November 21, 2024
Golden State Republican Women
Janet Price, President
Submitted by the GSRW Legislative Analyst Committee
Valerie Evans, Lou Ann Flaherty and Elaine Freeman,
AB 1923 (Davies R) The Green Assistance Program – Existing law creates the California Environmental Protection Agency, consisting of various boards, offices, and departments, including the State Air Resources Board. Existing law, the California Global Warming Solutions At or 2006, establishes the State Air Resources Board as the state agency responsible for monitoring and regulating sources emitting greenhouse gases.
The act authorizes the state board to include the use of market-based compliance mechanisms. Existing law requires all moneys, except for fines and penalties, collected by the state board as part of a market-based compliance mechanism, to be deposited in the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund and to be available upon request by the Legislature.
This bill will establish the Green Assistance Program within the California Environmental Protection Agency to, among other things, assist small businesses and small nonprofit organizations in applying for moneys from the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund. The bill would authorize the Secretary for Environmental Protection to apply for and accept grants or contributions of funds from any public or private source for the program.
Think about this. The Air Resources Board just raised the cost of fuel effective 1/1/25 to be any where from $.45 per gallon or more which will impact business greatly. The increased cost for diesel has not been mentioned, but truckers are going to feel the pinch. And this bill gives State government decision-making on who and what type of business may get help meeting these increased costs. More power in government and more expense to business.
AB 3230 (Petrie-Norris D) Greenhouse gas emissions reduction: state agencies – The California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 designates the State Air Resource Board as the state agency charged with monitoring and regulating sources of emissions of greenhouse gases. The act requires all state agencies to consider and implement strategies to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. Existing law defines “greenhouse gases” for purposes of the act to include specified gases including methane.
Existing law requires the state board to approve and begin implementing a comprehensive strategy to reduce emissions of short-lived climate pollutants in the state, including to achieve a reduction in ethane emissions of 40% below 2013 levels by 2030.
This bill would make non-substantive changes to this requirement, additionally requiring state agencies to prioritize strategies to reduce methane emissions from imported natural gas, where feasible and cost effective. The bill will also require the state board, the Public Utilities Commission, and other relevant agencies to consider timely programs, or changes to existing programs, to reduce methane emissions, including emissions from imported natural gas.
(Although it says non-substantive changes, if you read this last statement of what the bill will do, you can see that it is not non-substantive, but allows for a raft of new rules and regulations.
Another firearms bill
SB 452 (Blakespear) Firearms – Existing law, subject to exceptions, generally makes it an offense to manufacture or sell an unsafe handgun and requires the Department of Justice to compile a roster listing all the handguns that have been tested and determined not to be unsafe handguns.
Existing law establishes criteria for determining if a handgun is an unsafe handgun, including for firearms manufactured after a certain date and not already listed on the roster, the lack of a chamber load indicator, magazine disconnect mechanism, and technology that transfers a microscopic range of characters from the firearm to the cartridge case when the firearm is fired known as a micro stamp.
This bill removes from the definition of an unsafe handgun a semiautomatic pistol without a microstamping component, and will prohibit, commencing on 1/1/28, a licensed firearms dealer from selling, offering for sale, exchanging, giving, transferring, or delivering a semiautomatic pistol, as defined, unless microstamping components or microstamping-enable semi-automatic firearms are available. The bill also prohibits a person from modifying a microstamping-enacted pistol or microstamping component with the intent to prevent the products of a micro stamp. By creating new crimes, the bill would impose a stated-mandated local program.
The bill will require the Department of Justice to provide written guidance concerning qualifying criteria and performance standards for microstamping components. If the department has determined that microstamping components are technologically viable, it will require the department to accept applications for licensure of entities in order to produce microstamping components.
Legislative Portal links – Express your support or opposition to a bill or directly to the Legislative committee currently reviewing it (as an individual, not as a member of RW or GSRW) – click here, or the bill’s author – click here, enter your bill # and look for tab at top of the bill page labeled “Comments to Author”.
