PRIORITY BILLS 2023
California Environmental Voters (EnviroVoters) lobbies in Sacramento and across the state to expand access to democracy, to take bold action on climate, and to protect and enhance the land, air, water, and health of all California communities. View our federal priorities here. Check out our top state priority bills and see where they are in the legislative process:
Climate Accountability Package
Just 100 energy corporations are responsible for 71% of global industrial emissions.
We can’t have a serious conversation about reducing carbon emissions without addressing the corporate sector’s contribution to pollution.
Our sponsored bill, the Climate Corporate Leadership and Accountability Act (SB 253), would require all large U.S.-based corporations doing business in California that make over $1 billion annually to publicly disclose their full carbon footprint in a way that is easily understandable and available to the public.
For accountability and transparency, we need SB 253.
Signed into law!
Did you know that Californians’ retirements are bankrolling fossil fuel corporate profits?
The California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS) and the California State Teachers Retirement System (CalSTRS) — the agencies that invest the pension funds of state employees and teachers, respectively — are investing billions of dollars into fossil fuel companies.
We can’t be fighting to solve the climate crisis while simultaneously investing billions into companies that are the primary cause of climate change. We need to pass the Fossil Fuel Divestment Act (SB 252) to end this dangerous and hypocritical practice.
Failed to pass the Assembly Public Employment and Retirement Committee; on pause until January 2024.
We can’t just be guessing about what’s going to happen in the climate crisis. Businesses have a responsibility to understand and anticipate the financial risks ahead of us.
The Climate-Related Financial Risk Act (SB 261) mandates large companies that do business in California to submit annual climate-related financial risk reports to the public. SB 261 will also inform the rest of the country, allowing other states to make use of the reports published here to mitigate their own risk.
Let’s pass SB 261 bill so the public knows what mitigation measures companies are taking in the face of the climate crisis.
Signed into law!
Other Priority Climate Bills
AB 3 (Zbur): California Offshore Wind Energy & Jobs Act
Signed into law!
Offshore wind energy is critical to the state’s ability to achieve 100% renewable energy by 2045 and has the potential to create a significant number of high-paying jobs in the state.
Maximizing economic benefits and job opportunities for local communities is pivotal in the state’s ability to achieve environmental justice goals. Clear procurement pathways and strategies are also necessary for signaling early investment in the development of a local supply chain.
AB 3 requires the California Energy Commission (CEC) to develop a strategy for seaport readiness for offshore wind energy developments and to study the feasibility of achieving 70% and 85% in-state assembly and manufacturing of offshore wind energy projects.
AB 126 (formerly AB 241) (Asm. Reyes and Sen. Gonzalez): Clean Transportation Program Modernization
Signed into law!
Decarbonizing transportation in California requires sustainable and long-term funding commitments for programs that can spur transformative change.
In 2007, the Legislature passed AB 118 (Núñez), which created the Clean Transportation Program (CTP), the Air Quality Improvement Program (AQIP), and the Enhance Fleet Modernization Program (EFMP). In 2013, AB 8 (Parea) reauthorized, updated, and expanded these programs, including the CTP.
These programs are currently funded by small fees on tire sales, vehicle and boat registrations, smog abatement, and special identification plates which provide approximately $173 million annually.
The CTP currently receives approximately $100 million annually, which is awarded to projects advancing thirteen different clean transportation goals, and unfortunately is set to sunset on January 1, 2024.
AB 126 will extend the existing fees that fund the program, at their current levels, through 2035. The bill also modernizes the CTP Commission and the AQIP to support zero-emission vehicle and infrastructure deployment for light-duty cars and medium- and heavy-duty trucks, require 50% of funding be spent on programs and projects that directly benefit or serve residents of disadvantaged and low-income communities.
AB 421 (Bryan): Referendum Reform
Signed into law!
It’s no secret that powerful corporations have nearly unlimited dollars to spend creating confusion for the voters of California.
AB 421 will help California’s communities take back their power over direct democracy like ballot initiatives and referendums, that have been captured by corporations and corporate polluters.
AB 421 will reform the laws that govern ballot initiatives and referendums to ensure that voters know exactly what they are voting for, and who is bankrolling it.
Some of the reforms include eliminating the ever-confusing “yes” and “no” vote options on the ballot and replacing it with simple terms “keep the law” or “overturn the law”, which will make it onto the ballot in time to protect hard-fought victories we won in 2022 like protecting communities from oil drilling.
Other reforms include 10% of signatures to be gathered by volunteer signature gatherers, the top 3 funders to be displayed at the top of the first page of the petition, requiring the secretary of state to administer a training program for paid petition circulators, and finally reduce the circulation period for ballot initiatives that act as referendums seeking to overturn laws and thus close an often-abused loophole.
AB 631 (Hart): Community Safety and Protection Act
Signed into law!
Spills, leaks, air pollution, and contaminated water sources are just some of the public health problems posed by oil and gas operations.
CalGEM’s current authority does not always match the health risk of a potential violation and enforcement is not always applied or complied with.
In 2020, while CalGEM issued almost 200K in civil penalties, it collected zero dollars. The looming issue of 37,000 idle/not-in-production oil wells means that enforcement will be critical as this infrastructure continues to age and the risks get higher. Increases in penalties showcased in AB631 will motivate oil companies to comply, avoid being penalized, and prevent further public health disasters.
AB 631 would allow CalGem to seek injunctive orders from a Superior Court, authorize CalGEM to refer enforcement to a city attorney, district attorney, or the Attorney General to bring a civil penalty action, allow cost recovery for responding to uncontrolled leaks or releases from an oil and gas well and modernize both criminal and civil penalties, consistent with other state agencies.
AB 1167 (W. Carrillo): Orphan Well Prevention Act
Signed into law!
As California’s oil production declines, oil well owners are selling wells to companies who are less likely to be in a financial position to complete the required remediation, significantly increasing the risk that the well will become “orphaned,” with no viable entity responsible to complete that process- this fiscal impact will go to taxpayers unless we hold oil well owners responsible.
Bonds are already required to be posted when a drilling authorization is issued, however, the currently required bonding amounts fall significantly short of the actual cost of that process.
AB 1167 would require a person who acquires the right to operate an oil well or production facility to file with the supervisor a bond in an amount determined by the supervisor to be sufficient to cover all costs of plugging and abandonment and site restoration.
Additionally, it requires the supervisor to maintain and provide the new operator with records of all transfers and to make these records available on the Geologic Energy Management Division’s website.
SB 337 (Min): Codifying 30×30: Land and Coastal Waters Conservation Goal
Signed into law!
There is broad scientific consensus that we are in a sixth mass extinction, with extinction rates hundreds or thousands of times faster than what would naturally occur.
California is home to one of 25 global biodiversity hotspots, but its biodiversity is under threat from climate change, habitat loss and fragmentation, invasive species, disease, pests, and pollution.
SB 337 would codify a goal to conserve 30 percent of California’s land and coastal waters by 2030, also known as the 30×30 goal. This bill is consistent with 30×30 goal signed by Governor Newsom in Executive Order N-82-20 (EO N-82-20) in 2020 and will ensure that the goal is established in statute so that it persists until 2030, which is past the Governor’s term.
The 30×30 effort is rooted in the recommendation from the international science community that we must protect 30 percent of our lands and waters if we are going to have any hope of avoiding the worst impacts from climate change and reversing the extinction crisis.
SB 389 (Allen): Surface Water Rights Verification
Signed into law!
In California, water rights are hugely consequential for the well-being of our natural lands and communities that rely on them.
Water rights held before the Water Commission Act of 1913, which established the State Water Resources Control Board, haven’t had to undergo the same scrutiny as those who held water rights after 1914.
For this reason, there are gaps within the authority to curtail water rights and as the effect of climate change becomes worse it is important to have accurate knowledge of water availability and usage, and modernized water rights to accurately enforce water protection.
SB 389 will grant the State Water Resources Control Board (State Water Board) the authority to review, verify, and issue decisions on senior water rights claims not granted via the Water Commission Act of 1913 (the Act), namely pre-1914 appropriative and riparian water rights.
AB 249 (Holden): School Lead Testing & Mitigation
Vetoed by the Governor.
There is no safe amount of lead content in drinking water, and children who live in low-income communities and communities of color are particularly vulnerable to elevated levels of lead exposure, which can lead to debilitating lifelong conditions.
AB249 would bring the lead action levels that impact childcare centers and TK-12 school buildings built before 2010 to meet existing federal and state standards.
It would require a community water system that serves as a school site to test for lead in each of the school site’s potable water system outlets by January 1, 2027, and if the lead level exceeds five parts per billion (ppb), requires the local educational agencies or school to take immediate steps to shut down the use of all fountains and faucets where the excess lead levels may exist, and ensure that a potable source of drinking water is provided for pupils.
AB 1248 (Bryan): Independent Redistricting Commissions for Local Districts
Vetoed by the Governor.
Passed the legislature, now onto the governor’s desk!
Passed the Senate Elections and Constitutional Amendments Committee, now onto Senate Appropriations!
We must make sure that every vote matters, by ensuring that when it comes to redistricting communities are drawn into districts that reflect their lived experience, following fair maps principals to draw electoral maps for cities and counties that do not prioritize politics over people.
AB 1248 would require a county, general law city, charter city, school district, or community college district that contains over 300,000 residents to establish an independent redistricting commission to adopt district boundaries after each census.
AB 1567 (Garcia, W. Carrillo, Connolly, Friedman, and Papan): Safe Drinking Water, Wildfire Prevention, Drought Preparation, Flood Protection, Extreme Heat Mitigation, and Workforce Development Bond Act of 2024
On pause until 2024.
AB 1567 is a $15.105 billion general obligation bond to address the impacts of the climate crisis.
AB 1567 includes funding for wildfire risk reduction, coastal and oceans protections from sea level rise and other climate risks, safe drinking water, drought preparation, and flood protection, fish and wildlife protections, protections for farms, ranches, and working lands from climate risks, extreme heat mitigation, and protections for communities from climate-driven extreme weather events.
California must use all the tools available to ensure sustained and dedicated funding is available to address the impacts of the climate crisis to address immediate adaptation and resiliency needs and to fund the solutions that will reduce emissions and create a climate-just future.
SB 867 (Allen, Becker, Portantino, and Stern): Drought, Flood, and Water Resilience, Wildfire, and Forest Resilience, Coastal Resilience, Extreme Heat Mitigation, Biodiversity,
and Nature-Based Climate Solutions, Climate Smart Agriculture, Park Creation and Outdoor Access, and Clean Energy Bond Act of 2024
On pause until 2024.
SB 867 is a $15.5 billion general obligation bond to address the impacts of the climate crisis.
SB 867 includes funding for drought and flood protection, flood risk and stormwater management, watershed resilience, wildfire prevention, coastal and ocean resiliency, extreme heat mitigation, biodiversity, and nature-backed climate solutions, improving the climate resilience of agricultural lands, creation and protection of parks, outdoor access, and educational institutions, and clean energy.
California must use all the tools available to ensure sustained and dedicated funding is available to address the impacts of the climate crisis to address immediate adaptation and resiliency needs and to fund the solutions that will reduce emissions and create a climate-just future.
ACA 4 (Bryan): Voting Rights for All Californians / AB 1595 (Bryan): Elections: eligibility to vote
On pause until 2024.
Should we restore voting rights to citizens of our State who are completing their prison sentences?
That is the fundamental question ACA 4 will put to the voters of California. ACA 4 if passed would send a constitutional amendment to the voters to remove the disqualification of incarcerated people from civic participation.
In Maine, Vermont, and Washington DC those who are incarcerated never lose their right to vote, ACA 4 would allow California to join them in affirming that the right to vote is an inalienable human right, afforded to all regardless of their past.
SCA 2 (Stern): Youth Voting Rights
On pause until 2024.
Ongoing; house of origin floor deadline does not apply to constitutional amendments.
SCA 2 by Senator Stern would lower the voting age from eighteen to seventeen in all public elections throughout the state. Young voters in California have the lowest turnout rate of any age demographic, leaving them drastically underrepresented.
For example, in the 2014 general election, only 8.2% of California’s eligible youth voted. Research from other countries that have successfully lowered the voting age shows that young people have higher turnout rates and are more likely to express greater levels of political maturity than those voting for the first-time at 18, and lowering the voting age may encourage lifelong voting habits that improve overall democratic participation.
Therefore, allowing roughly half a million 17-year-olds in California would drastically increase the number of eligible voters and boost turnout in the long-term.
AB 460 (Bauer-Kahan): State Water Board Emergency Interim Relief
Failed to pass the Senate Natural Resources and Water Committee; on pause until 2024.
Despite years of unprecedented droughts, the State Resources Water Control Board lacks the proper authority to be able to stop illegal use of water, due to laws that limit the action that can be taken immediately.
In addition, the penalties in place don’t adequately stop harmful behavior, like we’ve seen impact communities across the state, and recently Shasta where communities were illegally cut off from drinking water for agricultural use, impacting tribes and jeopardizing wildlife that depend on stable stream flows.
AB 460 grants the State Water Resources Control Board authority to act immediately to halt illegal or wasteful uses of water that harm the environment or violate water rights, and increase penalties.
AB 460 is greatly needed versus the current status quo model which takes weeks to allow emergency intervention, weeks communities don’t always have.
AB 538 (Holden): Multistate regional transmission system organization
Failed to pass the Assembly Appropriations Committee; on pause until 2024.
Clean reliable energy is critical to advancing a climate-just future and is needed to protect vulnerable communities from the impacts of the climate crisis like extreme heat waves, wildfires, and flooding.
However, the deployment of clean energy is not keeping pace with demand. Grid regionalization is a powerful tool that can help California distribute more clean energy across the western grid where and when we need it.
The more access to clean energy resources that our grid has during more hours of the day, the less we are reliant on fossil gas plants that are currently providing energy to our state’s grid during peak hours and during high-demand times such as the worsening and more frequent extreme heat waves.
AB 538 is an important first step to creating a regional system to expand the footprint for distributing clean energy resources and to enable better collaboration, transparency, and integration across the western electrical transmission grid system.
AB 558 (Arambula): Transportation 4 All
Failed to pass the Assembly Local Government Committee; on pause until 2024.
AB 558 transforms the Fresno County Transportation Board to be more reflective of communities experiencing environmental degradation and who lack economic resources by adding new voices, perspectives, and backgrounds to the decision-making process.
FCTA’s decisions about how to spend transportation funds directly affect the well-being of local communities, which is essential to growing a more prosperous Central Valley.
This bill would add 4 new members to the FCTA: a) a labor representative b) a local community member from a disadvantaged unincorporated area of Fresno County c) a youth member d) one educational member appointed by the Fresno County Board of Education.
The bill also ensures labor protections and environmental protections for workers on FCTA projects.
AB 593 (Haney): Pathway to Clean Energy Buildings
On pause until 2024.
Passed the Senate Energy, Utilities, and Communications Committee, now onto Senate Appropriations!
In California, commercial and residential buildings account for approximately 25% of the State’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, second only to the transportation sector.
AB 3232 (Friedman, 2018) required the California Energy Commission (CEC) to assess how to cut building emissions 40% below 1990 levels by 2030.
However, California lacks a comprehensive statewide building emission reduction plan that helps the State reach its climate neutrality goals and prioritizes equity for low income and Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) communities.
AB 593 is the critical next step to build on AB 3232 because it requires the CEC to act on their findings related to building GHG emissions. AB 593 directs the CEC to identify and implement an emissions reduction strategy for the building sector, complete with milestones, to advance California’s path to carbon neutrality by 2045.
The bill also requires the CEC to prioritize high-road workforce development, send clear market signals to appliance manufacturers and installers, lessen impacts on ratepayers, support climate goals, and address barriers for low-income communities.
AB 650 (Arambula): Central Valley Air District Board Reform
Failed to pass the Assembly Local Government Committee; on pause until 2024.
Proposes a 13-person board. The four new seats would go to a labor organization representative, appointed by the Fresno City Council; a member under between the ages of 18 to 26, appointed by the governor; a resident from a “disadvantaged” and unincorporated area of the county, appointed by the Board of Supervisors; and an educational representative, appointed by the Fresno County Board of Education.
Focus on California Air Resources Board to work collaboratively with the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District, community-based organizations, and disadvantaged communities to strengthen local programming and enforcement.
AB 985 (Arambula): Central Valley Air Pollution Credit Reform
Failed to pass the Assembly Concurrence; on pause until 2024.
AB 985 will help restore communities’ faith in government and bring much needed transparency to the San Joaquin Valley Air District with a long overdue review of their Emissions Reduction Credit system.
The health-related impacts of air pollution in California’s San Joaquin Valley- the most polluted air basin in the US, drains the region’s economy of $6 billion every year.
These costs are tied to severe health outcomes. Emission Reduction Credit programs, when created, were based on the notion that polluters could be motivated to voluntarily use a system of pollution credits that would result in the reduction of emissions beyond those achieved through direct regulation; however, the net effect of the ERC program has been an increase in the overall levels of pollution in the San Joaquin Valley.
AB 985 will direct CARB to review the remaining credit banks that previously resulted in a failed equivalency demonstration, review permits where a credit was used from VOC or NOx banks, review permits where a credit was used from a bank if a bank fails an equivalency demonstration after review, and requires all existing and future credits within all credit banks to have expiration dates similar to those in other states, like Texas and Louisiana.
AB 1000 (Reyes): Warehouse Good Neighbor Policy
Failed to pass the Assembly Local Government Committee; on pause until 2024.
Would establish a 1000-foot setback on warehouse or logistics projects from sensitive receptors.
The bill would allow these projects to be sited 750 feet away from sensitive receptors if the project meet a set of standards related to fleet electrification for all vehicle types (light, medium- and heavy-duty), zero-emission equipment requirements, air quality and public health assessments, zero-emission energy requirements, zero-emission vehicle charging or refueling infrastructure requirements, and prohibitions on idling for vehicles and equipment.
AB 1176 (Zbur): Local Electrification Planning
Failed to pass the Senate Governance and Finance Committee, on pause until 2024.
The transportation and built environment sectors are the primary areas that California’s greenhouse gas reduction goals focus on, as they make up most of our emissions. AB 1176 critically focuses on the intersection of these two sectors and the infrastructure that will be necessary in order to make meaningful progress towards both. AB 1176 will ensure that city and county governments across the state are prepared for California’s transition to zero emission vehicles (ZEVs) and buildings by incorporating electrification considerations into the general planning process. The bill will also require pivotal early coordination with load-serving entities or utility providers in order to identify and meet the need for grid infrastructure upgrades.
AB 1337 (Wicks): Curtailing Water Usage During Shortages
Failed to pass the Senate Natural Resources and Water Committee; on hold until 2024
As the state experiences frequent water shortages, the authority of the State Water Resources Control Board is crucial. However, currently, the State Water Resources Control Board’s power to curtail water rights is limited unless there is a declared drought emergency.
AB 1337 gives the State Water Resources Control Board clear authority to limit water diversions from all water rights holders when there is a shortage, both during drought and non-drought years.
This would help prevent wastewater, encourage water recycling, and conserve and protect public trust resources, by allowing the board who can look at the big picture to equitably control and divert water to protect communities based on need.
SB 527 (Min): Neighborhood Decarbonization Program
Failed to pass the Senate Appropriations Committee.
Buildings account for 25 percent of all emissions, and 13 percent of all greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, which contribute to the climate crisis and cause poor indoor air quality that can lead to adverse health problems.
To achieve carbon neutrality, the California Air Resources Board has set a goal to reduce GHG emissions to 85% below 1990 levels and reduce fossil fuel consumption to less than 10 percent of what is currently consumed.
To accomplish this, SB 527 requires the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) to establish the Neighborhood Decarbonization Program, which is a cost-effective, community–scale program that will decarbonize neighborhoods by providing both energy bill affordability for ratepayers and healthier, safer, more climate-resilient buildings.
The program would allow utilities, along with the CPUC, to identify cost-effective projects with outdated infrastructure for decarbonization using strategies such as heat pump technology, geothermal energy networks, and high-efficiency energy appliances.
SB 556 (Gonzalez): Health Protection Zones near Oil & Gas Wells
Failed to pass the Senate Appropriations Committee.
California is still a major oil and gas producing state, CalGEM convened a panel of public health experts and concluded with a high level of certainty that the levels of health-damaging air pollutants are more concentrated near oil and gas activities compared to further away.
SB 556 holds the oil and gas industry accountable by creating a liability presumption for a respiratory ailment in a senior or child, a pre-term birth or high-risk pregnancy suffered by a pregnant person, and a person’s cancer diagnoses if they resided within a specified proximity of a gas production facility or wellhead, known as a health-protective zone.
Additionally, the bill provides a safe harbor if the oil or gas production facility has fully deployed the best available technology and remediation efforts to prevent respiratory ailments, pre-term births and high-risk pregnancies, and cancer in vulnerable populations.
SB 709 (Allen): Dairy Biogas Low-Carbon Fuel Standard Regulations
Failed to pass the Senate Appropriations Committee; on pause until 2024.
The Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) is a greenhouse gas (GHG) trading program.
Dairies and other livestock operations are credit generators that can generate gas by using a digester to convert wet manure from manure cesspools into gas. Gas from manure is considered very carbon negative- producers of factory farm gas generate and sell lots of credits, while excessive manure is polluting air and water.
SB 709 solves these problems by limiting the number of LCFS credits a producer of factory farm gas can generate to the volume of gas that could have been produced at a certain date, fixing the life-cycle analysis that CARB does to determine how many GHG emissions the production of FFG generates.
This ensures that CARB is analyzing the full scope of GHG emissions when it assigns carbon intensity to the fuel, increasing transparency of the LCFS program by requiring that producers of factory farm gas disclose the factors that contribute to the calculation of the carbon intensity of the gas and eliminating the requirement that CARB grant credits to factory farm gas producers that participate in the LCFS for at least ten years.
SB 84 (Gonzalez): Clean Transportation Program Reauthorization and Revitalization
Placed on the inactive file by the author, on hold.
Decarbonizing transportation in California requires sustainable and long-term funding commitments for programs that can spur transformative change.
In 2007, the Legislature passed AB 118 (Núñez), which created the Clean Transportation Program (CTP), the Air Quality Improvement Program (AQIP), and the Enhance Fleet Modernization Program (EFMP).
In 2013, AB 8 (Parea) reauthorized, updated, and expanded these programs, including the CTP. These programs are currently funded by small fees on tire sales, vehicle and boat registrations, smog abatement, and special identification plates which provide approximately $173 million annually.
The CTP currently receives approximately $100 million annually, which is awarded to projects advancing thirteen different clean transportation goals, and unfortunately is set to sunset on January 1, 2024. SB 84 will extend the existing fees that fund the program, at their current levels, through 2035.
The bill also modernizes the CTP Commission and the AQIP to support zero-emission vehicle and infrastructure deployment for light-duty cars and medium- and heavy-duty trucks, require 50% of funding be spent on programs and projects that directly benefit or serve residents of disadvantaged and low-income communities.
