Act of 1969, as provided. Status: AB 267 awaits consideration in the Assembly Natural Resources Committee. RCRC Status: Support
Assembly Bill 297 (Gallagher) Fire Prevention. Increases funding for forest health improvement and wildfire risk reduction projects and makes other substantive changes to help expedite project completion. Status: AB 1403 awaits consideration in the Assembly Natural Resources Committee. RCRC Status: Support
Assembly Bill 318 (Levine): Hazardous waste: Assembly Bill 318 excludes from classification as hazardous waste green waste that has not been contaminated by a hazardous or toxic chemical during production, harvest, or processing. Requires those green wastes to be disposed in a permitted solid or hazardous waste landfill or composting operation. Status: AB 318 is awaiting consideration by the Assembly Environmental Safety and Toxic Materials Committee. RCRC Status: Pending
Assembly Bill 322 (Salas): Energy: Electric Program Investment Charge program: Requires the Energy Commission to allocate at least 20% of all funds appropriated for the Electric Program Investment Charge program (roughly $25 million annually) to bioenergy projects for biomass conversion. Status: AB 322 is awaiting consideration in the Assembly Utilities and Energy and Natural Resources Committees. RCRC Status: Support
Assembly Bill 332 (ESTM): Hazardous waste: treated wood waste: Seeks to reestablish a statutory pathway for the alternative management and disposal of treated wood waste in a landfill. Status: AB 332 is awaiting consideration by the Assembly Environmental Safety and Toxic Materials Committee. RCRC Status: Support.
Assembly Bill 497 (Walderon): Forestry and fire protection: local assistance grant program: Assembly Bill 497 requires the department, for purposes of this appropriation, to prioritize projects, in addition to the priorities specified above, that manage vegetation along streets and roads to prevent the ignition of wildfire and that require the funds for purposes of purchasing equipment necessary for the project. Status: AB 497 awaits consideration from the Assembly Natural Resources Committee. RCRC Status: Support
Assembly Bill 648 (Fong) Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund: Healthy Forest and Fire Prevention: Appropriation. Continuously appropriates $200 million annually for forest health improvement and wildfire risk reduction projects Status: AB 648 awaits consideration in the Assembly Natural Resources Committee. RCRC Status: Support
Assembly Bill 759 (McCarty): Elections: county officers: Assembly Bill 759 would require an election for all county-wide offices (sheriff, assessor, district attorney, etc.) be held at the presidential general election. Initially, this bill only applied to the county sheriff but recent amendments expand it to all county-wide offices. In addition, this bill would require that these officeholder elections occur at the 2024 General Election thereby requiring affected officeholders to hold a two-year term (assuming election in 2022). Status: AB 759 awaits consideration from the Assembly Elections Committee. RCRC Status: Pending
Assembly Bill 819 (Levine) Requires lead agencies to post California Environmental Quality Act notices and documents on their internet websites and to submit CEQA documents to the State Clearinghouse in electronic form. Status: AB 819 awaits consideration from the Assembly Natural Resources Committee. RCRC Status: Watch
Assembly Bill 843 (Aguiar-Curry) Allows Community Choice Aggregators (CCAs) to access the CPUC BioMAT program that provides funding for renewable bioenergy electricity projects, including biomass and biogas. Status: AB 843 awaits consideration from the Assembly Utilities and Energy Committee. RCRC Status: Support
Assembly Bill 881 (Gonzalez) Repeals the ability for local governments to claim diversion credit for mixed plastic waste that is exported for recycling. Status: AB 881 awaits consideration from the Assembly Natural Resources Committee. RCRC Status: Pending
Assembly Bill 910 (Bigelow): Forestry: Small Timberland Owner Exemption. Assembly Bill 910 would repeal the limitation on authority of the department to grant no more than 3 Small Timberland Owner Exemptions to each landowner. The bill would authorize the construction or reconstruction of temporary roads on slopes of 30 percent or less that meet certain requirements under the Small Timberland Owner Exemption. Status: AB 910 awaits consideration from the Assembly Natural Resources Committee. RCRC Status: Support
Assembly Bill 912 (Bigelow):The bill would revise the definition of “working forest management plan” to allow multiple working forest landowners to submit a working forest management plan, but provide that the plan may cover no more than 15,000 acres of timberland. The bill would also make non-substantive changes to other definitions applicable to working forest management plans. Status: AB 912 awaits consideration from the Assembly Natural Resources Committee. RCRC Status: Support
Assembly Bill 1078 (Patterson) Exempts residential buildings damaged or destroyed in a disaster during the 2020 calendar year from having to install solar energy systems under the California Energy Commission’s recently adopted building requirements. Status: AB 1078 awaits consideration from the Assembly Natural Resources Committee. RCRC Status: Support
Assembly Bill 1086 (Aguiar-Curry) Requires the state to prepare an implementation strategy to achieve the state’s organic waste, climate change, and air quality mandates, goals, and targets. Status: AB 1086 awaits consideration from the Assembly Natural Resources Committee. RCRC Status: Pending.
Assembly Bill 1154 (Patterson) Exempts from the California Environmental Quality Act egress route projects undertaken by a public agency and that are recommended by the Board of Forestry to improve fire safety of an existing subdivision. Status: AB 1154 awaits consideration from the Assembly Natural Resources Committee. RCRC Status: Support
Assembly Bill 1277 (Rubio) Expedites the litigation timeline for challenges to student housing projects brought under the California Environmental Quality Act. Status: AB 1277 awaits consideration from the Assembly Natural Resources and Judicial Committee. RCRC Status: Watch
Assembly Bill 1311 (Wood) Will seek to made modest changes to the Beverage Container Recycling Act to increase consumer access to redemption opportunities. Status: AB 1311 awaits consideration from the Assembly Rules Committee. RCRC Status: Pending
Assembly Bill 1325 (Burke) Requires the CPUC to develop a Clean Community Microgrid Incentive Program to fund community microgrids that support the critical needs of vulnerable communities that utilize distributed energy resources for the generation of electricity. Status: AB 1325 awaits consideration from the Assembly Utilities and Energy Committee. RCRC Status: Watch
Assembly Bill 1350 (Patterson) Until 1/1/2025, exempts businesses with 50-100 employees from having to pay the Environmental Fee, which funds oversight of hazardous waste management and disposal and to remediate orphan and legacy contaminated properties. Status: AB 1350 awaits consideration from the Assembly Environmental Safety and Toxic Materials Committee. RCRC Status: Watch
Assembly Bill 1403 (Levine) Emergency Services. AB 1403 clarifies that deenergization events (also known as PSPS events) qualify as events for which a state of emergency or local emergency can be declared under the California Emergency Services Act. Status: AB 1403 awaits consideration in the Assembly Emergency Management Committee. RCRC Status: Support
Assembly Bill 1431 (Fraizer): Forestry: forest carbon plan: state goals: Assembly Bill 1431 requires the Natural Resources Agency and the California Environmental Protection Agency, on or before January 1, 2023, to submit a report to the appropriate policy and budget committees of the Legislature on the positions and resources needed to achieve those state goals. Status: AB 1431 awaits consideration from the Assembly Natural Resources Committee. RCRC Status: Support
Assembly Bill 1458 (Fraizer): Fish and wildlife protection and conservation: lake and streambed alteration agreements: Assembly Bill 1458 prohibits a person, a state or local governmental agency, or a public utility from substantially diverting or obstructing the natural flow of, or substantially changing or using any material from the bed, channel, or bank of, any river, stream, or lake, or depositing or disposing of debris, waste, or other material containing crumbled, flaked, or ground pavement where it may pass into any river, stream, or lake, unless prescribed requirements are met, including written notification to the Department of Fish and Wildlife regarding the activity. Status: AB 1458 awaits consideration from the Assembly Water, Parks, and Wildlife. RCRC Status: Support
Senate Bill 11 (Rubio): The California FAIR Plan Association: basic property insurance: Senate Bill 11, which would remove certain barriers to enable homes and structures used to conduct business on farmland to be covered through the California Fair Access to Insurance Requirements (FAIR) Plan. Status: SB 11 awaits consideration in the Senate Insurance Committee. RCRC Status: Support
Senate Bill 30 (Cortese): Building Decarbonization: Prohibits state agencies from designing or constructing a state facility that is connected to the natural gas grid and prohibits state agencies from funding projects for the construction of residential and nonresidential buildings that are connected to the natural gas grid. Status: Senate Bill 30 awaits consideration by the Senate Governmental Organization Committee. RCRC Status: Pending
Senate Bill 38 (Wieckowski): Beverage Containers: Replaces the existing Beverage Container Recycling Program (Bottle Bill) with a new recycling program administered by beverage container manufacturers and increases the CRV from $0.05 to $0.10 per container if the state fails to achieve specified recycling rates. Status: SB 38 awaits consideration by the Senate Appropriations Committee. RCRC Status: Pending
Senate Bill 42 (Wieckowski): Department of Toxic Substances Control: Establishes a new Board of Environmental safety to oversee the Department of Toxic Substances Control, consider permit appeals, and propose regulatory changes and establishes an ombudsperson to make and receive public complaints and suggestions. SB 42 is anticipated to be amended to also include many of the fiscal changes suggested by the Administration to address DTSC’s structural deficit. Status: SB 42 awaits consideration by the Senate Environmental Quality committee. RCRC Status: Watch
Senate Bill 52 (Dodd): State of Emergency: Power Outages. Senate Bill 52 clarifies that deenergization events (also known as PSPS events) qualify as events for which a state of emergency or local emergency can be declared under the California Emergency Services Act. Status: SB 52 awaits consideration in the Senate Appropriations Committee. RCRC Status: Support
Senate Bill 99 (Dodd): Community Energy Resilience Act of 2021: Senate Bill 99 requires the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission to develop and implement a grant program for local governments to develop community energy resilience plans. It also sets forth guiding principles for plan development, including equitable access to reliable energy and integration with other existing local planning documents. Status: SB 99 awaits consideration in the Senate Energy, Utilities and Communications Committee. RCRC Status: Pending
Senate Bill 207 (Dahle): Photovoltaic Recycling Advisory Group: Senate Bill 207 seeks to spur the recycling and reuse of solar photovoltaic panels by requiring an advisory group to make recommendations to ensure that, to the extent possible, all solar photovoltaic panels in the state are reused or recycled at the end of their lives in a safe and cost-effective manner. Status: SB 207 awaits consideration by the Senate Appropriations Committee. RCRC Status: Support
Senate Bill 244 (Archuleta): Lithium-ion batteries: illegal disposal: fire prevention: Senate Bill seeks to prevent lithium-ion battery fires by requiring the state to develop training and best practices for the detection, safe handling, and suppression of fires that originate from discarded lithium-ion batteries in solid waste collection vehicles, transfer and processing stations, and disposal facilities. Status: SB 244 awaits consideration from the Senate Environmental Quality and Natural Resources and Water Committee. RCRC Status: Support
Senate Bill 261 (Allen) Regional Transportation Plans: Sustainable Communities Strategies. Requires the Air Resources Board (ARB) to adopt new greenhouse gas (GHG) emission and vehicle miles traveled (VMT) reduction targets for incorporation into the sustainable communities strategies prepared by the state’s 18 metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs). Status: SB 261 awaits consideration in the Senate Transportation Committee. RCRC Status: Oppose
Senate Bill 289 (Newman) Recycling: batteries and battery-embedded products.: Requires producers of battery and battery-embedded products to create stewardship organizations and programs for the collection, transportation, and recycling of those products. Status: SB 289 awaits consideration in the Senate Environmental Quality Committee. RCRC Status: Pending
Senate Bill 341 (McGuire) Makes several changes to increase oversight and accountability of telecommunications service outages. Status: SB 341 awaits consideration from the Senate Governmental Organization Committee. RCRC Status: Support
Senate Bill 343 (Allen) Prohibits the sale of any product or packaging using a deceptive or misleading claim about its recyclability, including using the chasing arrows symbol unless CalRecycle determines the product or packaging is recyclable. Requires CalRecycle to identify the types of plastic products and packaging from which a claim of recyclability may be made. Status: SB 343 awaits consideration from the Senate Judiciary Committee. RCRC Status: Pending
Senate Bill 462 (Borgeas): Disaster relief: Creek Fire: allocation to local agencies: Senate Bill 462, which would add the Creek Fire of 2020 in Madera County and Fresno County to the emergencies eligible for the state to pay up to 100 percent of the costs out of the California Disaster Assistance Act (CDAA) fund. Status: Awaits consideration in the Senate Appropriations Committee. RCRC Status: Support
Senate Bill 533 (Stern) Require electrical corporations to ensure electrical transmission and distribution systems achieve the highest level of safety, reliability, and resiliency by modernizing, upgrading, replacing, hardening, or undergrounding any portion of its transmission and distribution wires or poles that experiences a specified number of recurring deenergization events. Requires the CPUC to create a database of critical facilities, infrastructure, and circuits located in high fire threat districts. Status: SB 533 awaits consideration from the Senate Energy, Utilities and Communications Committee. RCRC Status: Pending
Senate Bill 580 (Hueso) Authorizes the state to study the feasibility, cost effectiveness, and environmental benefits of including recycled plastics in asphalt used as a paving material in the construction, maintenance, or rehabilitation of a highway or rad. Status: SB 580 awaits consideration from the Senate Transportation Committee. RCRC Status: Watch
Senate Bill 619 (Laird) Will seek to provide local governments with additional flexibility and funding to achieve the state’s organic waste recycling requirements. Status: SB 619 awaits consideration from the Senate Rules Committee. RCRC Status: Support