California Air Resources Board

Summary

Would have required CARB to undertake specified interventions if the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District (SJVAPCD) remains in nonattainment for a national ambient air quality standard (NAAQS). These interventions would have included developing a program, rules, or regulations that CARB deems necessary for SJVAPCD to attain NAAQS after a public hearing on CARB’s review of the SJVAPCD attainment plan, rules, regulations, programs, and enforcement practices. This bill also would have required CARB to coordinate with SJVAPCD to provide additional monitoring and enforcement for stationary sources and conduct outreach to under-resourced communities.

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Governor’s Veto Message

To the Members of the California State Assembly:

I am returning Assembly Bill 2550 without my signature.

This bill requires the California Air Resources Board (CARB) to intervene and undertake specified activities if the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District does not attain the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) established by the United States Environmental Protection Agency.

My Administration is committed to ensuring that the San Joaquin Valley is on a path to attainment of the NAAQS. Statute already allows CARB to reject a local air district's State Implementation Plan element if CARB finds, after a public hearing, that it does not meet the requirements of the Clean Air Act, including if the plan will not provide attainment by the deadline. As such, this bill is unnecessary.

Sincerely,

Gavin Newsom

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Summary

Would have required the Office of Emergency Services (OES) to ensure the California State Warning Center integrates, upon the next update to OES’s emergency plan, a plan to provide targeted alerts for public health dangers, including smoke from wildfires. Would have required OES to create a standard operating procedure to send text and voice messages, in multiple languages, to residents and farmworkers based on their ZIP Codes to alert them of public health dangers in their area. Held on suspense in the Assembly Appropriations Committee.

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Summary

Requires the Division of Occupational Safety and Health to submit to the Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board a rulemaking proposal to consider revising the heat illness standard for employees and the wildfire smoke standard for farm workers for mandatory respiratory protective equipment.

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Summary

Requires a covered school, and requests the University of California (UC), to ensure that facilities have heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems that meet minimum ventilation rate requirements and to install filtration that achieves levels of 13 or higher for minimum efficiency reporting values. The bill requires the California Building Standards Commission and the Division of the State Architect to propose for adoption mandatory standards for carbon dioxide monitors in classrooms of a covered school and UC.

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Summary

Authorizes the City of Needles to establish a pilot project to designate combined-use highways on roads in the city to link existing off-highway vehicle trails and to link off-highway vehicle recreational use areas with necessary service and lodging facilities.

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Summary

Would have exempted portable generators with engine power greater than or equal to 2 horsepower from an existing provision requiring CARB to adopt cost-effective and technologically feasible regulations to prohibit engine exhaust and evaporative emissions from new small off-road engines produced on or after a specified date. Was not heard in the Assembly Natural Resources Committee.

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Summary

Would have required CARB to assess the San Joaquin Valley Unified Air Pollution Control District’s air quality progress every three years, instead of every 2 years, and submit these assessments to the Legislature within 3 weeks of completion, instead of within 2 weeks. Was amended to deal with the developmental services system.

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Summary

Would have prohibited, among other things, a homeowner’s association from imposing a monetary penalty or seeking other enforcement action in relation to a member’s landscaping on a separate interest during a declared state of emergency or on days when air quality is unhealthy, as defined. Was amended to deal with the right to assemble and communicate by common interest development members and the leasing of property.

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Summary

Would have required an owner or operator of a natural gas plant to develop, install, operate, and maintain, in accordance with guidance developed by the appropriate local air district, a fence-line monitoring system to measure and record methane concentrations at or adjacent to a natural gas plant. The bill would have required the local air district and the owner or operator of a natural gas plant to collect real-time data from these fence-line monitoring systems, provide that data to the public, and maintain records of that data. The bill would have required an owner or operator of a natural gas plant to report methane concentrations readings that exceed background levels to the local air district and requires the local air district to report those readings to Members of the Legislature representing the district in which the natural gas plant is located. The bill would have required the owner or operator of a natural gas plant to be responsible for the costs associated with the fence-line monitoring system. Was not heard in the Assembly Natural Resources Committee.

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Summary

Would have required CARB, not later than January 1, 2025, to provide a report relating to indoor air quality to the Legislature, as specified. Moved to the Senate Inactive File.

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