BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 2142
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Date of Hearing: April 7, 2014
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON NATURAL RESOURCES
Wesley Chesbro, Chair
AB 2142 (Chesbro) - As Introduced: February 20, 2014
SUBJECT : State forests: sale of timber
SUMMARY : Harmonizes state law with federal law by prohibiting
a saw mill from purchasing timber from a state forest if the saw
mill exported unprocessed timber into foreign commerce within
the previous 24 months.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Pursuant to state law, prohibits timber from state forests
from being sold to any California division of a primary
manufacturer, or to any person for resale to a primary
manufacturer, who, within one year prior to the bid date and
one year after the termination of the contract, sells
unprocessed timber that is harvested from private timberlands
and is exported into foreign commerce from this state.
2)Pursuant to federal law, prohibits any person from purchasing,
directly or indirectly, unprocessed timber originating from
public lands in a state if such person has, during the
preceding 24 month period, exported unprocessed timber
originating from private lands in that state.
THIS BILL : Prohibits timber from state forests from being sold
to any California division of a primary manufacturer, or to any
person for resale to a primary manufacturer, who, within 24
months prior to the bid date, sells unprocessed timber that is
harvested from private timberlands and is exported into foreign
commerce from this state.
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown
COMMENTS :
1)Background . In 1990, Congress passed the Forest Resources
Conservation and Shortage Relief Act of 1990 (1990 Act (Pub.L.
101-382)) that authorizes the states to prevent foreign export
of unprocessed timber from state-owned forests. This federal
law effectively overturned a 1984 Supreme Court decision which
AB 2142
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barred states from regulating export of timber from state
lands (So.-Cent. Timber Dev., Inc. v. Wunnicke, 467 U.S. 82
(1984)).
In 1993, Congress passed the Forest Resources Conservation and
Shortage Relief Amendments Act of 1993 (1993 Act (Pub.L.
103-45)), which amended the 1990 Act by, among other things,
prohibiting "any person from purchasing, directly or
indirectly, unprocessed timber originating from public lands
in a state if?such person has, during the preceding 24-month
period, exported unprocessed timber originating from private
lands."
Concurrently, the California Legislature was developing AB 790
(Sher, Chapter 964, Statutes of 1993), which established that
"timber from state forests shall not be sold to any California
division of a primary manufacturer, or to any person for
resale to a primary manufacturer, who?within one year prior to
the bid date and one year after the termination of the
contract, sells unprocessed timber, which is harvested from
private timberlands and is exported into foreign commerce from
this state."
A review of AB 790's Legislative history, including committee
analyses, indicates that the Legislature was aware of
Congress' 1990 Act but not the 1993 Act. This likely explains
the disparity between AB 790's and the 1993 Act's provisions
on the period in which a primary manufacturer cannot export
unprocessed timber.
The purpose of this bill is to harmonize state and federal law
by requiring a private timber company to show that it has not
exported raw logs in the 24 months prior to the purchase of
state forests timber.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
None on file
Opposition
None on file
AB 2142
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Analysis Prepared by : Mario DeBernardo / NAT. RES. / (916)
319-2092