7/11/2024
“After months of signature gathering, litigating and legislative wrangling, the final list of measures on the Nov. 5 ballot is set. The Legislature directed the Secretary of State’s office to assign numbers to several, and the office set the others. (Reminder: Prop. 1 was Newsom’s mental health measure that narrowly passed in March.)
Proposition 2: Borrow $10 billion to build schools. Legislative Democrats put on the ballot a bond issue to give $8.5 billion to K-12 schools and $1.5 billion to community colleges for construction and modernization.
Proposition 3: Reaffirm the right of same-sex couples to marry. This constitutional amendment from the Legislature would remove outdated language from Proposition 8, passed by voters in 2008, that characterizes marriage as being between a man and a woman.
Proposition 4: Borrow $10 billion for climate programs. Legislative Democrats also placed a bond issue on the ballot that includes $3.8 billion for drinking water and groundwater, $1.5 billion for wildfire and forest programs and $1.2 billion for sea level rise. In part, the money would offset some budget cuts.
Proposition 5: Lower voter approval requirements for local housing and infrastructure bonds. This constitutional amendment from the Legislature would make it easier for local governments to borrow money for affordable housing and other infrastructure. To avoid opposition from the influential real estate industry, supporters agreed to block bond money from being used to buy single-family homes.
Proposition 6: Limit forced labor in state prisons. Lawmakers added this one late — a constitutional amendment to end indentured servitude in state prisons, considered one of the last remnants of slavery. The California Black Legislative Caucus included the amendment in its reparations bill package.
Proposition 32: Raise the state minimum wage to $18 an hour. This initiative seemed a much bigger deal when it was first proposed in 2021. But under existing law, the overall minimum wage has risen to $16 an hour. And lower-paid workers in two huge industries are getting more: Fast food workers received a $20 an hour minimum on April 1 and health care workers will eventually get $25, though the start date has been pushed back to at least Oct. 15.
Proposition 33: Allow local governments to impose rent controls. This is the latest attempt to roll back a state law that generally prevents cities and counties from limiting rents in properties first occupied after Feb. 1, 1995.
Proposition 34: Require certain health providers to use nearly all revenue from a federal prescription drug program on patient care. Sponsored by the trade group for California’s landlords, this measure is squarely aimed at knee-capping the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, which has been active in funding ballot measures (see the rent control one above).
Proposition 35: Make permanent a tax on managed health care insurance plans. This initiative is sponsored by California’s health care industry to raise more money for Medi-Cal and block lawmakers from using the cash to avoid cuts to other programs. The measure would hold Newsom to a promise to permanently secure that tax money for health care for low-income patients.
Proposition 36: Increase penalties for theft and drug trafficking. This initiative may be the most contentious on the ballot. It would partly roll back Proposition 47, approved by voters in 2014.”
The Sacramento Bee also has a good summary on the ballot propositions, it can be found here.
2024
CA ACR 175 2024 | Introduced April 10, 2024
- This is listed as an Assembly Concurrent Resolution No. 175.
- Listed under Energy Building Codes, Appliances, Electrification.
CA AB 2966 2024 | Introduced February 16, 2024
- Listed under taxes
- An act to amend Section 21080.35 of the Public Resources Code, relating to environmental quality. AB 2966, as introduced, Alvarez. California Environmental Quality Act: exemption: solar energy systems.
CA AB 3076 2024 | Introduced February 16, 2024
- Listed under Taxes and Appliances
- Existing law prohibits new residential-type gas appliances that are equipped with a pilot light from being sold in the state 24 months after an intermittent ignition device has been demonstrated and certified by the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission.
- This bill would prohibit state agencies and local governments from adopting or enforcing a rule, regulation, resolution, or ordinance that directly or indirectly results in prohibiting the use of gas stoves in residential or nonresidential buildings.
- The bill would include findings that changes proposed by this bill address a matter of statewide concern rather than a municipal affair and, therefore, apply to all cities, including charter cities.
CA SB 1455 2024 | Introduced February 16, 2024
- Listed under Licensing/ Installation Requirements
- This bill would delete the requirement that an employment duty statement be included in a specified applicant’s or licensee’s information submitted to the board. The bill would also delete the provision that makes the failure to provide specified information to the board a cause for disciplinary action and punishable as a misdemeanor. The bill would state that “direct supervision or control” for these purposes to mean, among other things, supervising construction operations.
CA SB 1221 2024 | Introduced February 15, 2024
- Listed under Electrification
- An act to amend Section 451 of, to add Sections 451.6 and 739.16 to, and to add Article 11 (commencing with Section 660) to Chapter 3 of Part 1 of Division 1 of, the Public Utilities Code, relating to gas corporations.
- As amended 3/18/24, requires the PUC to adopt a long-term gas distribution system planning process to evaluate and implement zero-emission alternatives for gas distribution line replacement projects. Orders gas companies to submit maps of all gas lines and projects to the PUC, and requires PUC to designate priority neighborhoods for decarbonization. Requires PUC to establish criteria and methodology for determining the cost-effectiveness of zero-emission alternatives, and for f thermal energy networks. Permits a gas corporation to stop service of adequate substitute energy service is reasonably available. Requires each electrical corporation to offer incremental discounts or other rate adjustments to enable the adoption of building electrification technologies.
CA SB 1237 2024 | Introduced February 15, 2024
- Listed under Appliances and Energy Building Codes
- Replaces the term “natural gas” with the term “methane” throughout the state’s codes.
CA AB 2600 2024 | Introduced February 14, 2024
- Listed under Appliances
- An act to amend Section 76004 of the Public Resources Code, relating to energy.
- AB 2600, as introduced, Calderon. Energy: fluorinated refrigerants. Existing law requires the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission to identify opportunities to assess the energy efficiency performance for low-global warming potential alternatives for current fluorinated-gas-based appliances and equipment. This bill would make non-substantive changes to this law.
CA AB 2513 (2023/2024) | Introduced February 13, 2024
- Listed under appliances
- An act to add article 1.2 (commencing with Section 108530) to Chapter 5 of Part 3 of Division 104 of the Health and Safety Code, relating to gas stoves.
- Prohibits a person from selling, attempting to sell, or offering to sell a consumer in this state a gas stove, as defined, that is manufactured on or after January 1, 2025, unless the gas stove bears a label that sets forth a specified statement relating to air pollutants that can be released by gas stoves and that is attached to the gas stove in a conspicuous location, among other requirements.
CA SB 1095 2024 | Introduced February 12, 2024
- Listed under Appliances
- Allows water heaters or appliances for comfort heating in manufactured homes or mobilehomes with fuel-gas-burning water heaters or fuel-gas appliances for comfort heating that are not specifically listed for use in a manufactured home or mobilehome. Includes clothes dryers. Provides that the act, including any regulation, rule, or bulletin adopted pursuant thereto, does not prohibit the installation of plumbing, heating, or air-conditioning systems for manufactured homes, mobilehomes, or multifamily manufactured homes from being located outside of the home if necessary to replace an existing fuel-gas-burning water heater.
CA AB 2331 (2023/2024) | Introduced February 12, 2024
- Voluntary carbon market disclosures.
- Existing law imposes various limitations on emissions of air contaminants for the control of air pollution from vehicular and non-vehicular sources. Existing law requires a business entity that is marketing or selling voluntary carbon offsets, as defined, within the state to disclose on the business entity’s internet website specified information about the applicable carbon offset project.
- This bill expresses the intent of the Legislature to enact future legislation that would clarify the law relating to voluntary carbon market disclosures.
CA SB 1054. (2023/2024) | Introduced February 8, 2024
- Climate Pollution Reduction in Homes Initiative: grants.
- Requires the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission to specify criteria for which appliances, which may include water heaters, stoves and cooking appliances, home heating and cooling systems, refrigerators and freezers, and washers and dryers, are eligible to provide financial assistance to low-income households for the purchase of zero-carbon-emitting appliances.
CA SB 1036 2024 | Introduced February 6, 2024
- Voluntary carbon offsets.
- Makes it unlawful for a person to certify or issue a voluntary carbon offset, to maintain on a registry a voluntary carbon offset, or to market, make available or offer for sale, or sell a voluntary carbon offset if the person knows or should know that the greenhouse gas reductions or greenhouse gas removal enhancements of the offset project related to the voluntary carbon offset are unlikely to be quantifiable, real, and additional.
CA AB 2008 2024 | Introduced January 31, 2024
- Existing law requires the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission to encourage the balanced use of all sources of energy to meet the state’s needs. Existing law requires the commission to administer the Clean Transportation Program to develop and deploy innovative technologies that transform California’s fuel and vehicle types to help attain the state’s climate change policies.
- This bill would require the commission, upon appropriation for the bill’s purpose, to establish an implement the Hard to Decarbonize Program to provide financial incentives for purchasing renewable propane, renewable hydrogen, or renewable dimethyl either to customers in heating dominant climate zones in California where combustion fuels will continue to be the lowest cost and most effective means for providing space and water heating to buildings, as provided.
HI HB 2368 (2024) = SB 3057 | Introduced January 24, 2024
- A bill related to energy efficiency.
- Allows the department of planning for each county to approve a variance for the installation of solar water heater systems. Authorizes the department of planning for each county to impose and collect fees for the administration of the solar water heater system variances.
HI HB 2758 (2023/2024) = SB 3237 | Introduced January 24, 2024
- Listed under appliances.
- Prohibits imported firewood.
HI SB 2677 (2023/2024) | Introduced January 19, 2024
- Listed under appliances.
- Amends the entity responsible for approving a variance for the installation of solar water heater systems from the Chief Energy Officer to the appropriate county planning department. Requires the fees collected by each county planning department to be deposited into the appropriate county planning department operating fund.
CA SB 938 (2023/2024) | Introduced January 17, 2024
- Listed under appliances.
- An act to add section 748.3 to the Public Utilities Code, relating to electrical and gas corporations.
- Electrical and gas corporations: rate recovery: political activities and advertising. The bill would authorize the moneys in the Zero-Emission Equity Fund, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to be allocated for purposes of assisting low – income households in transitioning to zero-emission appliances to mitigate air quality and public health impacts of using combustion appliances.