Bill Text: CA AB1365 | 2021-2022 | Regular Session | Introduced

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

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Bill Title: Public contracts: clean concrete.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)

Status: (Failed) 2022-02-01 - From committee: Filed with the Chief Clerk pursuant to Joint Rule 56. [AB1365 Detail]

Download: California-2021-AB1365-Introduced.html

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CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2021–2022 REGULAR SESSION

Assembly Bill

No. 1365

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Introduced by Assembly Member Bonta

February 19, 2021

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An act relating to public contracts.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST

AB 1365, as introduced, Bonta. Public contracts: clean concrete.

Existing law, the Buy Clean California Act, requires, among other things, the Department of General Services to establish and publish in the State Contracting Manual or a department management memorandum, or make available on the department’s internet website, a maximum acceptable global warming potential for each category of eligible materials, as defined, in accordance with certain requirements.

This bill would state the intent of the Legislature to enact future legislation to incorporate concrete into the state’s buy clean framework and take other specified actions.

Digest Key

Vote: MAJORITY   Appropriation: NO   Fiscal Committee: NO   Local Program: NO  

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Bill Text

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:

SECTION 1.

 (a) The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:

(1) Climate change is an urgent threat to the health and well-being of California's residents and economy.

(2) California is a leader on climate change action and has put in place numerous leading policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the power sector, vehicles and fuels, buildings, and other sectors. In many cases, these policies have helped to catalyze transformative market conditions on a global scale.

(3) One of those leading policies, the Buy Clean California Act, can serve as a similarly transformative policy for materials used in our built environment, including through public procurement.

(4) Concrete is the most widely used building material in the world and responsible for over 7 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, primarily from its cement content.

(5) Concrete is not currently included in California’s buy clean framework, but offers promising potential as a low carbon, and potentially even negative-carbon, building material.

(6) California state agencies are the largest consumers of concrete in the state, and operate under multiple executive orders and statutory frameworks directing them to reduce carbon emissions associated with state facilities and operations.

(b) Thus, it is the intent of the Legislature to enact future legislation to incorporate concrete into the state’s buy clean framework and to do all of the following:

(1) Develop additional policies that standardize, strengthen and simplify emissions accounting through environmental product declarations.

(2) Incorporate performance-based outcomes into product specifications.

(3) Support continual innovation in the sector and emissions reductions through procurement and incentives.

(4) Direct state agencies to evaluate other actions that support the production and use of low-carbon concrete.