Information related to the current status of legislation and regulations impacting California’s rural counties.
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 was signed by Governor Newsom. RCRC Status: Support
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 awaits consideration on the Senate Floor. 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 332awaits consideration on the Senate Floor. 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 passed the Legislature and awaits consideration by the Governor. 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 in the Senate Appropriations 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 in the Senate Appropriations Committee. RCRC Status: Watch
Assembly Bill 970 (McCarty): Planning and zoning: electric vehicle charging stations: permit application approval: AB 970 will require applications to install electric vehicle (EV) charging stations to be deemed complete by a local jurisdiction within five business days for one to 25 charging stations on a single site, or 10 business days to construct 25 or more, and also requires such applications to be deemed approved within 20 or 40 business days (respectively) after the application was submitted, as specified. For a local jurisdiction with a population of less than 200,000 residents, the bill’s provisions would become operative on January 1, 2023. Status: AB 970 awaits consideration on the Senate Floor. RCRC Status: Oppose
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 in the Senate Appropriations Committee. 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 consideration on the Senate Floor. 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 can be declared by the Governor under the California Emergency Services Act, but not for a local emergency declared by a local government. Status: AB 1403 awaits consideration in the Senate Appropriations Committee. RCRC Status: Pending
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 and increased payments to redemption centers with an even greater increase in rural areas. Status: AB 1454 awaits consideration by the Senate Environmental Quality Committee. 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 consideration in the Assembly Appropriations Committee. RCRC Status: Oppose.
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 consideration on the Assembly Floor. 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. Status: SB 99 awaits consideration in the Assembly 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 Appropriations 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 on the Assembly Appropriations Committee. RCRC Status: Watch
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 in the Assembly Appropriations Committee. 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 consideration by the Assembly Appropriations Committee. RCRC Status: Support