Bill Text: CA AB1579 | 2017-2018 | Regular Session | Amended

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Bill Title: California Environmental Quality Act: vehicle-miles-traveled database.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)

Status: (Failed) 2018-02-01 - From committee: Filed with the Chief Clerk pursuant to Joint Rule 56. [AB1579 Detail]

Download: California-2017-AB1579-Amended.html

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Amended  IN  Assembly  April 03, 2017

CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2017–2018 REGULAR SESSION

Assembly Bill

No. 1579

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Introduced by Assembly Member Daly

February 17, 2017

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An act to amend Section 14504 of the Public Resources Code, relating to recycling. An act to add Section 21159.10 to the Public Resources Code, relating to environmental quality.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST

AB 1579, as amended, Daly. Recycling: beverage containers. California Environmental Quality Act: vehicle-miles-traveled database.

The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) requires a lead agency, as defined, to prepare, or cause to be prepared, and certify the completion of, an environmental impact report on a project that it proposes to carry out or approve that may have a significant effect on the environment or to adopt a negative declaration if it finds that the project will not have that effect. CEQA also requires a lead agency to prepare a mitigated negative declaration for a project that may have a significant effect on the environment if revisions in the project would avoid or mitigate that effect and there is no substantial evidence that the project, as revised, would have a significant effect on the environment. CEQA requires the Office of Planning and Research to prepare and develop, and the Secretary of the Natural Resources Agency to certify and adopt, guidelines for the implementation of CEQA. CEQA requires the office to develop criteria for determining the significance of transportation impacts of project within transit priority areas that promote, among other things, the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. CEQA requires the office, in developing the criteria, to recommend potential metrics to measure transportation impacts of projects that may include, among other things, vehicle miles traveled. CEQA authorizes the office to establish criteria for models used to analyze transportation impacts. CEQA authorizes the office to adopt those criteria for determining the significance of transportation impacts of projects outside transit priority areas.

This bill would require the office to establish and maintain a vehicle-miles-traveled database containing methodological guidance on which models should be used for particular types of projects and the best sources of trip-length data for various land-use types.

The California Beverage Container Recycling and Litter Reduction Act, which is administered by the Department of Resource Recovery and Recycling, is established to promote beverage container recycling, and provides for the payment, collection, and distribution of certain payments and fees based on minimum refund values established for beverage containers. Existing law defines the term “beverage” for these purposes to include certain types of products in liquid, ready-to-drink form, as specified.

This bill would make nonsubstantive changes to the provision defining “beverage.”

Digest Key

Vote: MAJORITY   Appropriation: NO   Fiscal Committee: NOYES   Local Program: NO  

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Bill Text

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:

SECTION 1.

 Section 21159.10 is added to the Public Resources Code, to read:

21159.10.

 The Office of Planning and Research shall establish and maintain a vehicle-miles-traveled database containing, but not limited to, methodological guidance on which models should be used for particular types of projects and the best sources of trip-length data for various land-use types.

SECTION 1.Section 14504 of the Public Resources Code is amended to read:

14504.

(a)Except as provided in subdivision (b), “beverage” means any of the following products if those products are in liquid, ready-to-drink form, and are intended for human consumption:

(1)Beer and other malt beverages.

(2)Wine and distilled spirit coolers.

(3)Carbonated water, including soda and carbonated mineral water.

(4)Noncarbonated water, including noncarbonated mineral water.

(5)Carbonated soft drinks.

(6)Noncarbonated soft drinks and “sport” drinks.

(7)Except as provided in paragraph (4) of subdivision (b), noncarbonated fruit drinks that contain any percentage of fruit juice.

(8)Coffee and tea drinks.

(9)Carbonated fruit drinks.

(10)Vegetable juice in beverage containers of 16 ounces or less.

(b)“Beverage” does not include any of the following:

(1) A product sold in a container that is not an aluminum beverage container, a glass container, a plastic beverage container, or a bimetal container.

(2)Wine, or wine from which alcohol has been removed, in whole or in part, whether or not sparkling or carbonated.

(3)Milk, medical food, or infant formula.

(4)One hundred percent fruit juice in containers that are 46 ounces or more in volume.

(c)For purposes of this section, the following definitions shall apply:

(1)“Infant formula” means a liquid food described or sold as an alternative for human milk for the feeding of infants.

(2)(A)“Medical food” means a food or beverage that is formulated to be consumed, or administered enterally under the supervision of a physician, and that is intended for specific dietary management of diseases or health conditions for which distinctive nutritional requirements, based on recognized scientific principles, are established by medical evaluation.

(B)A “medical food” is a specially formulated and processed product, for the partial or exclusive feeding of a patient by means of oral intake or enteral feeding by tube, and is not a naturally occurring foodstuff used in its natural state.

(C)“Medical food” includes any product that meets the definition of “medical food” in the federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (21 U.S.C. Sec. 360ee (b)(3).

(3)“Noncarbonated soft drink” means a nonalcoholic, noncarbonated naturally or artificially flavored water containing sugar or sweetener or trace amounts of various elements from both natural and synthetic sources.