Information related to the current status of legislation and regulations impacting California’s rural counties.
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 awaits consideration by the Assembly Environmental Safety and Toxic Materials Committee. RCRC Status: Concerns
Assembly Bill 240 (Rodriguez): Local health department workforce assessment. This bill would require the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) to contract with an appropriate and qualified entity to conduct an evaluation of the adequacy of local health department infrastructure, including an assessment of future staffing, workforce, and resource needs. Status: AB 240 awaits consideration in the Assembly Health Committee. RCRC Status: Support.
Assembly Bill 246 (Quirk) Contractors: disciplinary actions. AB 246 allows the Contractors State Licensing Board to take disciplinary actions against a contractor who violates state or local laws prohibiting illegal dumping. Status: AB 246 awaits consideration from the Assembly Appropriations Committee. RCRC Status: Pending
Assembly Bill 267 (Valladeres): California Environmental Quality Act: Assembly Bill 267 exends until 2026 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 Appropriations 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 297 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 Committee. RCRC Status: Support
Assembly Bill 332 (ESTM): Hazardous waste: treated wood waste: 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 431 (Patterson): Forestry: timber harvesting plans: defensible space: exemptions: Assembly Bill 431 prohibits a person from conducting timber operations, as defined, unless a timber harvesting plan prepared by a registered professional forester has been submitted to, and approved by, the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. Status: AB 431 is awaiting consideration in the Assembly Appropriations Committee. RCRC Status: Support
Assembly Bill 497 (Waldron): Forestry and fire protection: local assistance grant program: Assembly Bill 497 requires the CAL FIRE to prioritize projects, in addition to projects currently included in existing local grant programs, 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 732 (Quirk) Increases the Environmental Fee paid by businesses with 50 or more employees to fund oversight of hazardous waste management and disposal and to remediate orphan and legacy contaminated properties. Status: AB is awaiting consideration by the Assembly Environmental Safety and Toxic Materials Committee. RCRC Status: Pending
Assembly Bill 783 (Gray) Authorize a surface mine that has been accepted into, and is currently in compliance with, the Voluntary Protection Program of the Division of Occupational Safety and Health to be excepted from the annual inspection requirements. Prohibits the state from issuing a citation or notice to a surface mine employer more than six months after the occurrence of a violation. Status: AB 783 awaits consideration from the Assembly Labor and Employment Committee. RCRC Status: Watch
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 Appropriations Committee. RCRC Status: Watch
Assembly Bill 843 (Aguiar-Curry): California Renewables Portfolio Standard Program: renewable feed-in tariff: 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) Plastic waste: diversion: recycling: export. 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 Appropriations Committee. RCRC Status: Watch
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. Status: AB 912 awaits consideration from the Assembly Natural Resources Committee. RCRC Status: Support
Assembly Bill 925 (Dahle): Sexual assault forensic examinations: reimbursement. Would authorize the appropriate local law enforcement agency to seek reimbursement from the Office of Emergency Services, using the specified federal funds, for the cost of conducting the medical evidentiary examination of a sexual assault victim. Status: AB 925 awaits consideration in the Assembly Public Safety Committee. RCRC Status: Support.
Assembly Bill 987 (Low) Public utilities: civil penalties: unplanned electrical outages and deenergization events. AB 987 makes a number of significant changes to the conduct of utility public safety power shutoff events. Status: AB 987 awaits consideration from the Assembly Utilities Committee. RCRC Status: Pending
Assembly Bill 1078 (Patterson) Energy: building standards: photovoltaic requirements. 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) Organic waste: implementation strategy. 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 Appropriations Committee. RCRC Status: Pending.
Assembly Bill 1154 (Patterson) California Environmental Quality Act: exemption: egress route projects: fire safety. 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 1276 (Carrillo) Single-use food accessories and service ware. Prohibits food facilities and platforms from providing single-use food accessories to consumers unless requested or necessary to protect public health and safety or safe delivery. Status: AB 1276 awaits consideration from the Assembly Appropriations Committee. RCRC Status: Watch
Assembly Bill 1277 (Rubio) California Environmental Quality Act: student housing development projects: expedited judicial review. 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) Recycling: beverage containers: certified recycling centers. 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 Natural Resources 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 1344 (Arambula) State Department of Public Health: needle and syringe exchange services. State Department of Public Health: Needle and Syringe Exchange Services. Exempts needle and syringe exchanges services from the California Environmental Quality Act and public nuisance litigation, including for any reasonable and foreseeable consequences of providing those services. Status: AB 1344 awaits consideration in the Assembly Health and Natural Resources Committees. RCRC Status: Oppose
Assembly Bill 1350 (Patterson) Department of Toxic Substances Control: environmental fee: exemption. 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. Assembly Bill 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 codifies various portions of the 2018 California Forest Carbon Plan, and 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: RCRC Sponsored Bill
Assembly Bill 1458 (Fraizer): Fish and wildlife protection and conservation: lake and streambed alteration agreements: Assembly Bill 1458 exempts vegetation management or fuels treatment projects undertaken, carried out, or approved by a state or local governmental agency necessary to prevent or mitigate the threat or intensity of a wildfire from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife Lake and Streambed Alteration agreement requirements. Status: AB 1458 awaits consideration from the Assembly Water, Parks, and Wildlife Committee. RCRC Status: RCRC Sponsored Bill
Assembly Bill 1547 (Reyes) Air pollution: warehouse facilities. AB 1547 allows the Air Resources Board to regulate indirect sources of air pollution and requires local governments to undertake many other actions to identify and address the potential environmental impacts of warehouse development projects. Status: AB 1547 awaits consideration from the Assembly Natural Resources Committee. RCRC Status: Pending.
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
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: Oppose Unless Amended
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. Repeals the $10.5 million annually set aside for payments to cities and counties to address recycling and litter. Status: SB 38 awaits consideration by the Senate Appropriations Committee. RCRC Status: Oppose Unless Amended
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 (Third Read). RCRC Status: Support
Senate Bill 54 (Allen) Plastic Pollution Producer Responsibility Act. SB 54 requires manufactures of single-use, disposable packaging and food service ware to ensure that those products sold, distributed, or imported into the state are either recyclable or compostable. Status: SB 54 awaits consideration from the Senate Environmental Quality Committee. RCRC Status: Support in Concept.
Senate Bill 59 (Caballero): Cannabis licenses. MAUCRSA, until January 1, 2022, authorizes a licensing authority, in its sole discretion, to issue a provisional license if the applicant has submitted a completed license application to the licensing authority, including evidence that compliance with the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) or local cannabis ordinances is underway. This bill would extend the repeal date of these provisional license provisions to July 1, 2028. Status: SB 59 awaits consideration in the Senate Business, Professions and Economic Development Committee. RCRC Status: Pending.
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 208 (Dahle):Sierra Nevada Conservancy: Sierra Nevada Region: subregion: Senate Bill 208 requires the Sierra Nevada Conservancy to make an annual report to the Legislature and to the Secretary of the Natural Resources Agency regarding expenditures, land management costs, and administrative costs. This bill would modify areas listed under the definitions of the “Sierra Nevada Region” and its “subregions,” as specified, for these purposes. Status: SB 208 awaits consideration from the Senate Appropriations Committee (Suspense File). RCRC Status: Support
Senate Bill 244 (Archuleta): Lithium-ion batteries: illegal disposal: fire prevention: Senate Bill 244 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 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: Support
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 493 (Bradford) This measure would redirect Juvenile Justice Crime Prevention Act (JJCPA) funds, revise the composition of local Juvenile Justice Coordinating Councils, and recast various elements of required multiagency juvenile justice plans. Status: SB 493 awaits consideration in the Senate Public Safety Committee. RCRC Status: Oppose.
Senate Bill 533 (Stern) Electrical corporations: wildfire mitigation plans: deenergization events: microgrids. Requires 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 557 (Wieckowski) 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: SB 557 awaits consideration from the Senate Environmental Quality Committee. RCRC Status: Watch
Senate Bill 580 (Hueso) Department of Transportation: highways and roads: recycled plastics study and specifications. 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 586 (Bradford) SB 586 eliminates several criminal justice related fines and fees. The bill does not provide sustainable backfill funding to counties and essentially shifts the fiscal burden for core programs and services from court-involved individuals to the counties. Status: SB 586 awaits consideration in the Senate Public Safety Committee. RCRC Status: Concern.
Senate Bill 619 (Laird) Organic waste: reduction regulations. 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
