April 2, 2020

March 12, 2020

CalRecycle recently announced that it will make clarifying changes to its proposed SB 1383 Organic Waste Diversion Regulations in response to a review by the Office of Administrative Law (OAL). CalRecycle will make these clarifying changes available for a 15 day public review and will also allow for modifications to the rulemaking package unrelated to the clarifying changes. CSAC will monitor CalRecycle for a start date of this 15 day comment period.

February 13, 2020

CSAC is requesting comments from counties on recently submitted investor owned utility (IOU) wildfire mitigation plans. These plans are available for public comment and can be found here. Links to the major IOU plans can be found below:

January 23, 2020

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has granted $20 million to the State of California for its Earthquake Brace + Bolt (EBB) program. The grant will subsidize the work of the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services (Cal OES) and the California Earthquake Authority (CEA) for earthquake retrofits on more than 6,300 at-risk structures likely to shake from their foundations in the event of an earthquake.

January 23, 2020

January 16, 2020

The Legislative Analyst’s Office recently released a reported titled Preparing for Rising Seas: How the State Can Help Support Local Coastal Adaptation Efforts. The report predicts that by 2100 California could experience as much as 7 feet of sea level rise and also suggests that local governments will be the key leader in preparation and mitigation of sea level rise.

January 9, 2020

The Legislature is back in session and has begun taking up two-year bills. Measures that didn’t clear their house of origin last year must do so by the end of the month. CSAC recently submitted a support letter on AB 1525 which is set to be heard in Assembly Business & Profession Committee on Tuesday January 14^th.

January 9, 2020

The Strategic Growth Council has opened a public comment period on its draft guidelines for the Sustainable Agricultural Lands Conservation Program (SALC). The SALC program invests in agricultural land conservation with revenue from the California Climate ​Investments (CCI) Fund​, made available for projects that reduce greenhouse gas emissions while providing additional benefits to California communities.  Comments are due by noon on January 27^th.

January 9, 2020

In accordance with the California Cannabis Equity Act as amended by AB 97 (Stats. 2019, Ch. 40), the California Bureau of Cannabis Control entered into an interagency agreement with GO-Biz for fiscal year 2019-2020 to administer the Cannabis Equity Grants Program for Local Jurisdictions to aid local equity program efforts to support equity applicants and equity licensees.  

December 19, 2019

CSAC has been actively tracking and advocating on the development of Investor Owned Utility (IOU) Public Safety Power Shutdown (PSPS) policy for the past year through multiple regulatory processes, and through advocacy in the Legislature and the state budget process.

November 14, 2019

The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) has opened an investigation to examine recent Public Safety Power Shut-off (PSPS) events and ensure utilities are held accountable for their actions during these events. The formal investigation will assess whether the state’s investor-owned electric utilities (IOUs) properly balanced the need to provide safe and reliable service when planning and executing their recent PSPS events. Initiating this investigation is one of several actions the CPUC is taking in response to recent PSPS events.

November 7, 2019

CSAC thanks all the counties that recently responded to our request for information regarding October Public Safety Power Shutdown (PSPS) events. CSAC will continue to accept any information from counties regarding PSPS costs, as the information you provide will help CSAC continue to advocate for resources to help mitigate future impacts of PSPS events. CSAC will gladly take information related to the following questions or any other information related to a county PSPS experience.

October 24, 2019

CSAC engaged with Cal OES this week to work with counties impacted by this week’s Public Safety Power Shutoff (PSPS) events. CSAC worked with state leaders to host a series of conference calls to facilitate dialogue and answer questions with the Investor Owned Utilities (IOUs), local governments and state leaders. The PSPS events began on Wednesday and are expected to last potentially through the weekend, in some areas due to high wind events, and red flag warnings.

October 18, 2019

Signed

SB 19 (Dodd) (Chapter 361, Statutes of 2019)

September 19, 2019

September 12, 2019

September 5, 2019

August 22, 2019

CSAC’s Senior Legislative Representative, Cara Martinson met with several legislators as part of a major lobbying day effort on SB 54 (Allen) / AB 1080 (Gonzalez). These two measures are companion bills that would require the adoption of regulations requiring covered entities to reduce the waste associated with single use packaging and products 75 percent by 2030.

August 1, 2019

The Bureau of Cannabis Control was appropriated $10 million in grant funds to award to cities and counties that have local equity programs focusing on inclusion and support of persons in the cannabis industry who were negatively or disproportionately impacted by cannabis prohibition.

July 18, 2019

CSAC submitted a public comment letter to Cal Recycle in response to recently proposed changes to its SB 1383 Organic Waste Diversion regulations. CSAC has been actively engaged in this regulatory process since the passage of SB 1383 (Lara) in 2016.

The recently released text did include several changes that will benefit counties, however CSAC has ongoing concerns regarding the implementation of the proposed regulations and the heavy cost burden that will ultimately be borne by local rate payers.