CSAC staff would like your input on the following bills. Please email any feedback to Ncronenwett@counties.org.

AB 2551 (Wood): This would require CALFire to establish, implement, and administer the Forest and Wildland Health Improvement and Fire Prevention Program, which is intended to promote forest and wildland health, restoration, and resilience, and improve fire prevention and preparedness. The bill would require the department to take specified actions to improve forest and wildland health and resilience, including evaluating and proposing changes to statewide fire suppression goals and developing fire preparedness and suppression training programs. The bill would also require CALFire to collaborate with the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to utilize correctional officers and conservation crews for vegetation management and fire prevention activities. This program would be funded through the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund by an annual appropriation of no less than 18%.

SB 71 (Wiener): This bill would prohibit the collection or handling of solid waste (which may include recyclables) from residential, commercial or industrial premises except by the authorized recycler. This measure would allow local governmental agencies and solid waste enterprises to recover reasonable attorneys’ fees, expert witness fees, and costs incurred in the course of civil actions for the theft of recyclable materials against large scale illegal scavenging operations.

SB 1335 (Allen): This bill would prohibit a food service facility in a state agency or large state facility, on and after January 1, 2021, from dispensing prepared food to a customer using disposable food service packaging unless the type of disposable food service packaging is accepted for recovery by the recycling or composting program serving that state agency or large state facility and has been demonstrated Cal Recycle of being able to meet a recycling or composting rate of 75% or more. This demonstration would use data from local resource recovery and waste management programs. This bill would not preempt local jurisdictions from adopting and enforcing additional single-use take-out food policies.

SB 1440 (Hueso): This bill would require the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), in consultation with the California Air Resources Board (CARB), before July 1, 2019, to establish a biomethane procurement program that requires gas corporations of 100,000 or more core customers, until January 1, 2030, to annually procure their proportionate share of a total of 32 billion cubic feet of biomethane statewide, from sources that reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases and in furtherance of the statewide greenhouse gas emissions limit. The bill would also require the CPUC to approve, or modify and approve, a gas corporation’s application to recover in the rate base the cost of investments in infrastructure necessary to deliver biomethane from a biomethane producer to the pipeline system with full cost recovery from the gas corporation’s customers.

CSAC AENR has taken a position on the following bill:

SB 833 (McGuire) – Support If Amended: This bill was introduced January 4^th and would create a statewide Red Alert system in California for the purposes of coordinating emergency alerts in the face of disasters and other emergencies. This bill includes a number of different provisions that would overhaul the state’s current locally controlled alert system framework, and includes requirements related to the use and deployment of the Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) system, standardization of terms used in emergency communications, and standards, guidelines, and procedures for the Red Alert system. CSAC has a support if amended position on SB 833, and has concerns about language that directs local governments how to notify their populations in the event of a disaster. Staff is continuing to work with the author’s office to help shape this legislation and address current concerns.