BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 2292
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Date of Hearing: May 11, 2016
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Lorena Gonzalez, Chair
AB
2292 (Gordon) - As Amended April 14, 2016
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|Policy |Environmental Safety and Toxic |Vote:|6 - 1 |
|Committee: |Materials | | |
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Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program: NoReimbursable: No
SUMMARY:
This bill requires the Office of Environmental Health Hazzard
Assessment (OEHHA), within California Environmental Protection
Agency (CalEPA), to update CalEnviroScreen by July 1, 2017, to
include additional factors in the identification of
disadvantaged communities. Specifically, this bill requires
CalEPA/OEHHA to use the best-available data to include areas of
the state disproportionately impacted by:
1)High poverty rates;
2)High rent burden and severe rent burden where households pay
more than 50% of their household income in gross rent;
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3)High cost of living; and
4)Any other factors.
FISCAL EFFECT:
To the extent this bill requires OEHHA to revise the
CalEnviroScreen update process and outcome currently underway,
this bill may increase costs, potentially in the hundreds of
thousands of dollars range, or more if the update is finalized
prior to the enactment of the bill and needs to be revised to
meet its requirements.
COMMENTS:
1)Purpose. According to the author, the methodology used in
CalEnviroScreen does not include a number of metrics important
to capture poverty and economic disadvantage. Currently,
CalEnviroScreen only includes one metric out of 19 to reflect
poverty, and does not factor in other important economic
factors such as cost of living or rent burden. This bill will
require CalEnviroScreen to include these economic factors when
determining what communities are disproportionately burdened
by multiple sources of pollution.
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2)Background. SB 535 (De León), Chapter 830, Statutes of 2012,
requires no less than 10% of cap-and-trade revenues fund
projects located within disadvantaged communities (DACs), and
that 25% of available revenues fund projects that benefit
those communities.
To comply with the requirements set forth in SB 535, OEHHA
developed CalEnviroScreen (also known as CES 2.0), which uses
existing environmental, health, and socioeconomic data to
determine the extent to which communities across the state are
burdened by and vulnerable to pollution.
In October 2014, CalEPA released its list of disadvantaged
communities for the purpose of SB 535. CalEPA relied on
CalEnviroScreen to identify the areas disproportionately
burdened by and vulnerable to multiple sources of pollution.
CalEnviroScreen uses the following metrics to identify the 25%
most disadvantaged census tracts:
a) Pollution burden indicators: ozone, PM2.5 (particulate
matter <2.5 microns), diesel, drinking water, pesticides,
toxic releases, traffic, cleanups, groundwater, hazardous
waste, impaired waters, and solid waste; and,
b) Population characteristics: age, asthma, low birth
weight, low education, linguistic isolation, poverty, and
unemployment.
Areas (census tracts) identified as disadvantaged for SB 535's
25% investment purposes by CalEnviroScreen include: the
majority of the San Joaquin Valley; much of Los Angeles and
the Inland Empire; pockets of other communities near ports,
freeways, and major industrial facilities such as refineries
and power plants; and large swaths of the Coachella Valley,
Imperial Valley and Mojave Desert.
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1)The Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA)
OEHHA is the scientific adviser within CalEPA and provides the
health effects assessments that assist regulatory decision
makers within the agency, California Department of Public
Health, and other agencies and non-governmental organizations.
This includes assessing health and environmental risks from:
a)Carcinogens
b)Reproductive toxins
c)Air pollutants
d)Pesticides
e) Chemical contaminants in food and water
f) Chemical exposures in the workplace
g)Climate change in California
OEHHA is currently updating CalEnviroScreen to include a new
public health indicator and its own indicator on housing
affordability. The revised draft is scheduled to be released
in June of this year.
1)Support and Opposition. According to supporters including the
Bay Area Air Quality Management District (BAAQMD) and others,
the current version of the CalEnviroScreen is ill-suited for
allocating GGRF funds to DACs. Specifically, the BAAQMD
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believes the tool, with its complex multivariate analysis of
19 variables, fails to identify as disadvantaged hundreds of
Bay Area census tracts that are clearly very disadvantaged in
the real world. The BAAQMD asserts that, "a single variable,
even extreme poverty, is heavily watered down by the existing
CalEnviroScreen.
Environemental Justice advocates oppose this bill stating it
inappropriately substitutes regional preferences in a
statewide tool. Opponents contend that environmental justice
is based on the premise that low-income communities and
communities of color face a disproportionate share of
pollution burden and oppose legislative changes to the
CalEnviroScreen tool.
Analysis Prepared by:Jennifer Galehouse / APPR. / (916)
319-2081