Senate Bill 774 (“SB 774”) proposes to eliminate the Department of Toxic Substances Control (“DTSC”) and form a five-member board, the California Toxic Substances Board (“CTS Board”). On June 1, the Senate approved the bill, and it is now awaiting is first policy committee hearing in the Assembly. According to the bill’s text, “This bill would create in the California Environmental Protection Agency the California Toxic Substances Board, which would succeed to and be vested with all of the powers, duties, purposes, responsibilities, and jurisdiction of the department and the Director of Toxic Substances Control.”
Continue Reading Bill Proposes an Appointed Board to Fix the Department of Toxics Substances Control; Will It Just Make Matters Worse?
Update: Oil & Gas Related Bills Introduced in the 2017-2018 Legislative Session
Stoel Rives’ Oil & Gas Team has been monitoring bills introduced by California legislators since the beginning of the 2017-2018 Legislative Session. June 2, 2017 was the deadline by which the Legislature was required to pass bills out of the house of origin. Failing to meet that deadline does not automatically prevent a bill from proceeding through the legislative process; however, such failure will prevent the bill from being considered by the full legislature or the Governor during the first half of the Legislative Session. Below is a list of bills, summarized pursuant to the Legislative Counsel’s Digest, that our team has been following and will continue to monitor as the legislative session proceeds. This is an update to our February 23 post.
Please also see our Renewable + Law post summarizing bills related to other energy topics here.
AB 476 (Gipson, D): Vehicular air pollution.
Status: Two-year bill; last amended April 17, 2017.
Existing law imposes various limitations on emissions of air contaminants for the control of air pollution from vehicular and non-vehicular sources and generally designates CARB as the state agency with the primary responsibility for the control of vehicular air pollution. Existing law further defines a heavy-duty vehicle as having a manufacturer’s maximum gross vehicle weight rating of 6,001 or more pounds, a light-duty vehicle as having a manufacturer’s gross vehicle weight rating of under 6,001 pounds, and a medium-duty vehicle as a heavy-duty vehicle having a manufacturer’s gross vehicle weight rating under a limit established by the state board. AB 476 instead would define a heavy-duty vehicle as having a manufacturer’s maximum gross vehicle weight rating of 26,001 or more pounds.Continue Reading Update: Oil & Gas Related Bills Introduced in the 2017-2018 Legislative Session
Senate Bill Proposes Major Market-Based Remodel of Cap-and-Trade Program
California’s cap-and-trade program withstood a battle in court, and now the Legislature is proposing changes to the controversial program. Senator Bob Wieckowski (Democrat – District 10), Chair of the Environmental Quality Committee, has authored Senate Bill 775 (“SB 775”) which would extend the cap-and-trade program to 2030 with modifications. The existing cap-and-trade program, established under Assembly Bill 32 (2006) or the California Global Warming Solutions Act (“Act”), expires in 2020. The Act requires the State Air Resources Board (“ARB”) to approve a statewide greenhouse gas emissions limit equivalent to 1990 greenhouse gas emissions level to be achieved by 2020, and to ensure that statewide greenhouse gas emissions are reduced to at least 40% below the 1990 level by 2030, as outlined in Senate Bill 32 (2016).
Continue Reading Senate Bill Proposes Major Market-Based Remodel of Cap-and-Trade Program
Another Retailer Shells Out for Hazardous Waste Violations: Big Lots Ordered to Pay $3.5 Million
Following closely on the heels of Dollar General’s hazardous waste settlement (about which we reported in our April, 19, 2017 blog post), another discount retailer has been held to account in a big way for its failure to properly manage its waste streams. On April 21, 2017, a San Bernardino County Superior Court Judge ordered Big Lots Stores, Inc. (“Big Lots”) to pay $3.5 million in civil penalties and costs for environmental violations. The order is the result of an investigation into the disposal of hazardous waste by Big Lots at its distribution center and its 206 California stores over the past several years. The lawsuit was brought by 35 District Attorney’s Offices and two City Attorney’s Offices in California.
Continue Reading Another Retailer Shells Out for Hazardous Waste Violations: Big Lots Ordered to Pay $3.5 Million
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA ENVIRONMENTAL UPDATE #3 – APRIL 24, 2017
This is the third update on environmental regulatory and legal developments in Los Angeles and adjacent counties, as well as the Southern San Joaquin Valley. We welcome your comments and updates.
South Coast Air Quality Management District
*Governing Board Shift: New Governing Board Member Sheila Kuehl replaced Mike Antonovich, returning the Board to a Democratic Majority. Ms. Kuehl calls upon the South Coast Air Quality Management District (District) to use its full regulatory power, and she has strong ties with the California Legislature. New emphases now include further regulations of stationary facilities, such as warehouses and shopping malls that are considered “indirect sources” of air emissions because they attract emissions from cars and trucks, as well as a termination of the RECLAIM Program. Questions on the latter include when (2025, 2023, 2031?), treatment of credits from shutdowns, and how companies that invested in long-term credits will be dealt with. In addition, the District wants to achieve the NOx shave under RECLAIM and at the same time sunset the Program. Collaterally, the District is pushing the California Air Resources Board (CARB) and US EPA to do their “fair share” to regulate mobile sources so that further efforts to improve air quality will not be piled on the backs of stationary businesses.Continue Reading SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA ENVIRONMENTAL UPDATE #3 – APRIL 24, 2017
Retailers Beware! Dollar General Just Hit with $1.125 Million Judgment for Improper Hazardous Waste Handling and Disposal
Here’s another major reminder to retailers to know their waste streams and to make sure they are being managed and handled properly. On Monday, Kern County Superior Court Judge Sidney P. Chapin ordered Dollar General (Dolgen California) and its subsidiary corporations to pay $1.125 million as part of a settlement of a civil/environmental prosecution. The April 17, 2017 judgment was announced by the Yolo County District Attorney, along with 31 other California District Attorneys as part of a significant civil settlement. A harbinger of the increasingly aggressive stance local prosecutors are taking with respect to household hazardous waste disposal claims, the civil enforcement lawsuit was filed just one week prior, on April 11, 2017, in Kern County by a group of 38 of California’s 58 counties. Dollar General operates about 13,320 stores in 43 states, including a significant number in California.
Continue Reading Retailers Beware! Dollar General Just Hit with $1.125 Million Judgment for Improper Hazardous Waste Handling and Disposal
ARB Adopts GHG Emission Standards for Oil and Gas Facilities; Operators Wary of Costs
On March 23, 2017, the California Air Resources Board (“ARB”) adopted regulations for Greenhouse Gas Emission Standards for Crude Oil and Natural Gas Facilities (“Methane Regulations”). The Methane Regulations impose emission controls on offshore and onshore oil production and processing facilities and at natural gas compressor stations, underground storage facilities, and gathering and boosting stations.
Continue Reading ARB Adopts GHG Emission Standards for Oil and Gas Facilities; Operators Wary of Costs
Kern County Judge Grants Injunction, Blocking Blanket Enforcement of Oil Field Aquifer Exemption Regulations
A reported in a prior blog post, the Western States Petroleum Association (“WSPA”) sued the California Department of Conservation and the Division of Oil, Gas and Geothermal Resources (jointly, the “Department”) in Kern County Superior Court in January alleging that the Department’s oil field wastewater injection prohibitions violate WSPA’s members’ due process rights. On March 20, 2017, a Kern County judge sided in favor of WSPA, granting an injunction on behalf of Plaintiffs and, separately and independently, on behalf of intervenor B.E. Conway Energy, Inc. and intervenor Sentinel Peak Resources California. This means that the Department is currently barred from blanket enforcement of its Aquifer Exemption Compliance Schedule Regulations (“Regulations”).
Continue Reading Kern County Judge Grants Injunction, Blocking Blanket Enforcement of Oil Field Aquifer Exemption Regulations
Oil & Gas Related Bills Introduced in the 2017-2018 Legislative Session
February 17, 2017 marked the deadline by which legislators had to introduce bills for the first half of the 2017-2018 Legislative Session. The Stoel Rives’ Oil & Gas Team has been and will continue to monitor bills throughout the current two-year session and will provide periodic updates as to the status of those bills. Below is the current status and summary of some of the bills Stoel Rives is monitoring.
Please also reference our Renewable + Law post summarizing bills related to energy law here.
AB 55 (Thurmond, D): Refineries: turnarounds
STATUS: Introduced December 5, 2016; referred to Committee on Labor & Employment on January 19, 2017
The California Refinery and Chemical Plant Worker Safety Act of 1990 requires every petroleum refinery employer to submit to the Division of Occupational Safety and Health a full schedule for the following calendar year of planned turnaround every September 15th. The employer is also required, upon the request of the division, to provide the division with specified documentation relating to a planned turnaround within a certain period of time. This bill would require the documents to be provided to the division upon request also include all documentation necessary to demonstrate compliance with the above-described skilled and trained workforce requirements. A violation of the bill’s requirements would be a crime.Continue Reading Oil & Gas Related Bills Introduced in the 2017-2018 Legislative Session
80% of Oil and Gas Injection Wells under EPA Review Will Not be Shut-In on February 15
As an update to our prior blog post, on January 17, 2017, the California Division of Oil, Gas and Geothermal Resources (“DOGGR”) released a letter sent to notify the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) of California’s progress toward compliance with the Safe Drinking Water Act. DOGGR stated that it will allow oil field wastewater