BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 1330
Page 1
ASSEMBLY THIRD READING
AB 1330 (John A. Pérez)
As Amended April 9, 2013
Majority vote
NATURAL RESOURCES 8-0 APPROPRIATIONS 16-1
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|Ayes:|Chesbro, Bigelow, Garcia, |Ayes:|Gatto, Harkey, Bigelow, |
| |Muratsuchi, Patterson, | |Bocanegra, Bradford, Ian |
| |Skinner, Stone, Williams | |Calderon, Campos, Eggman, |
| | | |Gomez, Hall, Ammiano, |
| | | |Linder, Pan, Quirk, |
| | | |Wagner, Weber |
| | | | |
|-----+--------------------------+-----+--------------------------|
| | |Nays:|Donnelly |
| | | | |
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SUMMARY : Requires the California Protection Agency (CalEPA) to
update its environmental justice strategy and report related
information to the Governor and the Legislature. Specifically,
this bill :
1)States numerous findings and declarations relating to the
current statutory requirements for environmental justice and
the administration's implementation of those requirements.
2)Specifies that, under the Government Code requirements
relating to open meetings, when a non-English speaker uses a
translator in a public meeting, the time used by the
translator to translate the speaker's comments does not count
toward the speaker's allotted speaking time.
3)Requires CalEPA, with the assistance of the Environmental
Justice Working Group, to periodically revise and update the
agency-wide strategy developed in 2004 to address any
additional gaps in existing programs, policies, or activities
that impede the achievement of environmental justice. On or
before July 1, 2014, requires the Secretary of CalEPA to
submit a report to the Governor and the Legislature on the
implementation of this provision.
4)Requires each board, department, or office within CalEPA to
AB 1330
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maintain a public database on its Web site of its ongoing
enforcement cases, to the extent that the information on the
database would normally be available through a public records
act request, and compliance histories of its regulated
entities that have committed violations focused on information
related to how the entities rectified the violation.
FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Assembly Appropriations
Committee, this bill has:
1)Administrative costs to CalEPA of approximately $200,000 to
update its agency-wide strategy.
2)Additional unknown costs, potentially in excess of $100,000
for public outreach to identify and address gaps in existing
CalEPA programs and activities.
COMMENTS : According to the Office of Environmental Health
Hazard Assessment (OEHHA), approximately 8 million Californians
(21%) live in zip codes that are considered "highly impacted" by
environmental, public health, and socioeconomic stressors.
Nearly half of all Californians live within six miles of a
facility that is a significant greenhouse gas emitter (46%), but
they are disproportionately people of color (62%). Throughout
California, people of color face a 50% higher risk of cancer
from ambient concentrations of air pollutants listed under the
Clean Air Act. These impacts are felt by all Californians. The
California Air Resources Board (ARB) estimates that air
pollution exposure accounts for 19,000 premature deaths, 280,000
cases of asthma, and 1.9 million lost work days every year.
In 2000, legislation (SB 89 (Escutia), Chapter 728, Statutes of
2000) required CalEPA to convene the Environmental Justice
Working Group and develop an agency-wide environmental justice
strategy. In 2001, follow up legislation (SB 828 (Alarcón),
Chapter 765, Statutes of 2001) established a timeline for these
requirements and required CalEPA to update its report to the
Legislature every three years. In October of 2004, CalEPA
released its Environmental Justice Action Plan; however, the
agency has never completed the required updates.
In 2012, SB 535 (De Leon), Chapter 830, Statutes of 2012
required CalEPA to identify disadvantaged communities for
investment opportunities using the Greenhouse Gas Reduction
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Fund. Pursuant to this requirement, OEHHA has developed the
California Communities Environmental Health Screening Tool
(CalEnviroScreen) that will use existing environmental, health,
and socioeconomic data to determine the extent to which
communities across the state are burdened by and vulnerable to
pollution. OEHHA states that the results generated by
CalEnviroScreen are not intended to assign responsibility for
any issues identified. The intent is to provide information
that enables the state to focus time, resources, and programs on
areas that are in the greatest need of assistance.
AB 1330 requires CalEPA to keep the Legislature and the Governor
apprised of environmental justice activities throughout
California. This bill is also intended to ensure that all
Californians that wish to participate in the public process are
given an equal opportunity to do so and that information
relating to previous violations and enforcement activities of
regulated entities is available to the public.
Analysis Prepared by : Elizabeth MacMillan / NAT. RES. / (916)
319-2092
FN: 0000895