California Air Resources Board

Would have allowed CARB to adopt and enforce rules for indirect sources of emissions. Within 120 days of statewide indirect source rule (ISR) adoption, air districts would have had to decide if the district or CARB would implement and enforce the regulations within the air district. If the air district decided to implement and enforce a statewide ISR, it would have been required to propose regulations enacting those measures no later than six months after CARB's ISR adoption. The air district could have, at any time, adopted and enforced stricter ISRs than the regulations adopted by CARB. The bill would have allowed CARB to make a schedule of fees on facilities and mobile sources to cover the reasonable costs of implementing and enforcing the regulations. These fees would have been deposited in the Air Pollution Control Fund and made available to CARB upon appropriation by the Legislature. The bill would have also required CARB to make a yearly presentation on the effects of any ISRs that it adopted. Moved to the Assembly Inactive File.

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Would have required the Wildfire and Forest Resilience Task Force (Task Force), on or before July 1, 2028, and in cooperation with the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, California Department of Public Health, and CARB, to assess the health costs and impacts of high-severity wildfire smoke using existing wildfire smoke and health data. The bill would have also required the Task Force to develop a model to estimate the health benefits of achieving the goals identified in the California Wildfire and Forest Resilience Action Plan and recommend how the Action Plan can increase its health benefits. Held on suspense in the Assembly Appropriations Committee.

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Would have created the Refrigerant Stewardship and Recovery Act, which would have required producers of covered products, as defined, to form and join a producer responsibility organization (PRO). The PRO would have been required to submit a plan to CalRecycle for the handling of disposal of covered products. Was amended to be about recycling major appliances.

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Would have required the director of CalRecycle to establish a working group to study alternative methods of methane reduction. The working group would have been required to submit its findings and recommendations to the director by January 1, 2029. Held on suspense in the Assembly Appropriations Committee.

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Would have required the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) to convene an interagency task force to evaluate the role of alternative manure management practices in achieving certain goals, make specified findings and recommendations, and coordinate specified scenario modeling of alternative manure management practices. The bill would have authorized CARB to incorporate the task force's findings and recommendations into its Short-Lived Climate Pollutants (SLCP) Reduction Strategy, the 2027 Scoping Plan, and other planning documents as appropriate. The bill also would have required CDFA to convene relevant government agencies to create a process for approving new projects that manage livestock and dairy manure. Held on suspense in the Assembly Appropriations Committee.

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Requires CARB to amend its regulations on methane emissions from a municipal solid waste (MSW) landfill to establish requirements for the monitoring of landfill gas temperature and requires the operator of an MSW landfill to monitor landfill gas temperature in accordance with CARB regulations. The bill also requires the California Department of Recycling and Resource Recovery (CalRecycle), on or before July 1, 2027, to establish minimum guidelines and coordinate with CARB to ensure consistency with CARB's methane regulation, and consider existing federal, State, and local guidance and stakeholder expertise to identify and manage subsurface elevated temperature events and minimum standards for a corrective action plan. The bill also requires tiered action if the gas temperature reaches 131 F, 146 F, or 170 F for a specified time frame. If an operator of an MSW landfill fails to provide notice of a sustained gas temperature within the specified timeframe, the bill authorizes CalRecycle or a local enforcement agency to impose a penalty of $10,000 per day and other penalties, as specified. The bill requires all penalties to be deposited into the Landfill Subsurface Fire Mitigation Account, which the bill creates, to be used upon appropriation by the Legislature to mitigate harm to a person or community adversely affected by a solid waste landfill, as specified. This bill makes an operator of an MSW landfill liable to CalRecycle and the local enforcement agency for their costs, as specified. Moved to the Senate Inactive File.

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Would have formally expanded the California Department of Recycling and Resource Recovery’s (CalRecycle’s) California Climate Investments Food Waste Prevention grant program to provide financial assistance for the recovery of edible food, as specified. The bill also would have specified that eligible infrastructure projects included the construction or expansion of facilities to help develop, implement, or expand edible food waste recovery operation and required CalRecycle to consider the increased amount of edible food recovery capacity that the project will create when awarding a grant for edible food recovery. Held on suspense in the Assembly Appropriations Committee.

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Exempts an agricultural crop preparation service (ACPS) from the Department of Recycling and Resource Recovery’s (CalRecycle) regulations for the Edible Food Rescue Program for Commercial Edible Food Generators (CCR Tit.14, Div. 7, Chap. 12, Art. 10) promulgated under the Short-Lived Climate Pollutant Strategy if the ACPS demonstrates to CalRecycle, in a form and manner developed by CalRecycle, that it has not disposed of organic waste in a landfill on or after January 1, 2016.

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Adds a definition for "certified reclaimed refrigerant" in California statute to clarify the previous reference to the United States Environmental Protection Agency definition of “reclaim” in Section 84.3 of Title 40 of the Code of Federal Regulations. Under the new definition, “certified reclaimed refrigerant” means recovered refrigerant that meets four specific criteria based on CARB's Hydrofluorocarbons (HFC) regulation, which includes that it is reclaimed, has been analyzed to meet specifications, and is documented by a certified reclaimer to contain no more that 15% new refrigerant. The bill also delays the prohibition on new HFCs used exclusively for very low temperature refrigeration or cooling until 2028, as specified.

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Allows a local jurisdiction to count organic material used as a beneficial agricultural amendment towards its recovered organic waste procurement target under SB 1383 (Lara, Chapter 395, Statutes of 2016) if the material is processed at a facility authorized by the Department of Recycling and Resource Recovery using approved technologies and if the beneficial agricultural amendment is licensed for end use as an agricultural fertilizer by the Department of Food and Agriculture. Was not heard in the Assembly Natural Resources Committee.

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