On Thursday, November 14th, California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara announced that his office had sent the final version of his proposed regulations on catastrophe modeling for insurance ratemaking to the state Office of Administrative Law for approval. The new...
On Tuesday November 12th, the Senate approved, by unanimous consent, the Secure Rural Schools Reauthorization Act (S. 2581). This bipartisan measure, reintroduced in 2024 by Senators Crapo (R-ID), Wyden (D-OR), Risch (R-ID), and Merkley (D-OR), would reauthorize the Secure Rural Schools program through 2026.
Following Senate approval of S. 2581, focus now turns to the U.S. House of Representatives. To help ensure the reauthorization of the Secure Rural Schools (SRS) program, House members need to hear from local leaders about SRS’s importance for rural communities.
On November 4, RCRC submitted formal comments and suggested modifications to CalRecycle’s updated draft single use packaging regulations.
SB 54 (Allen) of 2022 requires manufacturers of single use packaging and food service ware to take responsibility for the management and recycling of the products they introduce into the stream of commerce. CalRecycle was required to determine which categories of covered materials are recyclable and compostable and SB 54 requires all local jurisdictions to include those materials identified by CalRecycle in their collection and recycling/composting programs (unless they receive an exemption or extension from CalRecycle). Those 19 counties with fewer than 70,000 residents (and cities within those counties) may exempt themselves from this requirement.
RCRC’s comments on the updated draft regulations acknowledge several significant improvements based upon suggestions made by RCRC and other stakeholders, but also raise concerns about other aspects of the proposal. RCRC outlined issues with the scope of expenditures eligible for reimbursement, the expensive dispute resolution process outlined to resolve differences between local governments and the producer responsibility organization, and the enforcement process.
RCRC anticipates that CalRecycle will have to make several additional changes and release a third draft that should be subject to another brief 15-day public comment period.
For more information, contact RCRC Senior Policy Advocate, John Kennedy.
On November 4, CalRecycle released a draft program environmental impact report (EIR) for its SB 54 single-use packaging regulations. The program EIR outlines how CalRecycle believes the state’s recycling system must expand to meet the new single-use packaging collection and recycling requirements.
On November 4, CalRecycle released a draft program environmental impact report (EIR) for its SB 54 single-use packaging regulations. The program EIR outlines how CalRecycle believes the state’s recycling system must expand to meet the new single-use packaging collection and recycling requirements.
As a program EIR, developers and local governments may be able to tier off this document in complying with the California Environmental Quality Act, thereby saving time and resources that would have otherwise been needed to develop larger, more complex EIRs.
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) has reopened the Wolf-Livestock Compensation Program for applications for direct livestock loss compensation.
On Thursday, Governor Gavin Newsom issued a proclamation convening a special session of the California Legislature in response to the 2024 general election results. The stated reason by the Governor was to “safeguard California values and fundamental rights in the face of an incoming Trump administration. The special session will focus on bolstering California legal resources to protect civil rights, reproductive freedom, climate action, and immigrant families.”
Dates and times for the special session have yet to be released. For more information, please refer to the Governor’s proclamation, which can be found here.
On Thursday, November 7, the nonpartisan Little Hoover Commission adopted a report on California’s ongoing property insurance crisis which was issued for public review earlier in the week. The report, which was developed over the course of 2024 through hearings, interviews and public comment from impacted stakeholders, contains several recommendations to state lawmakers for addressing the insurance crisis, including:
Allowing insurers to use catastrophe models for pricing, but requiring that wildfire mitigations performed by homeowners are reflected in those models;
Creation of an independent panel of experts to evaluate the usage of those models, rather than relying on the California Department of Insurance’s internal processes; and,
Forming a state working group of wildfire experts to develop a minimum set of wildfire mitigation standards for homeowners and communities to undertake.
The report was developed without the input of California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara, who declined to participate in the process. However, many local representatives, including RCRC and RCRC member counties, gave input into the report to help paint the full picture of how the crisis is impacting rural homeowners across California.
To read the report or for more information on the study, visit the Little Hoover Commission website or contact Staci Heaton.
President Trump has won a second term and will be the 47th President of the United States. Republicans have also won back control of the Senate with a majority. However, control of the House remains too close to call, with results continuing to come in over the next several days. With these changes in mind, RCRC is analyzing potential upcoming policies from the President-elect and working to establish communication with new members in California and Congress. Throughout his campaign, President Trump has focused on immigration, taxes and tariffs, healthcare reform, and changes to the federal workforce.
In the meantime, we are headed to a lame duck session which may be somewhat truncated from the original calendar should the Republicans win both houses of Congress. Either way, a host of issues await action. Key among them are SRS funding and the Farm Bill; while both expected to be taken up with an appropriation and continuing resolution, respectively, it is not a certainty.
RCRC is also tracking California Senate and Assembly results and ballot propositions that will impact our rural communities.
As more information is gathered over the coming days, the RCRC team will work to identify opportunities at the state and federal level under the changed environment.
For further information, contact RCRC Senior Vice President of Government Affairs, Mary-Ann Warmerdam.
On October 30th, Governor Newsom signed an Executive Order to address rising electricity costs, acknowledging escalating customer bills in pursuit of the state’s carbon neutrality goals. The Executive Order identifies the legacy net energy metering (NEM) program as well as utility wildfire risk reduction efforts as major cost drivers to ratepayer increases. The Executive Order directs the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) and California Air Resources Board (CARB) to improve efficiency by reallocating unused program funds back to customers and enhancing the California Climate Credit, funded by the state’s Cap-and-Trade program. On a related note, CARB recently issued a notice that a formal rulemaking and stakeholder process will commence to develop updates to the Cap-and-Trade program. Finally, the Executive Order also aims to reduce long-term costs through greater scrutiny of utility wildfire safety spending and regulatory expenses, desiring more cost-effective wildfire mitigation measures and potentially impacting utility undergrounding ambitions, which can be 3 to 7 times more expensive per mile to install than other system hardening upgrades such as covered conductors. In the upcoming legislative session, state lawmakers are expected to consider additional actions to support affordability.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is issuing payments this week to agricultural producers impacted by natural disasters, including $143 million in crop insurance indemnities for Florida producers impacted by Hurricane Milton and about $92 million for livestock producers, nationwide, who faced increased supplemental feed costs as a result of forage losses due to 2022 qualifying drought and wildfire events…
On October 30th, The U.S. Department of the Interior announced nearly $46 million in investments from President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law for ecosystem restoration activities that address high-priority Klamath Basin water-related challenges in southern...
On October 22, 2024, the draft Environmental Impact Report (DEIR) for GSNR’s proposed forest resiliency project was officially released by the project’s lead agency, Golden State Finance Authority (GSFA) for public review and comment. GSFA has provided a 60-day public...
On October 17, U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-CA) announced that the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) will receive over $203 million for two highway infrastructure projects in Redwood City and Tulare, California. The federal investments will fund...
On October 23rd, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced that California will receive $276 million for Fiscal Year 2025 to help communities make essential water infrastructure upgrades to safely manage wastewater, protect local freshwater resources,...
CalRecycle has extended the public comment period for the revisions to the SB 54 Plastic Pollution Prevention and Packaging Producer Responsibility Act regulations. The current 15-day comment period began on October 14, 2024, when CalRecycle released its...
District Agricultural Associations, commonly known as “county fairs”, are the community center for many of the RCRC member counties. They provide a venue for activities as diverse as emergency operation centers, including cooling/heating centers, to Quinceanera celebrations. Increasingly, these facilities struggle to maintain financial viability in the face of diminishing state investments. Many have not been updated in decades by the state even as the state looks to these facilities when establishing wildfire response centers.
The federal Farm Bill is typically taken up and renewed by the Congress on a five-year cycle since being authorized as part of the New Deal era of programs. RCRC member counties benefit from several program areas including: the Rural Development title; the Forestry...
The California Land Conservation Act of 1965, commonly referred to as the Williamson Act, is a program that was created by the State to help conserve agricultural land. The Williamson Act enabled local governments to enter into contracts with private landowners for the purpose of restricting specific parcels of land to agricultural or related open space use. In return, landowners receive lower property tax assessments based upon farming and open space uses as opposed to full market value.
On October 17th, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) approved new planning and execution processes for the state’s three major utilities: Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E), Southern California Edison (SCE), and San Diego Gas & Electric...
On October 14, CalRecycle released its much-anticipated revisions to SB 54 single-use plastic packaging draft regulations. The release triggers a 15-day comment period for the public to weigh in on the proposed changes….
On October 15, a group of eighteen U.S. Congressmembers, led by Representative Doris Matsui (D-Sacramento) and Earl L. “Buddy” Carter (R-Georgia), urged the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to extend flexibilities for telemedicine prescribing of controlled substances, so that patients continue to have access to care at the start of the new year.
On October 15, U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-CA), Chair of the Senate Environment and Public Works Subcommittee on Fisheries, Water, and Wildlife, and Congressmember Raul Ruiz, M.D. (D-Imperial) joined federal and state leaders to celebrate the groundbreaking of the...
On September 30, 2024, Governor Newsom completed final action on bills sent to him by the Legislature for the year. Signing 1,017 bills and vetoing 189, this year marked the highest number of bills to come across the Governor’s desk during his time in office....
This week, U.S. Representatives Doug LaMalfa (R-Butte) and Mike Thompson (D-Lake) announced the introduction of the Pacific Flyway Habitat Enhancement Act, which would allow the Secretary of Agriculture to enroll additional agricultural lands in the Farm Service Agency’s Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP). CREP is a voluntary land retirement program that helps agricultural producers protect environmentally sensitive land, decrease erosion, restore wildlife habitat, and safeguard ground and surface water.
The Pacific Flyway Habitat Enhancement Act would expand lands eligible for the program to include certain qualified wetlands for which there are habitat concerns or risks. The bill would also provide incentives to farmers to engage in seasonal field flooding to better manage their working croplands while supporting wetland-dependent species.
For more information, contact RCRC Policy Advocate Sidd Nag.
On October 5th, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) announced its eighth round of grant award recommendations for the Federal Funding Account (FFA) program to fund last mile broadband infrastructure projects in unserved and underserved communities. Projects in the Golden State Connect Authority (GSCA) member counties of Amador and Solano counties were included in this eighth round…
On October 8, 2024, the California Energy Commission (CEC) and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced that California is launching its first federally-funded Home Energy Rebate program, the Home Electrification and Appliance Rebates (HEAR or HEEHRA in California), which provides support to low- and moderate-income households for energy efficiency improvements…
Last Friday, legislation was introduced to expand the San Pablo Bay National Wildlife Refuge by approximately 5,658 acres. The expansion, proposed in the San Pablo Bay National Wildlife Refuge Expansion Act (H.R. 9826), would include adjacent baylands owned by the State of California and nonprofit Sonoma Land Trust, with parcels in the counties of Solano, Marin, and Sonoma. The legislation was introduced by U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-CA), and U.S. Representatives John Garamendi (D-Solano), Jared Huffman (D-Del Norte) and Mike Thompson (D-Lake).
The Act would also direct the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to enter into cooperative agreements with state agencies, such as California’s Department of Fish and Wildlife, to manage the federal National Wildlife Refuge and nearby state conservation lands within the San Pablo Bay watershed. As with all National Wildlife Refuges, the legislation ensures that federally owned land within the expanded San Pablo Bay National Wildlife Refuge boundary remain open to the public for outdoor recreation, including hunting and fishing where permitted. The bill would not affect private land ownership or local land use decisions in any way and prohibits the use of eminent domain by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to expand the National Wildlife Refuge. A map of the proposed boundary expansion is available here. Full text of the legislation is available here.
For more information, contact RCRC Senior Policy Advocate, Staci Heaton.
Last week, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Fix Our Forests Act (H.R. 8790), This bipartisan piece of legislation focuses on improving forest management and reducing the threat of catastrophic wildfires.
On September 27th, Governor Newsom announced that he has convened a state-level collaborative “to examine battery storage technologies and safety measures”. Battery storage is widely viewed as key to improving reliability and resiliency of the electrical grid…
On September 29, Governor Newsom signed Assembly Bill 98 (Carrillo and Reyes), which imposes siting and construction requirements on a wide variety of warehouse and storage buildings.
Assembly Bill 98 is intended to address the community, environmental, and traffic impacts associated with urban warehouse projects; however, the bill applies to all buildings in which cargo, goods, or products are moved or stored for later distribution to businesses or retail customers and where heavy-duty trucks are involved in the movement of those goods.
Sarah Dukett
Senior Policy Advocate
Leigh Kammerich
Senior Policy Advocate
John Kennedy
Senior Policy Advocate
Staci Heaton
Senior Policy Advocate
Tracy Rhine
Senior Policy Advocate
Eric Will
Policy Advocate
Mary-Ann Warmerdam
Senior Vice President Governmental Affairs