California Air Resources Board

Summary 

Requires State agencies and departments to consider the use of more inclusive practices to advance equity and defines “equity” as addressing the disparities in opportunities and outcomes of underserved populations and empowering and meeting the unique needs of diverse and underserved populations, to ensure that communities facing the greatest inequities are not left behind. Moved to the inactive file in on the Senate Floor.

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Summary 

Extends the validity of the Sacramento Area Council of Governments' (SACOG) Regional Transportation Plan and Sustainable Communities Strategy (SCS) for approximately two years, to December 31, 2025, for most purposes, except for projects without federal discretionary funding applying for the Solution for Congested Corridors Program and other specified State programs that require consistency with an SCS. Also requires SACOG to include an equity component in its SCS and by July 1, 2026, and biennially thereafter, to report on the regional implementation of its most recently adopted SCS in a publicly available format on its internet website, as specified.

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Summary 

Would have required State agencies administering competitive Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund grant programs that involve housing, urban forestry, urban greening, or planning to provide at least a three-month application period and would have required the California Department of Finance to report on additional elements in the California Climate Investments Annual Report, including information on applications that did not receive funding. This bill also would have allowed applicants from the counties of Imperial and San Diego to include daytime population numbers in grant applications. This bill was similar to AB 943 (E. Garcia, 2022), AB 2812 (E. Garcia, 2019), AB 1945 (E. Garcia, 2018). Held on suspense in the Assembly Appropriations Committee.

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Summary 

Additionally authorizes investments in traffic signal synchronization as a component of a roadway improvement project requiring multiple signals, including, but not limited to, multimodal redevelopment projects, rail trail projects, urban renewal projects, or projects near transit facilities as eligible projects for the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund. This bill also requires projects to continue to be designed and implemented to achieve cost-effective reductions in greenhouse gas emissions and includes specific emissions reduction targets and metrics to evaluate the project’s effect. Was not heard in the Assembly Transportation Committee. 

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Summary 

Would have authorized the California Coastal Commission to require an applicant with a project that impacts coastal wetland, subtidal, intertidal, or marine habitats or ecosystems to build or contribute to a blue carbon demonstration project, as defined, and would have required the California Coastal Commission to consult with CARB and other specified entities in developing a blue carbon demonstration project program. Each blue carbon demonstration project would have to be designed, monitored, and have sufficient data collected to demonstrate the carbon uptake and sequestration achieved and results would have to be presented to the California Coastal Commission in a public hearing. This bill was similar to AB 2593 (Boerner, 2022). Held on suspense in the Senate Appropriations Committee.

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Summary

Requires the California Transportation Plan to include a financial element, an analysis of how it will achieve certain principles, and funding benefits to disadvantaged communities, as specified, and requires the California Transportation Agency, California Department of Transportation, and California Transportation Commission to incorporate the specified goals related to the Climate Action Plan for Transportation Infrastructure into program funding guidelines and planning processes. Ordered to the inactive file in the Senate Appropriations Committee.

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Summary

Requires CARB, between January 1, 2024, and September 30, 2026, to establish additional greenhouse gas targets for 2035 and 2045 and updates the Sustainable Communities Strategy review process for CARB and metropolitan planning organizations. This bill also requires each project nomination for the Solutions for Congested Corridors Program to demonstrate how the project would contribute to achieving the state’s greenhouse gas emission reduction targets. Was not heard in the Senate Transportation Committee.

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Summary

Provides that any executed contract for the purchase of goods or services by a State or local agency, including the price and terms of payment, is a public record subject to disclosure under the California Public Records Act. The bill provides that any provision in a written agreement that purports to exclude a contract, as specified above, from disclosure by agreeing to consider it a confidential or proprietary record of the vendor is void and unenforceable as a matter of law.

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Summary

This bill revises, and repeals on January 1, 2026, certain teleconference requirements under the Bagley-Keene Open Meeting Act (Bagley-Keene), which requires all meetings of a State body be open and public. The bill, among other things, authorizes a State body to hold an open meeting by teleconference, provided that a majority of the members of the State body are physically present at the same teleconference location. The bill allows additional members of the State body in excess of a majority of the members to attend and participate in the meeting from a remote location, which is not required to be accessible to the public and disclosed in the notice and agenda.

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Summary

Requires a State agency to post on its website any report required or requested by law, or identified in the Legislative Analyst Office’s Supplemental Report of the Budget Act, that the State agency submits to a committee of the Legislature or to the Members of either house of the Legislature. The bill requires Legislative Counsel to make publicly available a link to the list of State and local agency reports submitted by State and local agencies to a committee of the Legislature or to the Members of either house of the Legislature generally.

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