Bill Text: CA AB1071 | 2015-2016 | Regular Session | Amended

NOTE: There are more recent revisions of this legislation. Read Latest Draft

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Bill Title: Supplemental environmental projects.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 2-0)

Status: (Passed) 2015-10-08 - Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 585, Statutes of 2015. [AB1071 Detail]

Download: California-2015-AB1071-Amended.html

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BILL NUMBER: AB 1071	AMENDED
	BILL TEXT

	AMENDED IN SENATE  AUGUST 18, 2015
	AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY  MAY 7, 2015

INTRODUCED BY   Assembly Members Atkins and Eduardo Garcia

                        FEBRUARY 26, 2015

   An act to add Section 71118 to the Public Resources Code, relating
to environmental justice.


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   AB 1071, as amended, Atkins. Supplemental environmental projects.
   Existing law requires the Secretary for Environmental Protection
to convene a Working Group on Environmental Justice to assist the
secretary in developing an agencywide strategy for identifying and
addressing gaps in existing programs, policies, or activities of the
 agency's   California Environmental Protection
Agency's  boards, departments, and offices that may impede the
achievement of environmental justice.
   This bill would require each board, department, and office within
the  California Environmental Protection Agency 
 agency  to establish a specified policy on supplemental
environmental projects, as defined, that benefits 
environmental justice   disadvantaged  communities,
as defined.
   Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: no.


THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

   SECTION 1.    (a)     The
Legislature finds and declares all of the following:  
   (1) Many communities across California are located in areas
disproportionately impacted from multiple sources of pollution,
including air and water pollution, leading to higher rates of
respiratory illness, hospitalizations, and premature death. 

   (2) These environmentally impacted communities, also known as
environmental justice communities, need resources to appropriately
address environmental health impacts and to implement community-led
solutions.  
   (3) One way that environmental justice communities can see direct
environmental and public health benefits in their neighborhoods is
through the implementation of supplemental environmental projects,
which allow entities in violation of environmental laws to
voluntarily undertake environmental projects as part of a settlement
of an enforcement action.  
   (4) Currently, not all boards, departments, and offices within the
California Environmental Protection Agency have policies on
supplemental environmental projects, and those with policies largely
lack a focus on how to best help environmental justice communities.
 
   (b) Therefore, it is the intent of the Legislature that all
boards, departments, and offices develop a policy on supplemental
environmental projects that includes a focus on benefiting
environmental justice communities and engaging community-based
organizations through an accessible and open public process. 
   SECTION 1.   SEC. 2.   Section 71118 is
added to the Public Resources Code, to read:
   71118.  (a) For purposes of this section, the following terms have
the following meanings:
   (1) "Agency" means the California Environmental Protection Agency.

   (2)  "Environmental justice   "Disadvantaged
 community" means a community identified pursuant to Section
39711 of the Health and Safety Code.
   (3) "Supplemental environmental project" means an environmentally
beneficial project that a person subject to an enforcement action
voluntarily agrees to undertake in settlement of the action and to
offset  some   a portion  of a civil
penalty.
   (b) Each board, department, and office within the agency shall
establish a policy on supplemental environmental projects that
benefits  environmental justice   disadvantaged
 communities. The policy shall include, but need not be limited
to, all of the following:
   (1) A public process to solicit potential supplemental
environmental projects from  environmental justice 
 disadvantaged  communities.
   (2) Allowing the amount of a supplemental environmental project to
be up to 50 percent of the enforcement action brought under the
jurisdiction of a board, department, or office within the agency.
   (3) An annual list of supplemental environmental projects that may
be selected to settle a portion of an enforcement action under the
jurisdiction of a board, department, or office within the agency.

   (4) A consideration of the relationship between the location of
the violation and the location of the proposed supplemental
environmental project. 
   (c) The Secretary for Environmental Protection shall consolidate
the projects compiled pursuant  to  subdivision (b) into one
list and post that list on the agency's Internet Web site.