Each year, Sierra Club California staff and volunteer leaders work together to analyze and determine Club positions on hundreds of bills at the legislature. From among those on which we take a position, a number rise to the top as priority bills that deserve special attention. We encourage our members to bring these bills to the attention of their legislators.
Below is the Sierra Club California list of priority bills in 2018 with our position and each bill’s status as of the July 4, 2018 above. This list is updated periodically. We cover and take positions on dozens of bills. This priority list is not a complete list of all the bills we take a position on or lobby. Each bill is linked to its page on the California Legislative Information website. Click on the links for the latest status on bills and their location in the legislative process,
The priority bills are grouped below by topic area and listed within those by house and in ascending numerical order. Bills introduced by Assembly members begin with AB and bills introduced by Senators begin with SB.
Advancing Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency
AB 813 (Holden) Multistate regional transmission organization.
This poorly constructed bill would wed California to a multistate regional transmission organization without providing certainty that doing so would not lead to greater greenhouse gas emissions, more localized air pollution, tens of thousands of clean energy jobs lost to other states, and increased vulnerability to a Trump-controlled federal energy agency. OPPOSE. Bill was gutted and amended on Senate side in 2017. Passed Senate Energy Committee in 2018. Moves to the Senate Appropriations Committee.
AB 3001 (Bonta) Zero-emission buildings and considering emissions associated with fossil fuel combustion.
This bill would require that, in determining the cost-effectiveness of building design and construction standards, the California Energy Commission should consider greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel combustion and fugitive emissions that are avoided and allow progress toward meeting the state’s climate goals. SUPPORT. Withdrawn by author before first policy committee. Reintroduction expected in 2019.
AB 3232 (Friedman) Zero-emission buildings and planning for de-carbonization.
This bill would set a target date for the Energy Commission to develop a plan to achieve a goal of all new residential and non-residential building built after 2029 to be zero-emission, and to develop a strategy to cut greenhouse gas emissions from existing buildings to 50% below 1990 levels by 2030. SUPPORT. Bill passed in Assembly. Passed Senate Energy Committee and Senate Environmental Quality Committee. Moves to Senate Appropriations Committee.
SB 100 (De Leon) 100% clean energy target.
This bill would raise the renewable portfolio standard to 60 % by 2030 and set a target of 100% carbon-free renewable energy by 2045 for electricity generation. SUPPORT. Passed in Senate. Passed in Assembly Utilities and Energy Committee. Moves to Assembly Floor.
Cutting Pollution from Housing and Transportation
AB 1745 (Ting) Clean Cars by 2040.
This bill would require that the Department of Motor Vehicles not allow registration of brand new cars sold in California in 2040 unless they are zero-emission vehicles. This bill would send a clear signal to car manufacturers to accelerate development and sales of zero-emission vehicles in this state. SUPPORT. Bill pulled by author before first committee. Reintroduction expected in 2019.
SB 827 (Wiener) State pre-emption of local zoning authority around transit stops.
This bill would remove local zoning authority around certain bus and transit stops in an effort to increase housing density. The bill’s design threatens displacement of low-income residents near transit, provides limited assurances of affordable housing, ignores local environmental characteristics and impacts, and potentially stigmatizes transit. The bill’s aim is noble, to increase housing and lower greenhouse gas emissions from transportation. It’s method and awkward design, though, would not produce the bill’s desired outcome. OPPOSE. Failed in Senate Transportation and Housing Committee.
Protecting California’s Wildlife, Natural Areas and Parks
AB 425 (Caballero) Timber harvesting plans: exemptions.
For several years, the logging industry has attempted to loosen timber harvest rules through a series of incremental bills. This latest in that series would allow “temporary roads” to be developed (and clearcut) without the benefit of inspection and oversight required by timber harvest rules. OPPOSE. Passed in Assembly. Moved to inactive file in Senate and currently the focus of discussions between the Brown Administration and the author’s office.
AB 2421 (M. Stone) Monarch butterfly and pollinator rescue program.
This bill would establish a program, to be administered by the Wildlife Conservation Board, to help recover and sustain populations of monarch butterflies and other pollinators. SUPPORT. Passed in Assembly. Passed Senate Natural Resources and Water. Moves to Senate Appropriations Committee.
AB 2889 (Caballero) Timber harvest plans: new hurdles to completion.
This bill, designed by the forestry industry, would establish as so-called “bill of rights” crafted to hamper effective implementation of the timber harvest planning process. That planning process is essentially the forest-related environmental review process that ensures that harvests’ environmental impacts are disclosed and mitigated to the extent feasible. Removed Opposition. Bill amended. Sierra Club no longer taking a position on the bill. Passed in Assembly. Passed Senate Natural Resources and Water. Moves to Senate Appropriations Committee.
SB 1017 (Allen) Commercial fishing: drift gill net shark and swordfish fishery.
This bill would ensure that California’s commercial fisherman use the most sustainable fishing gear available. It aims to phase out large-scale drift gill nets from the commercial fishing industry. SUPPORT. Passed in Senate. Passed Assembly Water, Parks and Wildlife Committee. Moves to Assembly Appropriations Committee.
SB 1316 (Glazer) Off-highway vehicular recreation: Alameda-Tesla Expansion Area.
This bill would resolve a decades-long effort to protect an ecologically important area near the Carnegie State Vehicular Recreation Area. The bill would essentially allow the Department of Parks and Recreation to sell the area to local entities that intend to preserve the Alameda-Tesla Expansion Area as a park off-limits to off-road vehicle activity. SUPPORT. Passed in Senate. Passed Assembly Natural Resources Committee and Assembly Accountability and Administration Committee. Moves to Assembly Appropriations Committee.
SB 1487 (Stern) Iconic African Species Protection Act.
This bill protect endangered and threatened species in Africa by banning the possession of most iconic and endangered African “big game” animals and their body parts in the state. SUPPORT. Passed in Senate. Passed Assembly Water, Parks & Wildlife Committee and Judiciary Committee. Moves to Assembly Appropriations Committee.
Protecting California’s Coasts and Ocean Waters
AB 1775 (Muratsuchi and Limón) and SB 834 (Jackson) State Lands: Oil and Gas Leasing.
These two identical bills, one in the Assembly and one in the Senate, would prohibit certain types of oil production and conveyance infrastructure from crossing into state waters and lands. This bill would essentially make it impossible for new oil drilling facilities proposed in federal waters to build pipelines through state waters to access on-land processing facilities or oil transport pipelines. These two bills will ultimately help prevent new oil and gas leasing in federal waters off the coast of California, despite the Trump Administration’s proposal to expand oil drilling there. SUPPORT. Bills passed in Assembly and Senate respectively. Each moved to opposite house and passed in natural resources committees. Both await now in Senate and Assembly appropriations committees respectively.
AB 2864 (Limón) Coastal Resources: Oil Spills.
This bill allows the California Coastal Commission to participate in post-oil-spill processes. The Commission will help evaluate damage to public resources and the environment after oil incidents to make sure that we fully hold those who spill accountable for the damage they cause. SUPPORT. Passed in Assembly. Passed in Senate Natural Resources and Water Committee. Moves to Senate Appropriations Committee.
Regulating Dangerous Chemicals and Processes
AB 2122 (Reyes) Medi-Cal: blood lead screening tests.
This bill would ensure that vulnerable children on Medi-Cal receive blood lead tests by creating the necessary mechanisms to ensure compliance and proper tracking of existing blood lead screening mandates. SUPPORT. Passed in Assembly. Passed in Senate Health Committee. Moves to Senate Appropriations Committee.
AB 2370 (Holden) Lead exposure: child day care facilities.
This bill requires licensed child care centers to demonstrate that their drinking water is not contaminated with lead and allows centers to use an existing no-interest loan program to pay for lead remediation and drinking water system. SUPPORT. Passed in Assembly. Passed in Senate Human Services Committee. Moves to Senate Appropriations Committee.
AB 2963 (Kalra) Worker safety: blood lead levels.
This bill would prioritize the investigation of and action on cases of high lead blood levels in workers. This bill will help ensure that CDPH and Cal/OSHA are giving lead poisoning in the workplace the priority it deserves. SUPPORT. Bill passed in Assembly Floor. Passed in Senate Labor and Industrial Relations Committee. Moves to the Senate Appropriations Committee.
SB 1041 (Leyva) Childhood lead poisoning prevention.
This bill would help ensure the testing of small children by requiring DPH and health care providers to inform parents of the dangers of high lead levels and of the testing requirement for Medi-Cal-enrolled children. It would also require DPH to compile the enrolled children who have and have not been tested in an effort to test more children. SUPPORT. Bill passed in Senate. Passed in Assembly Health Committee. Moves to Assembly Appropriations Committee.
SB 1097 (Hueso) Lead poisoning.
This bill would require CDPH to expand the information that it provides to the public about county-level childhood lead testing, exposure rates, and the sources of lead related to cases of lead poisoning. CDPH will also have to explain how those lead sources are removed or abated. SUPPORT. Bill passed in Senate Floor. Passed in Assembly Health Committee. Moves to Assembly Appropriations Committee.
SB 1370 (Stern) Well stimulation treatments.
In previous legislation regulating fracking and well stimulation, well stimulation treatments used for maintenance of methane gas storage facilities where gas is injected into and withdrawn from depleted or partially depleted oil or gas reservoirs, were exempted. After the disastrous Aliso Canyon gas storage leak, the need for greater oversight and regulation became obvious. This bill would eliminate the regulatory exemption. SUPPORT. Bill passed in Senate. Passed in Assembly Natural Resources Committee. Moves to Assembly Appropriations Committee.
Protecting California’s Rivers
AB 2975 (Friedman) Wild and scenic rivers.
This bill would expand the protections of the state wild and scenic rivers system to include any California river that the Trump Administration decides to remove from the national wild and scenic river designation that is not already included in the state system. SUPPORT. Bill passed in Assembly. Passed in Senate Natural Resources and Water Committee. Moves to Senate Appropriations Committee.
Promoting Community Access to Environmental Review
AB 2447 (Reyes) California Environmental Quality Act: land use.
Ensures that residents of disadvantaged communities receive notice of and have meaningful opportunities to provide input on proposals to expand land uses in their neighborhoods that may result in adverse public health effects, could negatively impact neighborhood quality, or undermine housing opportunities. SUPPORT. Bill passed in Assembly Floor. Passed in Senate Environmental Quality Committee. Moves to the Senate Appropriations Committee.
This list was updated on July 4, 2018. Visit the Sierra Club California website for updates.