BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON NATURAL RESOURCES AND WATER
Senator Fran Pavley, Chair
2015 - 2016 Regular
Bill No: SB 1294 Hearing Date: March 29,
2016
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|Author: |Pavley | | |
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|Version: |March 28, 2016 |
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|Urgency: |No |Fiscal: |Yes |
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|Consultant:|Katharine Moore |
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Subject: The Community Climate and Drought Resilience Program
BACKGROUND AND EXISTING LAW
Existing law establishes the California Conservation Corps
(corps) in the Natural Resources Agency as a service
organization providing employment and training for young men and
women (see Public Resources Code (PRC) §§14000 et seq.).
The corps was created in 1976 and employs for one year young
adults generally between the ages of 18 - 25. The corps offers
programs throughout the state and aims to, among other things,
provide youth with educational and training opportunities and
increase their understanding and appreciation of the environment
(PRC §14000).
In addition to the corps, existing law provides for local
conservation corps (local corps) that must meet certain criteria
including those the corps must meet (see PRC §14406). Existing
law provides for eligible local corps to be certified annually
to be in compliance with these criteria by the corps (PRC
§14507.5).
The local corps program was established in 1993 with the purpose
of supporting the success of disadvantaged youth through a
structured program of natural resources conservation and related
activities. Local corps may obtain funding from a variety of
sources (state funding support for local corps is included in
the comments).
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Existing law establishes the Department of Resources Recycling
and Recovery (CalRecycle) in the California Environmental
Protection Agency, and the Department of Forestry and Fire
Protection (CalFire) in the Natural Resources Agency.
Existing law establishes the California Urban Forestry Act of
1978 (PRC §§4799.06 et seq.) to expand and improve the
management of trees and related vegetation in communities
throughout the state. CalFire's urban forestry program leads
the effort to advance the development of sustainable urban and
community forests in California and CalFire works closely with
numerous groups to achieve these aims. Existing law recognizes
that urban forestry projects may provide multiple benefits to
the community including, for example, increasing water supply,
promoting energy conservation, reducing greenhouse gas emissions
and improving public health, among others.
According to CalRecycle, methane emissions from organic waste in
the state's landfills are a significant source of statewide
greenhouse gas emissions. Diverting this waste stream provides
multiple benefits as methane emissions are avoided and the
compost and mulch generated from this waste is used to improve
soil health and save water. Recent research, for example,
showed that adding a mulch layer of appropriate thickness can
reduce surface evaporation of water up to 40% or more compared
to from bare soil for the conditions studied. The use of mulch
and compost has the potential to reduce urban water demand for
landscaping which is estimated to represent up to half of urban
water use.
Existing law requires a reduction in statewide greenhouse gas
emissions to 1990 levels by 2020. In addition, Executive Orders
S-03-05 and B-30-15 establish post-2020 greenhouse gas emissions
reduction targets. The state has several strategies to reduce
climate-related pollution, improve air quality and maximize
health and economic co-benefits of addressing climate-related
pollution.
The climate adaptation strategy "Safeguarding California"
released earlier in 2016 provides an integrated climate
adaptation and resiliency program. The report highlights that
many effective climate adaptation strategies cross "sectoral and
jurisdictional boundaries" and responding to climate risks
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requires coordination across agencies and political boundaries.
Later versions of "Safeguarding California" are expected to
continue the emphasis on cross-sector integration and
complementarity of approaches to promote climate resiliency and
adaptation.
Existing law requires the Department of Finance, in consultation
with the Air Resources Board and other state agencies, to submit
a triennial investment plan to the Legislature identifying
investments that will help the state achieve its greenhouse gas
emissions reduction goals while realizing additional co-benefits
using proceeds of the greenhouse gas emissions cap-and-trade
auction revenues. The Second Investment Plan was released in
January 2016 and includes urban forestry and composting, among
other projects.
PROPOSED LAW
This bill would establish the Community Climate and Drought
Resilience Program of 2016, and direct CalFire and CalRecycle to
promote policies and incentives that advance helping urban and
rural communities adapt to climate change, improve water
management and drought preparedness, provide workforce training
to youth in disadvantaged communities, maximize carbon
sequestration and ensure the maintenance of associated climate
pollutant reduction benefits through the improvement and
continued management of the urban forest canopy, and the
development and application of compost made from organic waste
diverted from landfills.
This bill would provide specific direction to each department to
achieve these goals. This bill would:
1)Direct CalFire to review and revise, as needed, its urban
forestry program to
a) Provide funding priority for multi-benefit carbon
sequestration projects such as mulching, watering or
pruning, and the use of on-site water capture, recycled
water or other local water, among others, as specified, and
b) Establish local or regional targets for the urban tree
canopy, particularly in disadvantaged communities,
including, for example, forest diversity, as specified.
2)Further direct CalFire to update its regulations, as needed,
and provide planning and technical assistance for eligible
applicants and guidance to grantees and local governments
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regarding best practices and metrics for urban forest health.
3)Direct CalRecycle to develop and implement a program by July
1, 2017 to provide incentives for projects that use compost
from organic waste in farming and landscaping practices in
urban and rural areas that increase drought resilience and
provide quantifiable greenhouse gas emissions reductions, as
specified.
4)Require CalRecycle to enter into an agreement with state
certified conservation corps, to assist in community outreach,
compost delivery and application and other eligible urban
greening projects, and update its regulations, as needed, to
implement this program.
In addition this bill would:
1)Make appropriate and supporting legislative findings.
2)State legislative intent to create an innovative natural
resource management program that improves greenhouse gas
sequestration, improves drought preparedness and helps
communities address the effects of climate change, as
specified, and to provide employment opportunities for at-risk
youth in landscape management strategies, especially in
disadvantaged communities, that minimize climate impacts.
3)Define relevant terms.
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT
According to the author, "[a]s part of his 2015 inaugural
address, the Governor outlined six key pillars needed to achieve
long term climate change inducing pollutant reductions,
including the reduction of short-lived climate pollutants,
increased carbon sequestration in the land and safeguarding
California by maximizing climate resilience and adaptation
strategies."
"This year, the Department of Finance and the Air Resources
Board finalized California's latest climate investment
blueprint; the plan outlined a multitude of sound investment
opportunities for California's climate investments built on the
Governor's key strategies to address climate change. The plan
further noted that to achieve our long term climate pollutant
emissions goals, the state will need to accelerate current
programs and projects, pursue innovative strategies across
sectors and maximize environmental, economic and health
co-benefits."
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"SB 1294 integrates the concepts outlined in Governor Brown's
inaugural address and the Second Investment Plan and provides an
opportunity for the state to approach several key climate
pollution reduction strategies (trees and urban greening,
landscape resiliency, water conservation and efficiency, and
organic waste and compost) via a set of complementary and
innovative programs."
ARGUMENTS IN OPPOSITION
None received
COMMENTS
Double-referral . This bill is double-referred to both this
Committee and the Senate Environmental Quality Committee (Senate
EQ). Elements of the bill under Senate EQ's jurisdiction, such
as CalRecycle and greenhouse gas and other climate pollutant
emissions reductions, among others, are included here for
completeness and context only.
Technical amendment . According to the author's office, a
drafting error led to the inadvertent codification of all of the
legislative findings. The Committee may wish to require that
the findings be uncodified and the remaining proposed language
in PRC §75300 - legislative intent language and specific
direction to CalRecycle and CalFire - be split into two sections
for clarity. [Amendment 1]
Work-in-progress . This bill is a work-in-progress, and
Committee staff understand that further amendments are planned
by the author. In view of this, the author may wish to consider
that the meaning of several terms, such as community greening,
urban greening, local conservation corps, climate-friendly, and
best practices may be usefully clarified; the structure of the
proposed CalRecycle program for the corps may also be clarified;
watering, pruning and other activities may not always result in
multi-benefit carbon sequestration; which program CalFire shall
provide technical assistance to eligible applicants for; and the
considerable overlap between existing urban forestry program
language and the findings reported here, among others.
Additionally, no funding source is provided for the activities
required by the bill and it may be that funding from certain
sources will require further clarification in the proposed
program language. Should the bill pass this Committee today, the
Committee may wish to direct staff to continue providing
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assistance to the author's office.
Consistent with the Administration's climate plans . Both
composting of organic waste and resources for urban forestry are
identified as multi-benefit climate adaptation strategies in the
"Safeguarding California" report and have received funding in
the past. The bill's specific direction on urban forestry, for
example, includes policies, such as encouraging urban tree
canopy goals, among those specified in "Safeguarding
California." However, due to the cross-sectoral nature of these
programs, not all of the state entities with jurisdiction or
potential jurisdiction over portions of the urban forestry or
composting programs are included in the bill.
The local corps' mission is consistent with the goals of the
CalFire and CalRecycle programs affected by this bill . In fact,
the FY 2014/2015 urban forestry grants for projects included
three to local corps. Five projects funded through a recent
CalRecycle organic composting grant project did not include any
awards to local corps. CalRecycle has a Budget Change Proposal
pending in the current budget cycle for $100 million of
cap-and-trade auction revenues which are proposed to be largely
spent on organic waste recycling grants, among other categories.
The current CalFire draft grant guidelines . In the CalFire
Urban and Community Forestry FY 2016/2017 draft California
Climate Investment Grant Guidelines, eligible projects must
demonstrate that they will achieve and maintain a net reduction
in greenhouse gas emissions and, if no immediate greenhouse gas
emissions reduction benefit is achieved, must be sustained until
a net greenhouse gas emissions reduction benefit is realized and
maintained for 10 years thereafter. Draft guidelines encourage
potential grantees to work with CalFire in developing their
proposals.
CalRecycle's support for local corps . CalRecycle supported the
purposes of the local corps at the state level in part through
community recycling services and litter abatement projects. The
CalRecycle grant program supporting the local corps recently
diversified from dependence solely upon the Beverage Container
Recycling Fund. According to CalRecycle, local corps receive
entitlement funding from four special funds administered by
CalRecycle and over $20 million was appropriated in the FY 2015
- 2016 budget for this purpose. Funding is distributed evenly
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among all 13 certified local corps and these corps must engage
in activities related to the source of the funding.
Benefits to public health from urban forestry programs . There
are public health and environmental benefits associated with
reducing heat stress in communities. In addition to poorer
public health, urban heat islands can result in increased use of
energy with an associated potential degradation in air quality
and increase in greenhouse gas emissions. Urban forest canopies
have been shown to help reduce temperatures and the resulting
impacts. Planting and maintaining urban forest canopy has the
potential to be a cost-effective method of reducing the urban
heat island effect and directly and indirectly reducing climate
pollutant emissions.
Recent related legislation
AB 2722 (Burke, 2016) would establish the Transformative Climate
Communities Program to promote a coordinated and integrated
approach to climate pollutant reduction strategies (before the
Assembly Natural Resources Committee).
SB 367 (Wolk, 2015) would authorize the Department of Food and
Agriculture's environmental farming program to provide
incentives and other assistance for farmers whose practices
promote the well-being of ecosystems, have caused the
establishment of a grant program to promote land practices that
sequester carbon, and appropriated Greenhouse Gas Reduction
Funds to this end (held in the Assembly Appropriations Committee
Suspense file).
SB 760 (Mendoza, 2015) would have established a program to
provide grants to disadvantaged communities for community
enhancements providing multi-benefit environmental benefits (the
bill was subsequently amended to a different topic).
AB 1045 (Irwin, c. 596, Statutes of 2015) requires the
development and implementation of policies to divert organic
waste from landfills and promote composting and the use of the
compost.
AB 876 (McCarty, c. 593, Statutes of 2015) requires enhanced
reporting of compostable organic materials.
AB 761 (Levine, 2015) would require the Department of Food and
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Agriculture to establish a program to provide grants for
voluntary projects to promote carbon sequestration on working
lands (held in the Senate Appropriations Committee Suspense
file).
AB 1023 (Eggman, 2013) would have created a program for industry
including incentives to promote composting and other waste
diversion to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (held in the
Assembly Appropriations Committee Suspense file).
AB 921 (Allen, 2011) would have addressed the use of compost in
agriculture to reduce water use and its potential climate
benefits (held in the Assembly Appropriations Committee Suspense
file).
SUGGESTED AMENDMENTS
AMENDMENT 1
Revise PRC §75300 (Section 1) to separate the legislative
findings into an uncodified section and retain subdivisions
(b) and (c) in separate codified sections.
SUPPORT
TreePeople (sponsor)
California Association of Local Conservation Corps
California League of Conservation Voters
Clean Water Action
Climate Resolve
From Lot To Spot, Inc.
Los Angeles Beautification Team
Sierra Club California
The Trust for Public Land
1 Individual
OPPOSITION
None Received
-- END --
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