RCRC, together with the California Renewable Transportation Alliance, as well as other local government and solid waste stakeholders, is supporting Assembly Bill 1436 authored by Assemblymember Anamarie Ávila Farías (D-Martinez).
This measure seeks to clarify that the California Air Resources Board (CARB) does not have the legal authority to regulate private fleets of contractors and subcontractors through the State and Local Government (SLG) Fleets provision of the Advanced Clean Fleets (ACF) regulation, absent a federal preemption waiver.
CARB is currently advancing amendments to the ACF regulation through an ongoing rulemaking process which would attempt to reassert regulatory authority over private fleets through their contractual relationships with public agencies. AB 1436 would explicitly affirm CARB’s limited authority to act in this manner in state law to eliminate near-term uncertainty for private contractors; and prevent the implementation of a framework that is legally vulnerable due to existing federal law.
CARB’s proposed modifications to ACF regulations would also create significant new obligations over contractors and subcontractors for public agencies. Among them would be imposing new compliance and verification responsibilities, requiring the inclusion of regulatory disclosures in contracts, mandating ongoing recordkeeping and audit responsibilities for third-party fleets, and embedding emissions compliance requirements directly into procurement and contracting processes.
RCRC supports AB 1436 because, for public agencies, a state mandate to drastically change terms in the middle of service contracts could result in the disruption of vital public services like waste collection and will make it more difficult to receive competitively priced bids to provide those services in the future.
AB 1436 will be heard in the Senate Environmental Quality Committee on Wednesday 7/1. RCRC’s most recent letter of support can be found HERE.
For additional information, contact RCRC Senior Policy Advocate Staci Heaton.