Significant environmental legislation enacted into law included SB 63 (Strickland) abolishing the California Integrated Waste Management Board and transferring its duties and responsibilities, as well as the Bottle Bill recycling program, to the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery, created by the bill; SB 104 (Oropeza) adding nitrogen trifluoride to the list of greenhouse gases regulated by the Air Resources Board pursuant to the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 (AB 32 [Nunez], Chapter 488, Statutes of 2006); SB 124 (Oropeza) codifying the existing state regulation that limits school bus idling and idling near schools, and conforms the minimum penalty for a violation of this rule to the minimum penalty ($300) for a violation of the rule to limit the idling of commercial motor vehicles; SB 143 (Cedillo) extending the sunset date of the California Land and Reuse Revitalization Act of 2004 from January 1, 2010 to January 1, 2017; SB 167 (Ducheny) requiring the California Integrated Waste Management Board to include additional information relating to waste tires in the California-Mexico border region; SB 230 (Cogdill) adding to the list of exemptions to tire hauler requirements a person who transports tires that were illegally dumped, provided that a report of the dumping was filed with the police and that the tires are being taken to an authorized facility; SB 286 (Aanestad) authorizing the issuance of a scientific collector’s permit to a small business, aquarium, or other institution in the name of the principal scientific investigator; SB 428 (Kehoe) amending the 1931 Tidelands Trust by adding “marine mammal park for the enjoyment and educational benefit of children” to the list of allowable uses for the Children’s Pool; SB 448 (Pavley) enacting the California State Safe Harbor Agreement Program Act providing for safe harbor agreements for the incidental taking of species listed under the California Endangered Species Act; SB 481 (Cox) providing that a taking of birds by a federally certified airport in compliance with a federal depredation permit for public safety purposes does not violate state fish and game laws if certain conditions are met; SB 486 (Simitian) requiring a pharmaceutical manufacturer to report on its activities of the collection and disposal of home-generated medical sharps; SB 546 (Lowenthal) raising the fee paid by lubricating oil manufacturers from $0.16 to $0.24 per gallon, increasing the incentives paid for recycling used oil, increasing the testing requirements for used oil transporters, and requiring a life cycle analysis of used oil; SB 571 (Maldonado) authorizing the State Oil and Gas Supervisor to deny proposed geothermal well operations until an operator complies with an order, pays a civil penalty, or remedies a violation; SB 609 (Hollingsworth) allowing for the importation and sale of crocodile and alligator products in California, and extending the current sunset date for an additional five years; SB 614 (Simitian) revising the California Clean Coast Act, including the extension of sunset dates, from January 1, 2010 to January 1, 2014, of statutes relating to the prohibition of release of sewage, sewage sludge and oily bilgewater from large passenger vessels and oceangoing ships, as specified; SB 670 (Wiggins) imposing a temporary moratorium on the granting of new suction dredging permits until the ongoing environmental review is certified; SB 717 (Runner) making numerous changes to the Harbors and Navigation Code relating to Department of Boating and Waterway loans from the Harbors and Watercraft Revolving Fund, clarifying the penalties for misdemeanor and felony convictions of boating violations, and modifying the age requirement for use of personal flotation devices; SB 728 (Lowenthal) allowing cities, counties, and air districts to ensure compliance with the state’s parking cash-out law; SB 757 (Pavley) prohibiting a person from manufacturing, selling, or installing a wheel weight that contains more than 0.1% lead by weight and enacting specified civil and administrative penalties for violations of the prohibition; SB 827 (Wright) authorizing the South Coast Air Quality Management District, notwithstanding a superior court decision, to issue emission reduction credits to “essential public services” and exempt facilities or equipment, consistent with District rules, and sunsetting May 1, 2012; AB 94 (Evans) reauthorizing the awarding of tax credits under the Natural Heritage Preservation Tax Credit Act of 2000 through fiscal year 2014-15; AB 96 (Ruskin) providing $8 million for grants and loans to assist gas station operators in meeting the Enhanced Vapor Recovery regulations adopted by the Air Resources Board; AB 166 (Lieu) establishing a pilot program that authorizes the sale of surrendered recreational vessels prior to their potential or eventual abandonment; AB 248 (Lowenthal) requiring the person in charge of a vessel to maintain and submit to the State Lands Commission specified information relating to the vessel’s ballast water treatment system; AB 274 (Portantino) creating a fee-funded program for the future cleanup of closed solid waste facilities to go into effect provided that more than 50% of the operators of solid waste facilities opt to participate in the program; AB 305 (Nava) extending the statute of limitations for violations of Hazardous Material Release Response Plans and authorizing the imposition of a jail sentence for the violation of oil spill prevention reporting requirements; AB 463 (Tran) allowing the Department of the California Highway Patrol to issue a license to a transporter of hazardous materials after the licensee has failed an inspection, provided that the licensee has corrected the reason for the failure; AB 708 (Huffman) increasing penalties for serious poaching violations by establishing minimum fines and increasing maximum penalties for poaching committed for profit or personal gain, or for taking or possessing three times the legal bag limit or legal possession limit; AB 825 (Blakeslee) permitting the incidental take of rock crab with Dungeness crab traps, and vice versa, and repealing the prohibition on possession of both species aboard the same vessel at the same time; AB 881 (Huffman) creating the Sonoma County Regional Climate Protection Agency to assist local agencies in the county to meet greenhouse gas emission reduction goals; AB 892 (Furutani) allowing the reallocation of unspent Proposition 1B funds, authorized for reducing emissions from the transport or shipment of freight, to either be awarded by the local entity for another similar project or, if the local entity is unable to spend the funds, be reallocated by the Air Resources Board under its adopted guidelines; AB 1052 (Caballero) extending the sunset of the Bay-Delta Sport Fishing Enhancement Stamp until 2013, but providing that it is not necessary to purchase a stamp in 2010 and 2011, and making a variety of changes to the Department of Fish and Game’s procedures for spending funds derived from stamp fees; AB 1066 (Mendoza) allowing for an extension of a timber harvest plan by amendment for up to a maximum of four additional one-year extensions, if the plan expired in 2008 or 2009, if specified conditions are met; AB 1079 (V. Manuel Perez) establishing the New River Improvement Project; AB 1085 (Mendoza) requiring the Air Resources Board to make available to the public all technical data used in the development of a proposed regulation before the Board’s comment period for the proposed regulation; AB 1188 (Ruskin) increasing the fees paid by owners of underground petroleum storage tanks, and increasing, temporarily, the fee paid per gallon on motor vehicle fuel (petroleum storage fee) that the owner of an underground storage tank must pay from 1.4 mils to 2 mils per gallon through January 1, 2012, and providing cleanup language to AB 96 (Ruskin); AB 1217 (Monning) requiring the Ocean Protection Council to develop and implement a voluntary sustainable seafood promotion program; AB 1318 (V. Manuel Perez) enabling the construction of an ultra-clean burning gas power plant to complement the production of renewable energy at a 600 megawatt wind energy farm in Riverside County; AB 1366 (Feuer) authorizing local agencies that own and operate a community sewer system or water recycling facility to control salinity inputs from residential self-generating water softeners to protect the quality of the waters of the state, subject to certain conditions; AB 1423 (T. Berryhill) modifying commercial hunting club licensure requirements by adding several exemptions and adding a fee schedule, modifying and requiring implementation of the Share Habitat Alliance for Recreational Enhancement Program, and making it unlawful to interfere with a hunting dog field trial or hunting dog training; and AB 11XXXX (Evans) enacting various provisions necessary for the implementation of the 2009-10 Resources and Environmental Protection Budget.
Vetoed environmental legislation of note included SB 262 (Lowenthal) which would have required the California Coastal Commission to meet 10 times per year, instead of monthly, at a place convenient for the public; SB 372 (Kehoe) which would have prohibited a significant modification or adjustment in the boundaries or uses of a state park unit that is incompatible with state park units from the state park system, unless the State Park and Recreation Commission recommends the changes and the changes are approved by the Legislature; SB 402 (Wolk) which would have addressed the insolvency with the California Beverage Container Recycling and Litter Reduction Act (Bottle Bill) by expanding the California Beverage Container Recycling Program; SB 459 (Wolk) which would have permitted the State Lands Commission to remove and dispose of abandoned vessels without first having received court authorization; SB 505 (Kehoe) which would have expanded the required contents of safety elements that cover state responsibility area lands and very high fire hazard severity zones, as specified; SB 589 (Harman) which would have established an Upland Game Bird Account and a Big Game Management Account within the Fish and Game Preservation Fund which would provide oversight to ensure revenues generated through hunting license tag and stamp sales are spent for conservation of game species and their habitat; SB 679 (Wolk) which would have required the State Park and Recreation Commission to certify disposal of parkland for uses other than park uses as long as the parkland is substituted with specified land; AB 147 (Saldana) which would have required manufacturers and products of electronic devices to submit information about the hazardous characteristics of the device to the Department of Toxic Substances Control; AB 571 (Saldana) which would have created a new supplemental fee to be paid by commercial spiny lobster fishermen which was to improve the sustainability of the spiny lobster fishery; AB 804 (Hall) which would have removed an operator of water delivery and storage facilities from civil and criminal liability for the introduction of dreissenid mussels as a result of their operations, if that operator has prepared, initiated, and is in compliance with all elements of their approval plan; AB 1115 (Fuentes) which would have required the Department of Parks and Recreation to create a new competitive grant program among certain agencies for the state’s part of the federal Lands and Water Conservation Fund to replace the existing mandatory apportionment of the funds; AB 1173 (Huffman) which would have enacted the California Fluorescent Lamp Toxics Reduction and Recycling Act; AB 1404 (de Leon) which would have limited the use of “compliance offsets” to 10% of the greenhouse gas emission reductions expected from market mechanisms used to meet the greenhouse gas reduction goals of the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 (AB 32 [Nunez], Chapter 488, Statutes of 2006); and AB 1527 (Lieu) which would have permitted a motor vehicle emission reduction project to be jointly funded from multiple air quality programs.
In other related environmental events, California was allocated $31.1 million from the federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act for nine California Coastal Commission projects and $26.5 million in clean air grants which were awarded to southern California to be used to retrofit and replace diesel engines in construction vehicles, cargo handling equipment, school buses, heavy-duty trucks and locomotives in the Southern California Air Basin, which includes Los Angeles, Orange, San Bernardino, and Riverside counties.