(1) Existing law establishes the Toxic Substances Control Account in the General Fund and authorizes the moneys deposited in the account to be appropriated to the Department of Toxic Substances Control for specified purposes related to response actions to hazardous substance releases. Existing law generally authorizes the department to expend the funds in the Hazardous Waste Control Account for specified purposes related to the regulation of the handling of hazardous waste. Existing law requires the administrative and civil penalties collected pursuant to the provisions regulating lead-containing jewelry and lead wheel weights be deposited in the Hazardous Waste Control Account, for expenditure by the Department of Toxic Substances Control, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to implement and enforce those provisions. Existing law also imposes specified criminal penalties upon a manufacturer or supplier that violates certain toxic
packaging requirements.
This bill would provide for the deposit of the penalties collected to enforce the requirements of the hazardous waste control laws regarding lead-containing jewelry, toxic packaging, and lead wheel weights in the Toxic Substances Control Account and would make conforming changes with regard to those provisions. The bill would authorize the Department of Toxic Substances Control to expend the money in the Toxic Substances Control Account to implement and enforce those provisions.
(2) The California Alternative and Renewable Fuel, Vehicle Technology, Clean Air, and Carbon Reduction Act of 2007 creates the Alternative and Renewable Fuel and Vehicle Technology Program, administered by the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission (Energy Commission). The program provides, upon appropriation by the Legislature, grants,
loans, loan guarantees, revolving loans, or other appropriate measures, to public agencies, businesses and projects, public-private partnerships, vehicle and technology consortia, workforce training partnerships and collaborative, fleet owners, consumers, recreational boaters, and academic institutions to develop and deploy innovative technologies that transform California’s fuel and vehicle types to help attain the state’s climate change policies.
Under existing law, the Energy Commission is required to develop and adopt an investment plan to determine priorities and opportunities for the program. Existing law requires that the investment plan establish priorities for the investment of funds and technologies to achieve the goals of the act and to describe how funding will complement existing public and private investments, including existing state programs that further the goals of the act.
This bill would, until July 1, 2013, declare the Legislature’s intent that, to the maximum extent feasible, loan moneys provided by the state to refiners of biofuels (biorefiners) be awarded so as to increase the efficiency and environmental sustainability of biofuel production. The bill would require that biorefiners receiving loans from the commission’s California Ethanol Producer Incentive Program, authorized under the above provisions, meet specified goals established under the program according to revised timeframes. The bill would provide that these provisions do not limit the commission’s ability to set more stringent guidelines for the program that would further maximize the efficiency and environmental sustainability of biofuel production. The bill would require a biorefiner receiving loan moneys from the state pursuant to an appropriation made in the 2010–11 or 2011–12 fiscal year to comply with these conditions and to demonstrate that compliance to the
commission.
This bill would require the Energy Commission, on or before March 15, 2011, and each January thereafter concurrent with the submittal of the Governor’s Budget, to submit a draft investment plan for the upcoming fiscal year to the Joint Legislative Budget Committee and all relevant policy and fiscal committees of the Legislature. Beginning with the investment plan for the 2012–13 fiscal year, the bill would require the commission to submit the final investment plan for the upcoming fiscal year to those committees each May concurrent with the submittal of the Governor’s May Revision to the budget.
The bill would also require the Energy Commission to notify these committees when significant modifications, as defined, to the final investment plan are approved.
(3) Existing law generally
regulates the drilling, operation, maintenance, and abandonment of oil and gas wells. Existing law imposes an annual charge upon each person operating or owning an interest in an oil or gas well in respect to the production of the well which charge is payable to the Treasurer for deposit into the Oil, Gas, and Geothermal Administrative Fund. Existing law requires that the proceeds of these charges be used exclusively for the support and maintenance of the Division of Oil, Gas, and Geothermal Resources in the Department of Conservation for the supervision of oil and gas.
This bill would require that any increase in the charge on oil production by the Department of Conservation for deposit into the Oil, Gas, and Geothermal Administrative Fund for the purpose of completing workload requested in the 2010–11 Budget Act related to the acceleration of the remediation of orphaned oil facilities only be made for a period of 4 years.
(4) Existing law appropriates money that is required to be available for emergency fire suppression and detection costs and related emergency revegetation costs.
This bill would require the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection to report to the Joint Legislative Budget Committee quarterly, regarding emergency incidents funded entirely or in part from that funding, commonly referred to as the “emergency fund,” and would specify the contents of the report.
(5) Existing law requires the department to provide an annual report to the Legislature regarding certain fire prevention activities and specifies the contents of the report.
This bill would revise and recast those report requirements.
(6) Existing law authorizes the department to enter into a cooperative agreement for the purpose of preventing and suppressing forest fires or other fires in any lands within a county, city, or district that makes an appropriation for that purpose.
This bill would require the department, within 30 days of final approval of a new or renewed cooperative agreement valued at $5,000,000 or more, to submit to the relevant fiscal and policy committees of each house of the Legislature a copy of the final agreement and a brief summary of the agreement for the purpose of highlighting information relevant to the Legislature’s fiscal oversight of the agreement.
(7) Existing law provides for a state park system, of which the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park and the Ocotillo Wells State Vehicular Recreation Area are
units, and authorizes the Department of Parks and Recreation, with the consent of the Department of Finance, to acquire title to, or any interest in, real property that the department deems necessary or proper for the extension, improvement, or development of the state park system.
This bill would, notwithstanding any other law, authorize the Department of Parks and Recreation to enter into any transaction for the acquisition of land known as the “Freeman Property” and would exempt the acquisition from the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), except as specified. The bill would require the department, among other things, to annex specified portions of the “Freeman Property” to the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park and the Ocotillo Wells State Vehicular Recreation Area upon completion of transfer of title to the department.
(8) Existing law, the California
Beverage Container Recycling and Litter Reduction Act (act), requires a distributor to pay a redemption payment of $0.04 for every beverage container sold or offered for sale in the state to the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery, for deposit in the funds in the California Beverage Container Recycling Fund. The act also requires the department to calculate a processing fee for each beverage container with a specified scrap value, which is required to be paid by beverage manufacturers, and to reduce the amount of the processing fee under specified circumstances.
Existing law requires the department to review the fund and if it determines there are inadequate funds to make certain payments and the processing fee reductions, to immediately notify the Legislature. Existing law authorizes the department to eliminate expenditures, upon making this determination, on or before 180 days, but not less than 90 days after this notice is sent to
the Legislature.
This bill would revise that procedure to instead require the department to provide to the Legislature, not less than once every 3 months, certain information for the current fiscal year and the budget year, and to post the most recent information on the department’s Internet Web site, not less than once every 3 months.
The bill would require the department to review the information included in the fund condition statement, not less than once every 3 months, and if pursuant to that review the department determines that there are inadequate funds to pay the payments required by the act, the bill would authorize the department to reduce or eliminate expenditures on or before 180 days but not less than 80 days after notifying the Legislature. The bill would also make conforming changes.
(9) Existing law requires the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission to administer the State Energy Conservation Assistance Account, a continuously appropriated account, in the General Fund until January 1, 2011, to provide grants and loans to local governments and public institutions to maximize energy use savings. All loans outstanding as of that date are required to continue to be repaid as specified until paid in full, and all unexpended funds in the account on and after that date, except as specified, are required to revert to the General Fund.
This bill would extend the operation of those provisions to January 1, 2013, and would thereby make an appropriation by extending the time during which the funds in a continuously appropriated account are made available.
(10) Existing law, until January 1, 2011, requires the
commission to enter into agreements with the Regents of the University of California, the Trustees of the California State University, the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges, and the State Department of Education to expend specified funds for certain purposes relating to energy conservation. Existing law creates the Local Jurisdiction Energy Assistance Account in the General Fund for the purposes of these provisions and requires the funds in the account to be disbursed by the Controller as authorized by the commission. All loans outstanding as of January 1, 2011, are required to continue to be repaid as specified until paid in full, and all unexpended funds in the account on and after that date, except as specified, are required to be deposited in the Federal Trust Fund and expended for the purposes for which federal oil overcharge funds are available.
This bill would extend the operation of those provisions to January 1,
2016, and would thereby make an appropriation by extending the time during which the specified funds are available for disbursement.
(11) Existing law authorizes the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission to administer funds appropriated by the federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 to award contracts, grants, and loans for energy-related projects.
This bill would additionally authorize the commission to use the federal funds for loan guarantees, loan loss reserves, and credit enhancement for those projects.
This bill would authorize the commission to use those federal funds available to the commission to implement the Clean and Renewable Energy Business Financing Revolving Loan Program to provide low interest loans to California clean and renewable energy
manufacturing businesses. The bill would establish the Clean and Renewable Energy Business Financing Revolving Loan Fund. Moneys in the fund would be continuously appropriated to the commission to implement the program.
The bill would require the transfer of federal funds available to the commission to the fund when loans are awarded under the program. The bill would allow the commission to expend up to 5% of the moneys in the fund for administrative costs.
(12) Existing law requires a person to obtain certification from the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission before commencing construction of a thermal powerplant or electric transmission line and requires the person who submits an application for certification for a proposed generating facility to pay a fee of $100,000 plus $250 per megawatt of gross generating capacity of the
proposed facility, the total fee not to exceed $350,000. A person who receives certification of a proposed generating facility is also required to pay an annual fee of $15,000. Existing law exempts from those fees a generating facility that uses a renewable resource as its primary fuel or power source. The fees are required to be deposited in the Energy Facility License and Compliance Fund in the State Treasury, for expenditure by the commission, upon appropriation by the Legislature, for processing applications for certification and for compliance monitoring.
This bill would increase the amount of the fee for an application for certification to $250,000 plus $500 per megawatt, would increase the limit of the total fee to $750,000, and would increase the annual fee to $25,000. The bill would repeal the exemption from the fee for a generating facility that uses a renewable resource and would require the commission to submit a report, by July 1,
2012, to the Legislature on the impact of these changes.
(13) The California Integrated Waste Management Act of 1989 (the act) requires each operator of a solid waste disposal facility to pay a fee to the State Board of Equalization that is based on the amount of all solid waste disposed of at each disposal site. The act generally requires the fee revenue to be deposited in the Integrated Waste Management Account, and requires money in the account, upon appropriation, to be used by the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery for the administration and implementation of the act and by the State Water Resources Control Board and California regional water quality control boards for the administration and implementation of the Porter-Cologne Water Quality Control Act (the water act). The act provides that it is the Legislature’s intent that an amount that is sufficient to fund state water board and regional water board
regulatory activities for solid waste landfills be appropriated from the account by the Legislature.
This bill would amend the act’s fee provision to require the same conditions as in the water act for the application of a waste discharge fee waiver.
(14) Existing law establishes the Environmental Education Account in the State Treasury, and authorizes the California Environmental Protection Agency to expend moneys in the account, upon appropriation by the Legislature, for purposes related to providing environmental education for elementary and secondary pupils in the state. Existing law authorizes the agency to accept and receive federal, state, and local funds and contributions of funds from a public or private organization or individual, and to receive proceeds from a judgment in state or federal court, when the funds are contributed or the judgment
specifies that the proceeds are to be used for environmental education purposes.
This bill would, until January 1, 2013, also authorize the agency to enter into a contract with an external fiscal agent, as defined, for the receipt of contributions to be used for purposes related to environmental education, as prescribed, among other things.
(15) Under existing law, the State Water Resources Control Board operates a wastewater treatment plant classification and operator certification program. In connection with the program, the board is required to classify types of wastewater treatment plants to determine the level of competence necessary to operate the plants. Under the program, supervisors and operators are required to possess certificates of the appropriate grade. For certification purposes, operators at certain private wastewater treatment plants are
required to pass a written examination that may be administered by the board. Existing law authorizes the board to impose fees to cover the costs of the program.
This bill would require the fees, beginning July 1, 2010, to be deposited in the Wastewater Operator Certification Fund, which the bill would create in the State Treasury. The board would be authorized to expend the funds, upon appropriation by the Legislature, for purposes of administering the program.
(16) The Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Reform Act of 2009 (Delta Reform Act) establishes the Delta Stewardship Council, which is required to develop, adopt, and commence implementation of a comprehensive management plan for the Delta (Delta Plan) by January 1, 2012. The act provides that the council is the successor to the California Bay-Delta Authority, which previously was required to carry out
programs, projects, and activities to implement the CALFED Bay-Delta Program with other implementing agencies.
This bill would require the Governor, on or before April 1, 2011, to submit to the Legislature a report on the budget for the 2011–12 fiscal year for all state agency programs that implement water and ecosystem restoration activities in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta using a zero-based budget methodology, as defined. The bill would require that budget to complement the budget for the CALFED Bay-Delta Program, and would require all state expenditures reported in the budget for the CALFED Bay-Delta Program for the 2011–12 fiscal year to be reported using a zero-based budget methodology.
(17) The Delta Reform Act requires the council to administer contracts, grants, easements, and agreements made or entered into by the California Bay-Delta Authority,
and prescribes the powers of the council, which include, among others, the power to enter into contracts, to hire employees, and to adopt regulations or guidelines. The Delta Reform Act requires the council to consider the Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP) for inclusion in the Delta Plan, and prohibits the incorporation of the BDCP into the Delta Plan unless the BDCP complies with specified requirements.
This bill would declare legislative intent relating to contracts entered into by the council for purposes of developing the Delta Plan and the independence of contractors with respect to work related to the Delta Plan and the BDCP.
(18) The bill would require, no later than March 1, 2011, the State Water Resources Control Board to, among other things, submit to the budget committees in each house of the Legislature an analysis and report on the costs of
regulating water quality at active landfills.
(19) Under existing law, the State Water Resources Control Board administers a water rights program pursuant to which the state board grants permits and licenses to appropriate water. Existing law requires each person or entity that files an application for a permit to appropriate water, or various other petitions or requests relating to the right to use water, to pay a fee according to a fee schedule established by the board.
The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) requires a lead agency, as defined, to prepare, or cause to be prepared, and certify the completion of, an environmental impact report (EIR) on a project that it proposes to carry out or approve that may have a significant effect on the environment, or to adopt a negative declaration if the lead agency finds that the project will not have that
effect. CEQA requires a lead agency to prepare a mitigated negative declaration for a project that may have a significant effect on the environment if revisions in the project would avoid or mitigate that effect and there is no substantial evidence that the project, as revised, would have a significant effect on the environment. CEQA authorizes a lead agency to charge a reasonable fee to cover the costs of preparing an EIR or negative declaration.
This bill would require the state board, by July 1, 2013, to prepare, publish on its Internet Web site, and submit to the Joint Legislative Budget Committee, a report on the effectiveness of directly contracting with environmental consultants to prepare documents required pursuant to CEQA and the effectiveness of recovering the costs of preparing those documents from water rights applicants and petitioners. The bill would repeal this reporting requirement on January 1, 2015.
(20) Under existing law, various bond acts have been approved by the voters to provide funds for water projects, facilities, and programs. The Disaster Preparedness and Flood Prevention Bond Act of 2006, a bond act approved by the voters at the November 7, 2006, statewide general election, authorizes the issuance of bonds in the amount of $4,090,000,000 for the purposes of financing disaster preparedness and flood prevention projects. The Safe Drinking Water, Water Quality and Supply, Flood Control, River and Coastal Protection Bond Act of 2006, an initiative bond act approved by the voters at the November 7, 2006, statewide general election, authorizes the issuance of bonds in the amount of $5,388,000,000 for the purposes of financing a safe drinking water, water quality and supply, flood control, and resource protection program. Existing law appropriates $522,000,000 from these bond acts for integrated regional water management and flood control
and management.
This bill would revert that $522,000,000 appropriation to the originating funds and would reappropriate that money for those purposes as the bill would revise them.
(21) Existing law appropriates, from the proceeds of the Safe Drinking Water, Water Quality and Supply, Flood Control, River and Coastal Protection Bond Act of 2006, among other things, $181,791,000 to the Department of Water Resources for integrated regional water management activities, including $39,000,000 for planning grants, local groundwater assistance grants, and scientific research grants to a specified consortium of state and federal agencies with management and regulatory responsibilities in the San Francisco Bay/Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Estuary (CALFED).
This bill would require the department, in providing
grants of those funds, to give preference, as a statewide priority, to proposals that include actions designed to integrate certain stormwater resource plan requirements into an integrated regional water management plan.
(22) The California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 designates the State Air Resources Board as the state agency charged with monitoring and regulating sources of emissions of greenhouse gases. The state board is required to adopt a statewide greenhouse gas emissions limit equivalent to the statewide greenhouse gas emissions level in 1990 to be achieved by 2020, and to adopt rules and regulations in an open public process to achieve the maximum technologically feasible and cost-effective greenhouse gas emission reductions.
This bill would require the Governor, on or before April 1, 2011, to submit a report to the Legislature on the budget
for the 2011–12 fiscal year for all state agency programs that implement, or directly further the goals of, the California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 using a zero-based budget methodology, as defined.
(23) Existing law requires the State Air Resources Board to make available to the public each technical, theoretical, and empirical study, report, or similar document, if any, on which the agency relies, related to, but not limited to, air emissions, public health impacts, and economic impacts, before the comment period for any regulation proposed for adoption by the state board. Existing law provides that it is the intent of the Legislature in enacting those provisions to ensure that the public is provided sufficient information so that interested parties may easily and without undue effort reproduce and verify all aspects of state board staff analysis, related to, but not limited to, air emissions, public health
impacts, and economic impacts, performed during the development of a regulation.
This bill would instead provide that it is the intent of the Legislature to ensure that the public is provided all of the information relied on by the state board staff in proposing the adoption, amendment, or repeal of a regulation, including all information related to, but not limited to, air emissions, public health impacts, and economic impacts.
(24) Existing law establishes the Office of the State Fire Marshal in the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. Existing law requires the State Fire Marshal to prepare and adopt building standards relating to fire protection in a state-owned building or in a state-occupied building.
This bill would require the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, on or before
January 1, 2012, to report to the Joint Legislative Budget Committee on the steps taken by the Office of the State Fire Marshal to improve fire and panic safety with respect to green building standards. The bill would require the report also to describe all steps taken by the office to better coordinate work on green building standards code development with the California Building Standards Commission and the Department of Housing and Community Development.
(25) Existing state and federal law requires the Department of Conservation, Division of Oil, Gas, and Geothermal Resources, to regulate specified injection wells under the division’s Underground Injection Control Program (UIC program) which is monitored and audited by the United States Environmental Protection Agency. The UIC program includes permitting, inspection, enforcement, mechanical integrity testing, plugging and abandonment oversight, data management, and
public outreach.
The bill would require the department to make a specified report to the Legislature on the UIC program and to deliver that report to the fiscal and relevant policy committees of each house by January 30, 2011, and annually thereafter, and to report on its UIC program’s action plan developed to address the program’s assessment findings and the department’s existing efforts to implement the plan, by January 30, 2012, and annually thereafter, as specified. These provisions would become inoperative on March 1, 2015, and would be repealed as of January 1, 2016.
(26) The bill would require the Governor, as part of the submission to the Legislature of the budget for the 2011–12 fiscal year, to include a zero-based 2011–12 fiscal year budget for all activities that were supported from the department’s emergency fund in the 2009–10 fiscal year that were
subsequently shifted to support from the department’s main budget item in the 2010–11 fiscal year.
(27) This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.