California Legislature—2015–16 Regular Session

Assembly BillNo. 1071


Introduced by Assembly Members Atkins and Eduardo Garcia

February 26, 2015


An act to add Section 71118 to the Public Resources Code, relating to environmental justice.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL’S DIGEST

AB 1071, as introduced, Atkins. Supplemental environmental projects.

Existing law requires the Secretary for Environmental Protection to convene a Working Group on Environmental Justice to assist the secretary in developing an agencywide strategy for identifying and addressing gaps in existing programs, policies, or activities of the agency’s boards, departments, and offices that may impede the achievement of environmental justice.

This bill would require each board, department, and office within the California Environmental Protection Agency to establish a specified policy on supplemental environmental projects, as defined, that benefits environmental justice communities, as defined.

Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes. State-mandated local program: no.

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:

P1    1

SECTION 1.  

Section 71118 is added to the Public Resources
2Code
, to read:

3

71118.  

(a) For purposes of this section, the following terms
4have the following meanings:

P2    1(1) “Agency” means the California Environmental Protection
2Agency.

3(2) “Environmental justice community” means a community
4identified pursuant to Section 39711 of the Health and Safety Code.

5(3) “Supplemental environmental project” means an
6environmentally beneficial project that a person subject to an
7enforcement action voluntarily agrees to undertake in settlement
8of the action and to offset some of a civil penalty.

9(b) Each board, department, and office within the agency shall
10establish a policy on supplemental environmental projects that
11benefits environmental justice communities. The policy shall
12include, but need not be limited to, all of the following:

13(1) A public process to solicit potential supplemental
14environmental projects from environmental justice communities.

15(2) Allowing the amount of a supplemental environmental
16project to be up to 50 percent of the enforcement action brought
17under the jurisdiction of a board, department, or office within the
18agency.

19(3) An annual list of supplemental environmental projects that
20may be selected to settle an enforcement action under the
21jurisdiction of a board, department, or office within the agency.

22(c) The Secretary for Environmental Protection shall consolidate
23the projects compiled pursuant subdivision (b) into one list and
24post that list on the agency’s Internet Web site.



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