March 13, 2025
Golden State Republican Women
Janet Price, President
Submitted by the GSRW Legislative Analyst Committee
Valerie Evans, Lou Ann Flaherty and Elaine Freeman,
ENERGY
SB 13, as amended, Grove (R). Oil and gas.
Existing law, the Petroleum Industry Information Reporting Act of 1980, requires refiners, as described, to report monthly to the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission (Energy Commission), for each of their refineries, specified information, including the origin of petroleum receipts and the source of imports of finished petroleum products.
This bill would express the intent of the Legislature that the Energy Commission monitor foreign countries that export oil to California and identify on its internet website which of those countries have demonstrated human rights abuses, as documented by the United States Department of State, and which of those countries have lower environmental standards for the production of oil than California.
Existing law imposes various limitations on the emissions of air contaminants for the control of air pollution from vehicular and nonvehicular sources. Existing law requires the State Air Resources Board to post on its internet website information on air quality conditions and trends statewide and to develop and conduct a program of monitoring airborne fine particles smaller than 2.5 microns in diameter (PM 2.5).
This bill would require the state board to annually produce an assessment of the greenhouse gas emissions associated with the transportation of oil in California, as specified, and to include that assessment on the state board’s internet website. The bill would also require the Energy Commission to annually provide data collected pursuant to the Petroleum Industry Information Reporting Act of 1980 to the state board for the purposes of the assessment. The bill would require the data to comply with specified existing confidentiality requirements. The bill would prohibit the commission from using any funds from electric ratepayers to implement these requirements, as provided.
Under existing law, the Geologic Energy Management Division in the Department of Conservation regulates the drilling, operation, maintenance, and abandonment of oil and gas wells in the state.
This bill would require the division to provide a link on its internet website to air quality emissions data associated with the transportation of oil imported into the state.
Existing law vests the Energy Commission with various responsibilities for developing and implementing the state’s energy policies.
This bill would require the Energy Commission to prominently display on the front page of its internet website a report on the air quality impact of potentially importing 5% to 10% of the state’s gasoline supply using tanker ships and a report describing the refinery storage costs as determined by the Energy Commission, as specified. The bill would also require a report produced by the Energy Commission estimating gasoline price breakdowns and margins to include the cost of shipping oil. The bill would prohibit the commission from using any funds from electric ratepayers to implement these requirements.
Hearing: Mar 19 @ 9:00 am in 1021 O Street, Room 1200
AB 99, as introduced, Ta (R). Electrical corporations: rates.
Existing law vests the Public Utilities Commission with regulatory authority over public utilities, including electrical corporations. Existing law authorizes the commission to fix the rates and charges for every public utility and requires that those rates and charges be just and reasonable.
This bill would prohibit an electrical corporation from proposing, and the commission from approving, a rate increase above the rate of inflation, unless the rate increase is approved by a majority of the electrical corporation’s customers voting in an election conducted according to specified requirements, and except when the commission determines that the costs underlying the rate increase are directly related to safety enhancements and modernization or to higher commodity or fuel costs.
Under existing law, a violation of the Public Utilities Act or any order, decision, rule, direction, demand, or requirement of the commission is a crime.
Because the above prohibition would be a part of the act, and because a violation of a commission action implementing the above prohibition would be a crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program.
The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement.
Hearing: Mar 26 in State Capitol, Room 437
ENVIRONMENT
SB 45, as amended, Padilla (D). Recycling: beverage containers: tethered plastic caps.
The California Beverage Container Recycling and Litter Reduction Act, which is administered by the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery, is established to promote beverage container recycling. The act defines “beverage container” to mean the individual, separate bottle, can, jar, carton, or other receptacle, however denominated, in which a beverage is sold, and that is constructed of metal, glass, or plastic, or other material, or any combination of these materials, but does not include cups or other similar open or loosely sealed receptacles. A violation of the act is a crime.
Existing law authorizes the department, subject to the availability of funds, to pay a quality incentive payment of up to $180 per ton to qualified recyclers for thermoform plastic containers diverted from curbside recycling programs, as provided.
This bill would delete that authorization. The bill would instead require, on and after January 1, 2027, beverage containers, as defined, intended for sale in this state, if a beverage is subject to the act and offered for sale in a plastic beverage container with a plastic cap, the container to have a cap that is tethered to the container that prevents the separation of the cap from the container when the cap is removed from the container by the consumer. The bill would exempt, until January 1, 2028, any type of beverage container with a recycling rate of better than 70% for calendar years 2022 and 2023, as determined by the department, from compliance with that requirement. The bill would exempt beverage containers with a capacity of 3 2 liters or more and beverage containers that contain beer or other malt beverages, wine or distilled spirits, or 100% fruit juice from the scope of the bill.
By creating a new requirement under the act, a violation of which would be a crime, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program.
The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement.
Hearing: Mar 19 @ 9:00 am in 1021 O Street, Room 1200
AB 295, as introduced January 23, 2025, by Macedo (R). California Environmental Quality Act: environmental leadership development projects: water storage, water conveyance, and groundwater recharge projects: streamlined review.
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 the lead agency proposes to carry out or approve that may have a significant effect on the environment or to adopt a negative declaration if it finds that the project will not have that effect. CEQA also 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 establishes a procedure by which a person may seek judicial review of the decision of the lead agency made pursuant to CEQA.
The Jobs and Economic Improvement Through Environmental Leadership Act of 2021 authorizes the Governor, until January 1, 2032, to certify environmental leadership development projects that meet specified requirements for certain streamlining benefits related to CEQA. The act, among other things, requires a lead agency to prepare the record of proceedings for an environmental leadership development project, as provided, and to provide a specified notice within 10 days of the Governor certifying the project. The act is repealed by its own term on January 1, 2034.
This bill would extend the application of the act to water storage projects, water conveyance projects, and groundwater recharge projects that provide public benefits and drought preparedness. Because a lead agency would be required to prepare the record of proceedings for water storage projects, water conveyance projects, and groundwater recharge projects pursuant to the act, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program.
Hearing: Mar 24 @ 2:30 pm in State Capitol, Room 437
SB 684, as introduced February 21, 2025, by Menjivar (D) (plus seven Democrat coauthors). Polluters Pay Climate Superfund Act of 2025.
The California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006, until January 1, 2031, authorizes the State Air Resources Board to adopt a regulation establishing a system of market-based declining aggregate emissions limits for sources or categories of sources that emit greenhouse gases (market-based compliance mechanism) that meets certain requirements. Existing law establishes the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund and requires all moneys, except for fines and penalties, collected by the state board from the auction or sales of allowances as a part of a market-based compliance mechanism to be deposited into the fund and requires the Legislature to appropriate moneys in the fund for the purpose of reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the state, as provided.
Existing law, the California Climate Crisis Act, declares that it is the policy of the state both to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions as soon as possible, but no later than 2045, and achieve and maintain net-negative greenhouse gas emissions thereafter, and to ensure that by 2045, statewide anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions are reduced to at least 85% below the 1990 levels.
This bill would enact the Polluters Pay Climate Superfund Act of 2025 and would establish the Polluters Pay Climate Superfund Program to be administered by the California Environmental Protection Agency to require fossil fuel polluters to pay their fair share of the damage caused by greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere during the covered period, which the bill would define as the time period between the 1990 and 2024 calendar years, inclusive, resulting from the extraction, production, refining, sale, or combustion of fossil fuels or petroleum products, to relieve a portion of the burden to address cost borne by current and future California taxpayers. The bill would require the agency, within 90 days of the effective date of the act, to determine and publish a list of responsible parties, which the bill would define as an entity with a majority ownership interest in a business engaged in extracting or refining fossil fuels that, during the covered period, did business in the state or otherwise had sufficient contact with the state, and is determined by the agency to be responsible for more than 1,000,000,000 metric tons of covered fossil fuel emissions, as defined, in aggregate globally, during the covered period.
This bill would require the agency, within one year of the effective date of the act, to conduct and complete a climate cost study to, among other things, quantify the total damage amount, which the bill would define as all past and future climate harms and damages to the state from January 1, 1990, through December 31, 2045, inclusive. The bill would require the agency to update the climate cost study, not less frequently than every 5 years, through January 1, 2045, as provided. The bill would require the agency, within 60 days of the completion of the climate cost study, to determine and assess, as provided, a cost recovery demand for each responsible party listed, which represents the responsible party’s proportionate share of the total damage amount. The bill would require responsible parties to pay their cost recovery demand, as provided. The bill would require the collected cost recovery demands to be deposited in the Polluters Pay Climate Superfund Fund, which the bill would create in the State Treasury. The bill would, upon appropriation by the Legislature, require moneys in the fund be expended for, among other things, qualifying expenditures, which the bill would define to include expenditures for projects and programs to mitigate, adapt, or respond to the damages and costs caused to the state from climate change. The bill would require the agency to determine the initial implementation costs for the act, as provided, and would require the agency to assess an amount allocated equitably among responsible parties to cover those costs.
This bill would require the Director of Finance, within 45 days of the effective date of the act, to perform an initial assessment of the reasonable and appropriate initial implementation costs that will be incurred by the agency.
(This bill is mind-numbing…..and who is going to pay for this agency work??)
Hearing: Apr 2 @ 9:00 am in 1021 O Street, Room 1200
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