BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    Ó



                                                                    AB 2912


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          CONCURRENCE IN SENATE AMENDMENTS


          AB  
          2912 (Committee on Natural Resources)


          As Amended  June 30, 2016


          Majority vote


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          |ASSEMBLY:  |78-0  |(May 12, 2016) |SENATE: |37-0  |(August 11,      |
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          Original Committee Reference:  NAT. RES.


          SUMMARY:  Makes conforming and other nonsubstantive changes to  
          the Fish and Game Code and the Government Code that provide  
          clean up from recently enacted bills and others that simply make  
          needed technical changes.


          The Senate amendments restore the definition of "marine waters"  
          and make other additional technical changes. 


          EXISTING LAW, pursuant to the Lempert-Keene-Seastrand Oil Spill  
          Prevention and Response Act (Act): 


          1)Requires the Administrator of the Office of Spill Prevention  
            and Response (OSPR), acting at the direction of the Governor,  
            to implement activities relating to oil spill response,  
            including emergency drills and preparedness, and oil spill  








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            containment and clean up.  


          2)Imposes various requirements relating to oil spill contingency  
            planning, prevention, response, containment, and cleanup,  
            including the obligation that a vessel operator or marine  
            facility prepare and implement an oil spill contingency plan.


          3)Requires operators of specified vessels and facilities to  
            submit to the Administrator an oil spill contingency plan.   
            Requires the Administrator to determine whether the plan meets  
            applicable requirements.


          4)Requires the Administrator to periodically evaluate the  
            feasibility of requiring new technologies to aid prevention,  
            response, containment, clean-up, and wildlife rehabilitation.


          5)Requires the Administrator, taking into consideration the  
            facility or vessel contingency plan requirements of the State  
            Lands Commission, the Office of the State Fire Marshal, the  
            Coastal Commission, and other state and federal agencies, to  
            adopt regulations governing the adequacy of oil spill  
            contingency plans.  Requires regulations to be developed in  
            consultation with the Oil Spill Technical Advisory Committee,  
            and not in conflict with the National Contingency Plan.   
            Requires regulations to provide for the best achievable  
            protection of waters and natural resources of the state,  
            including standards set for response, containment, and clean  
            up equipment and that operations are maintained and regularly  
            improved to protect the resources of the state.


          Requires a responsible party to be strictly liable for penalties  
          for a spill on a per gallon released basis.


          FISCAL EFFECT:  According to the Senate Appropriations  
          Committee, pursuant to Senate Rule 28.8, negligible state costs.









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          COMMENTS:  SB 861 (Committee on Budget and Fiscal Review),  
          Chapter 35, Statutes of 2014, expanded the oil spill  
          preparedness and response program to cover all state surface  
          waters at risk of oil spills from any source, including vessels,  
          pipelines, production facilities, and rail.  This expansion  
          provided critical administrative funding for preparedness, spill  
          response, and continued coordination with local, state, and  
          federal government, along with industry and non-governmental  
          organizations.  SB 861 authorized the extension of the  
          successful marine oil spill preparedness and response program to  
          apply to facilities handling or transporting oil where a spill  
          could impact inland surface waters; thus making the program  
          statewide.  This bill makes several clean up corrections to  
          create consistency in the code for this expansion.  This bill  
          also moves the response efforts definition to the definition  
          section of the Act. 


          Analysis Prepared by:                                             
                          Michael Jarred / NAT. RES. / (916) 319-2092  FN:  
           0003774