Amended  IN  Assembly  April 17, 2018
Amended  IN  Assembly  March 19, 2018

CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2017–2018 REGULAR SESSION

Assembly Bill No. 2877

Introduced by Assembly Member Mathis

February 16, 2018

An act to add Section 44274.4 to the Health and Safety Code, relating to vehicular air pollution.


LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


AB 2877, as amended, Mathis. Vehicular air pollution: nonemergency medical transport.
The California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 designates the State Air Resources Board as the state agency charged with monitoring and regulating sources of emissions of greenhouse gases. The act authorizes the state board to include the use of market-based compliance mechanisms. Existing law requires all moneys, except for fines and penalties, collected by the state board as a part of the market-based compliance mechanism to be deposited in the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund.

Existing law establishes the Air Quality Improvement Program that is administered by the state board for purposes of funding projects related to, among other things, the reduction of criteria air pollutants and improvement of air quality.

This bill would require the state board to develop and implement a program, as a part of the Air Quality Improvement Program, program to provide grants to a rural county with rural, desert, or mountain regions a total population of less than 250,000 or a public transit operator located in such a rural county for the purchase of clean purchase, operation, and maintenance of near-zero-emission or zero-emission vehicles to provide seniors and disabled populations located in a rural, desert, or mountain region that rural county with nonemergency medical transportation services. The bill would authorize the state board to expend moneys appropriated by the Legislature from the Air Quality Improvement Fund or the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund for the implementation of the program.
Vote: MAJORITY   Appropriation: NO   Fiscal Committee: YES   Local Program: NO  

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


SECTION 1.

 Section 44274.4 is added to the Health and Safety Code, to read:

44274.4.
 (a) For purposes of this section, the following definitions apply:

(1)“Clean vehicle” means a hybrid, plug-in hybrid, electric, compressed natural gas, or other nonpolluting vehicle.

(1) “Near-zero-emission vehicle” and “zero-emission vehicle” have the same meanings as described in Section 44258.
(2) “Eligible applicant” means a rural county with rural, desert, or mountain regions. a total population of less than 250,000 or a public transit operator located in such a rural county.

(3)“Nonemergency medical services” means services not required to, as appropriate, medically screen, examine, evaluate, or stabilize an emergency medical condition that manifests itself by acute symptoms of sufficient severity, including severe pain, so that the absence of immediate medical attention could reasonably be expected to result in any of the following:

(A)Placing the individual’s health, or, with respect to a pregnant woman, the health of the woman or her unborn child, in serious jeopardy.

(B)Serious impairment to bodily functions.

(C)Serious dysfunction of any bodily organ or part.

(3) “Nonemergency medical transportation” includes, at a minimum, round-trip transportation for an elderly or disabled person to obtain medical services.
(b) To reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases and criteria air pollutants, the state board shall develop and implement a program, as a part of the Air Quality Improvement Program, program to provide grants to eligible applicants for the purchase of clean purchase, operation, and maintenance of near-zero-emission or zero-emission vehicles to provide seniors and disabled populations located in a rural, desert, or mountain region rural county with a total population of less than 250,000 with nonemergency medical transportation services.
(c) The state board may expend moneys appropriated by the Legislature from the Air Quality Improvement Fund or the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund for the implementation of the program.