The California State Association of Counties (CSAC), the Rural
County Representatives of California (RCRC), and the League
of California Cities (Cal Cities) hosted the Local
Government Renewable Energy Permitting Process webinar
on Wednesday, August 30th. The webinar provided
local government officials, planners, and energy generation and
storage developers with valuable insights into the permitting
processes for renewable energy projects, including battery
storage.
On Friday, September 1, CSAC visited Merced and Stanislaus
Counties for a tour hosted by Supervisors Daron McDaniels, Scott
Silveira, and Vito Chiesa to learn about regional projects making
an impact in their community. The tour was attended by CSAC
leadership and staff as well as Agriculture, Environment,
and Natural Resources Chair Chris Howard and Vice Chair Heidi
Hall, CSAC First Vice President Bruce Gibson and CSAC Second Vice
President Jeff Griffiths.
California’s recycling landscape is about to undergo another
seismic shift. Local governments played a key role in ushering in
this change, but there’s still plenty of work left.
The California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services (CalOES)
is currently conducting a public review and comment period of the
2023 California State Emergency Plan (SEP) Coordinating Draft.
The 2023 SEP Coordinating Draft is a strategic level document
that describes California’s overall emergency management system.
The plan is written to support emergency managers and responders
at all levels of government and is updated on a five-year cycle.
During this cycle, significant updates to the 2023 SEP include:
The California State Association of Counties (CSAC), the Rural
County Representatives of California (RCRC), and the League
of California Cities (Cal Cities) are pleased to announce
a FREE upcoming webinar on renewable energy permitting.
CSAC, in collaboration with RCRC, has been meeting with PG&E
on a regular basis to receive updates on their strategies to
mitigate service disruptions to customers. These meetings bring
together key PG&E staff to hear what counties are
experiencing locally, and discuss plans to address issues.
The California Energy Commission recently released a report on
the different permitting options for offshore wind energy
facilities off the California coast currently being considered as
part of the state’s offshore wind strategic plan.
Of California’s 58 counties, 19 border the Pacific Ocean.
Depending on the location of proposed offshore wind development
areas, several counties could be involved in permitting some
portion of an offshore wind development project.
The Agriculture, Environment, and Natural Resources (AENR) Policy
Committee oversees a wide range of issues including energy
policy. CSAC continues to support efforts to ensure that
California has an adequate supply of safe and reliable energy
through a combination of conservation, renewables, new generation
and new transmission efforts. CSAC also supports funding
mechanisms, including grants, loans and incentives to help
implement programs.
Supervisors and county staff throughout the state convened in
Sacramento County for the 2023 CSAC Legislative Conference to
engage, empower and
elevate our collective county voice.
CSAC’s five policy committees – AOJ, AENR, GFA, HHS and HLT
– held important discussions to help steer the Association’s
policy and direction. Below is a recap from each policy
committees’ meeting.
The Agriculture, Environment, and Natural Resources (AENR) Policy
Committee oversees proposals relating to the environment and
California’s natural resources which includes legislation
impacting counties and their management of solid waste. The CSAC
platform supports policies and legislation that aim to promote
improved markets for recyclable materials and allows local
governments to continue to have the ability to direct the flow of
waste.
The first of a two-year legislative session is underway with the
highest number of bills introduced in over a decade. As expected
of the first year, many bills are currently ‘Spot Bills’, a term
used for placeholder bills that contain non-substantive language
and will later be amended with language fully crafted. We will
keep you updated as the spot bills, and others, are amended in
ways that impact counties.
Counties seeking to convert organic waste streams (e.g., food
waste, sludge, manure, fats, oils, & greases etc.) into energy
can receive technical assistance from the U.S Department of
Energy’s Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO) and the National
Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). The NREL provides U.S. local
governments with technical assistance to advance waste-to-energy
(WTE) technologies. Communities in the strategic planning phase
when it comes to these waste streams are also eligible and
encouraged to apply.
The Department of Cannabis Control (DCC) has released guidelines
for the newly established Local Retail Grant
Program. Counties that currently do not have a cannabis
retail licensing program, and have plans to develop one, are
eligible to receive grant funding.
Four different grant opportunities have been recently made
available to local community organizations to help prepare for
disasters though the California Office of Emergency Services
(CalOES). The grants are targeted for socially vulnerable
communities that are at high risk of being impacted by a fire,
flood, earthquake, drought or extreme heat.
On Tuesday, January 31, Governor Newsom signed a
proclamation terminating 26 open states of emergency dating
back to 2017. These include various fires, prior storms and other
incidents including the mpox (formerly referred to as monkeypox)
emergency proclaimed in August of last year, coinciding with the
termination of the federal public health emergency
on mpox.
The California Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery
(CalRecycle) offers funding opportunities authorized by
legislation to assist public and private entities in the
management of waste.
The following grant opportunities are currently open and will be
closing in February:
At the request of CSAC and other partner organizations, the
Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE) and the
Office of the State Fire Marshal have granted an extension on the
public comment period for the draft Fire Hazard Severity Zones
(FHSZ) map for the State Responsibility Areas.
CivicWell, formerly known as the Local Government Commission,
will host a webinar on the process of setting up a Climate
Resilience District (CRD). The webinar will focus on
recently-passed legislation,
SB 852 (Chapter 266, 2022), which allowed cities and counties
to create climate resilience districts and provided these new
districts with various financing powers.
CSAC continues to monitor and engage on the continued parade of
storms and atmospheric rivers affecting all 58 counties that
started before the start of the new year. Major impacts are
affecting counties—from coastal and river flooding to roadway
damage, levee failures and school closures. Widespread
precipitation is still expected through the rest of this week and
into next week. Statewide rain and heavy mountain snow are also
expected.
The California Cannabis
Authority (CCA), the CSAC Finance Corporation- sponsored
Joint Power’s Authority, is sponsoring a free webinar for local
governments on Thursday, February 2, 2023 from
10:00- 11:00 am.
California is experiencing a large winter storm with flash
flood risks, heavy snow for the Sierra and other mountain ranges,
and high wind warnings/advisories remain in effect for much of
the state.
CSAC recently reported on the final outcomes of measures that
were approved by the Legislature and delivered to Governor Newsom
for action. To keep counties informed of new laws of interest and
impact, CSAC will publish a series of articles to spotlight those
laws in each policy area. This week, the Agriculture,
Environment, and Natural Resources (AENR) policy area provides
information on new laws impacting local flood protection plans,
organic waste, cannabis, and wildfire.
California’s legislative session came to a close in the early
morning hours this week with hundreds of bills now awaiting
action by Governor Gavin Newsom. The following provides an update
on major bills of interest for the Agriculture, Environment
and Natural Resources (AENR) policy area. CSAC staff will
continue to monitor and advocate for County
priorities during the signing period, which ends September
30, 2022.
The California Water Boards and the California Stormwater Quality
Association (CASQA) will be co-hosting a three-day statewide
summit on bacteria from September 14-16, 2022, in Sacramento and
virtually.
Register today for either in person or remote participation.
CSAC is seeking feedback on Senate Bill 12
(McGuire) which makes a number of changes to local emergency
planning and infrastructure related to disasters, especially
wildfire. The bill was amended yesterday to require a water
district, city, county, city and county, or water corporation
that provides drinking water, wastewater, or recycled water, for
water infrastructure projects to use only heat-resilient water
conveyance infrastructure components in very high fire hazard
severity zones.
The State Water Resources Control Board voted unanimously today
to implement a statewide ban on the watering of non-functional
turf in the commercial, industrial, and institutional sectors, as
well as regulations requiring local agencies to implement water
use restrictions.
These new regulations come amid the possibility that water
supplies may be up to 20% lower than average due to extreme
weather. The orders do not affect recreation areas.
As someone who has worked in the water policy world for over two
decades, I’m often asked where I get my information. The truth of
the matter is that it’s sometimes hard to figure out what to
follow regularly, and what to follow occasionally. With that
said, here are my top go-to sources for water information.
Democrats in the California released their
budget priorities, which includes the CSAC supported request
for Dam Safety funding. The water and drought provisions within
the package proposes $7.5 billion in state and federal funds to
build a climate resilient water system including:
The Forest Service just
announced that it will be distributing $238 million to
counties under the Secure Rural Schools program, with
California’s counties set to receive nearly $30 million from that
pot (up from almost $25 million last year). The program was
reauthorized for two years as part of the bipartisan
infrastructure law.
The AENR Committee was pleased to have Senator Bill Dodd kick off
our AENR Committee meeting. Senator Dodd has been active in the
wildfire, insurance and regional planning areas for the past
several years. The Senator focused his presentation on his work
to establish voluntary regional funding mechanisms to support
climate adaptation work and dedicating a funding stream to
provide insurance for prescribed and cultural fire preservation.=
Last week, Governor Newsom issued
Executive Order N-7-22 to address California’s worsening
drought conditions. The Order includes new well permitting
requirements for local agencies, and the Department of Water
Resources (DWR) has released a
new fact sheet to assist in implementation.
CSAC is seeking feedback from counties on two bills in the
agriculture, environment, and natural resources portfolio. Please
send your feedback to Catherine Freeman (cfreeman@counties.org) and Ada
Waelder (awaelder@counties.org) by
April 8, 2022.
On March 28, 2022, the Governor issued
Executive Order N-7-22 which directs new state and local
efforts related to the ongoing drought. The Governor has called
on local water suppliers to move to Level 2 of their Water
Shortage Contingency Plans, which require locally-appropriate
actions that will conserve water across all sectors. In most
cases, Level 2 requires 10-20 percent conservation within a
district though local discretion is allowed.
