BILL NUMBER: SB 535 ENROLLED
BILL TEXT
PASSED THE SENATE AUGUST 31, 2012
PASSED THE ASSEMBLY AUGUST 31, 2012
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY AUGUST 31, 2012
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY AUGUST 24, 2012
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY AUGUST 20, 2012
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY JULY 5, 2011
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY JUNE 21, 2011
AMENDED IN SENATE MAY 31, 2011
AMENDED IN SENATE MARCH 24, 2011
INTRODUCED BY Senator De León
(Principal coauthor: Assembly Member John A. Pérez)
(Coauthor: Senator Pavley)
(Coauthors: Assembly Members Davis and Lara)
FEBRUARY 17, 2011
An act to add Sections 39711, 39713, 39715, 39721, and 39723 to
the Health and Safety Code, relating to climate change.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
SB 535, De León. California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006:
Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund.
The California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 requires the
State Air Resources Board to adopt regulations to require the
reporting and verification of emissions of greenhouse gases and to
monitor and enforce compliance with the reporting and verification
program, and requires the state board to adopt a statewide greenhouse
gas emissions limit equivalent to the statewide greenhouse gas
emissions level in 1990 to be achieved by 2020. The act requires the
state board to adopt rules and regulations in an open public process
to achieve the maximum technologically feasible and cost-effective
greenhouse gas emission reductions. The act authorizes the state
board to include use of market-based compliance mechanisms. Existing
law requires all moneys, except for fines and penalties, collected by
the state board from the auction or sale of allowances as part of a
market-based compliance mechanism to be deposited in the Greenhouse
Gas Reduction Fund and to be available upon appropriation by the
Legislature.
This bill would require the California Environmental Protection
Agency to identify disadvantaged communities for investment
opportunities, as specified. The bill would require the Department of
Finance, when developing a specified 3-year investment plan, to
allocate 25% of the available moneys in the Greenhouse Gas Reduction
Fund to projects that provide benefits to disadvantaged communities,
as specified, and to allocate a minimum of 10% of the available
moneys in the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund to projects located
within disadvantaged communities, as specified. The bill would
require the Department of Finance, when developing funding
guidelines, to include guidelines for how administering agencies
should maximize benefits for disadvantaged communities. The bill
would require administering agencies to report to the Department of
Finance, and the Department of Finance to include in a specified
report to the Legislature, a description of how administering
agencies have fulfilled specified requirements relating to projects
providing benefits to, or located in, disadvantaged communities.
This bill would make its provisions contingent on the enactment of
other legislation, as specified.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. The Legislature finds and declares all of the
following:
(a) California embraced the challenge posed by climate change with
the passage of the California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006,
enacted as Chapter 488 of the Statutes of 2006 (Assembly Bill 32).
Assembly Bill 32 recognizes the disproportionate impacts climate
change will have on disadvantaged and low-income communities in
California, which already face disproportionate impacts from
substandard air quality in the form of higher rates of respiratory
illness, hospitalizations, and premature death.
(b) Assembly Bill 32 recognizes the potential vulnerability of
California's low-income and disadvantaged population to efforts to
reduce greenhouse gas emissions and requires that activities taken to
comply with Assembly Bill 32 do not disproportionately impact those
communities.
(c) Assembly Bill 32 recognizes the public health impacts of
climate change and requires that activities taken to comply with
Assembly Bill 32 consider the localized and cumulative impacts in
communities that are already adversely impacted by air pollution.
(d) Assembly Bill 32 requires that public and private investment
be directed toward the most disadvantaged communities in California
to provide an opportunity for small businesses, schools, affordable
housing associations, and other community institutions to participate
in and benefit from statewide efforts to reduce greenhouse gas
emissions.
(e) Assembly Bill 32 neither provides a definition, however, for
California's most impacted and disadvantaged communities, nor
direction on how the state will mitigate adverse impacts from climate
change in these communities, nor direction on how the state will
ensure these communities can participate in and receive investments
from activities taken pursuant to Assembly Bill 32 and not experience
disproportionate impacts.
(f) Since the passage of Assembly Bill 32, the State Air Resources
Board and other state agencies have adopted various regulatory
programs to enable California to achieve Assembly Bill 32's
greenhouse gas emissions reduction target. The people of California
voiced their strong support for continued implementation of Assembly
Bill 32 with the defeat of Proposition 23 in November 2010.
(g) It is the intent of the Legislature that this act continue
California's implementation of Assembly Bill 32 by directing
resources to the state's most impacted and disadvantaged communities
to ensure activities taken pursuant to that authority will provide
economic and health benefits to these communities as originally
intended.
(h) It is the intent of the Legislature that funds deposited
pursuant to this act continue California's implementation of Assembly
Bill 32 by achieving additional emission reductions and mitigating
direct health impacts on California's most impacted and disadvantaged
communities.
SEC. 2. Section 39711 is added to the Health and Safety Code, to
read:
39711. The California Environmental Protection Agency shall
identify disadvantaged communities for investment opportunities
related to this chapter. These communities shall be identified based
on geographic, socioeconomic, public health, and environmental hazard
criteria, and may include, but are not limited to, either of the
following:
(a) Areas disproportionately affected by environmental pollution
and other hazards that can lead to negative public health effects,
exposure, or environmental degradation.
(b) Areas with concentrations of people that are of low income,
high unemployment, low levels of homeownership, high rent burden,
sensitive populations, or low levels of educational attainment.
SEC. 3. Section 39713 is added to the Health and Safety Code, to
read:
39713. (a) The investment plan developed and submitted to the
Legislature, pursuant to Section 39716, shall allocate a minimum of
25 percent of the available moneys in the fund to projects that
provide benefits to communities described in Section 39711.
(b) The investment plan shall allocate a minimum of 10 percent of
the available moneys in the fund to projects located within
communities described in Section 39711.
(c) The allocation pursuant to subdivision (b) may be, but need
not be, for projects included, in whole or in part, in the set of
projects supported by the allocation described in subdivision (a).
SEC. 4. Section 39715 is added to the Health and Safety Code, to
read:
39715. Any funding guidelines developed for administering
agencies, pursuant to Section 39714, shall include guidelines for how
administering agencies should maximize benefits for disadvantaged
communities, as described in Section 39711.
SEC. 5. Section 39721 is added to the Health and Safety Code, to
read:
39721. For the report prepared pursuant to Section 39720,
administering agencies shall report to the Department of Finance, and
the Department of Finance shall include in the report, a description
of how the administering agencies have fulfilled the requirements of
Section 39713.
SEC. 6. Section 39723 is added to the Health and Safety Code, to
read:
39723. Nothing in this chapter shall be construed as resulting in
any taxpayer paying a higher tax within the meaning of Section 3 of
Article XIII A of the California Constitution.
SEC. 7. This act shall not become operative unless Assembly Bill
1532 of the 2011-12 Regular Session is enacted.