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 local government fee exemptions. Status: AB 1 awaits consideration on the Assembly Floor (Third Reading File). RCRC Status: Concerns
Assembly Bill 14 (Aguiar-Curry): Communications: broadband services: California Advanced Services Fund: Assembly Bill 14 establishes the State Department of Education in state government and vests the department with specified powers and duties relating to the state’s public-school system. This bill would authorize local educational agencies to report to the department their pupils’ estimated needs for computing devices and internet connectivity adequate for at-home learning. Status: AB 14 awaits consideration on the Assembly Floor. RCRC Status: Pending
Assembly Bill 246 (Quirk) Contractors: disciplinary actions. Assembly Bill 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 in the Senate Business, Professions and Economic Development Committee. RCRC Status: Support
Assembly Bill 318 (Levine): Hazardous waste. Assembly Bill 318 requires the Department of Toxic Substances Control to provide guidance to certified unified program agencies on how to characterize green waste under hazardous waste control laws. Status: AB 318 is awaiting consideration on the Assembly Floor (Third Reading File). RCRC Status: Watch
Assembly Bill 322 (Salas): Energy: Electric Program Investment Charge program: Requires the Energy Commission to consider bioenergy projects for biomass conversion when awarding funds under the Electric Program Investment Charge program. Status: AB 322 is awaiting referral by the Senate Rules Committee. RCRC Status: Support
Assembly Bill 332 (ESTM): Hazardous waste: treated wood waste: Reestablishes a statutory pathway for the alternative management and disposal of treated wood waste in a landfill. Status: AB 332 is awaiting referral by the Senate Rules Committee. RCRC Status: Support
Assembly Bill 819 (Levine) California Environmental Quality Act: notices and documents: electronic filing and posting. 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 by the Senate Environmental Quality 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 on the Assembly Floor (Third Reading File). RCRC Status: Support
Assembly Bill 1139 (Gonzalez) Net Energy Metering. Assembly Bill 1139 seeks to replace the existing net energy metering NEM tariff for rooftop solar with a new tariff under which utilities will pay the owners of rooftop solar far less for the energy produced by those systems. AB 1139 seeks to address substantial cost shifting between solar and non-solar utility customers, but in doing so will substantially increase electrical bills for solar customers. The bill also deems all rooftop solar projects to be “public works” projects for which prevailing wages must be paid. Status: AB 1139 awaits consideration on the Assembly Floor. RCRC Status: Watch.
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 is a two-year bill. RCRC Status: Support
Assembly Bill 1311 (Wood) Recycling: beverage containers: certified recycling centers. Makes modest changes to the Beverage Container Recycling Act to increase consumer access to redemption opportunities. Status: AB 1311 awaits consideration on the Assembly Floor (Third Read File). RCRC Status: Support
Assembly Bill 1344 (Arambula) State Department of Public Health: Needle and Syringe Exchange Services. Exempts needle and syringe exchanges services from the California Environmental Quality Act. Status: AB 1344 awaits referral by the Senate Rules Committee. RCRC Status: Neutral
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 referral by the Senate Governmental Organization Committee. RCRC Status: Support
Assembly Bill 1454 (Bloom) Beverage Container and Litter Reduction Act. Assembly Bill 1454 makes several changes to the Beverage Container Recycling Program, including creation of a new $25,000 startup loan for the creation of new recycling centers in unserved or underserved areas. Status: AB 1454 Awaits consideration on the Assembly Floor (Third Read File). RCRC Status: Support if Amended
Senate Bill 4 (Gonzalez): Communications: California Advanced Services Fund. Senate Bill 4 would modernize and increase the California Advanced Services Fund (CASF) by exploring ways to facilitate streamlining of local land use approvals and construction permit processes for projects related to broadband infrastructure deployment and connectivity. Status: SB 4 awaits consideration on the Senate Floor. RCRC Status: Support
Senate Bill 37 (Cortese) California Environmental Quality Act Exemption. Senate Bill 37 eliminates the ability to use a “common sense exemption” under the California Environmental Quality Act for any projects undertaken at over 40,000 sites throughout the state that appear on the Cortese List of currently or formerly contaminated properties. The bill will require discretionary projects with no environmental impact at those locations (including many local corp yards, fire stations, airports, etc.) to undergo an initial assessment and prepare a negative declaration. Status: SB 37 awaits referral by the Assembly Rules Committee. RCRC Status: Oppose.
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 on the Senate Floor (Third Read File). RCRC Status: Oppose Unless Amended
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 local emergency can be declared under the California Emergency Services Act. Status: SB 52 awaits referral by the Assembly Emergency Management Committee. 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 is a two-year bill (Senate Inactive File). RCRC Status: Support in Concept.
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. Status: SB 99 awaits referral by the Assembly Rules Committee. RCRC Status: Support
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 on the Senate Floor (Third Read 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 on the Senate Floor (Consent Calendar). 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 is a two-year bill. 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 was held the Senate Appropriations 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 in the Assembly Communications and Conveyance. RCRC Status: Support
Senate Bill 533 (Stern) Electrical corporations: wildfire mitigation plans: deenergization events: microgrids. Requires utilities to discuss in their Wildfire Mitigation Plans efforts to improve their electrical systems, focused on those areas and assets that have been deenergized the greatest number of times. Status: SB 533 awaits consideration on the Senate Floor. RCRC Status: Support
Senate Bill 619 (Laird) Organic waste: reduction regulations. Will seek to provide local governments with additional flexibility to achieve the state’s organic waste recycling requirements. Status: SB 619 awaits referral by the Assembly Rules Committee. RCRC Status: Support