Amended  IN  Assembly  May 25, 2023
Amended  IN  Assembly  March 15, 2023

CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2023–2024 REGULAR SESSION

Assembly Bill
No. 45

Introduced by Assembly Member Boerner
(Coauthors: Assembly Members Connolly and Ting)

December 05, 2022

An act to amend Section 30253 of, and to add Sections 30100.3 and 30237 to, to the Public Resources Code, relating to coastal resources.


LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


AB 45, as amended, Boerner. Coastal resources: coastal development permits: blue carbon demonstration projects: new development: greenhouse gas emissions. projects.
Existing law, the California Coastal Act of 1976, among other things, requires anyone wishing to perform or undertake any development in the coastal zone, except as specified, in addition to obtaining any other permit required by law from any local government or from any state, regional, or local agency, to obtain a coastal development permit from the California Coastal Commission, as provided.
This bill would authorize the commission to authorize blue carbon demonstration projects, as defined, in order to demonstrate and quantify the carbon sequestration potential of these projects to help inform the state’s natural and working lands and climate resilience strategies. The bill would, among other things, authorize the commission to require an applicant with a project that impacts coastal wetland, subtidal, intertidal, or marine habitats or ecosystems to build or contribute to a blue carbon demonstration project.

The act requires that new development in the coastal zone comply with specified requirements, including, among other things, requirements intended to minimize energy consumption and vehicle miles traveled, and, where appropriate, protect special communities and neighborhoods that, because of their unique characteristics, are popular visitor destination points for recreational uses.

This bill would additionally require that new development minimize greenhouse gas emissions.

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

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


SECTION 1.

 The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:
(a) California has set the targets to reduce carbon emissions 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2030 and 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050.
(b) In 2020, Governor Gavin Newsom signed Executive Order No. N-82-20, directing the Natural Resources Agency, in consultation with other state agencies, to develop a Natural and Working Lands Climate Smart Strategy that serves as a framework to advance the state’s carbon neutrality goal and build climate resilience.
(c) Executive Order No. N-82-20 also set the goal to conserve at least 30 percent of state land and coastal waters by 2030 and a recent Natural Resources Agency report on implementation recognizes the need to restore degraded coastal habitats to capture carbon and mitigate climate change impacts.
(d) Blue carbon, carbon held and stored in coastal vegetation, such as seagrasses and wetlands, holds great potential to help the state meet its climate goals. Recent studies have found that coastal wetlands in some instances capture carbon at a greater rate than tropical forests and store three to five times more carbon per equivalent area than these forests.
(e) The State Air Resources Board’s draft 2022 scoping plan update does not specifically include blue carbon in the state’s natural and working lands inventory due, in part, to the limited availability of data and methodologies to inventory the stored carbon.
(f) Given the potential of blue carbon sequestration, blue carbon demonstration projects in California may help the state better understand how blue carbon could potentially contribute to the state achieving its carbon neutrality and climate resilience goals.

SEC. 2.

 Section 30100.3 is added to the Public Resources Code, to read:

30100.3.
 “Blue carbon demonstration project” means the restoration of coastal wetland, subtidal, intertidal, or marine habitats or ecosystems, including, but not limited to, wetlands and seagrasses, that can take up and sequester carbon. A blue carbon demonstration project is limited to all of the following:
(a) Ecologically appropriate locations where the habitat or ecosystem had historically occurred and subsequently become degraded or removed.
(b) The restoration of the habitat or ecosystem to its historical state to provide ecosystem services and habitat values, to the extent feasible.
(c) The use of diverse native species.

SEC. 3.

 Section 30237 is added to the Public Resources Code, to read:

30237.
 (a) The commission may authorize blue carbon demonstration projects in order to demonstrate and quantify the carbon sequestration potential of these projects to help inform the state’s natural and working lands and climate resilience strategies.
(b) The commission may require an applicant with a project that impacts coastal wetland, subtidal, intertidal, or marine habitats or ecosystems to build or contribute to a blue carbon demonstration project.
(c) The commission shall consult with the State Air Resources Board, the Department of Fish and Wildlife, the State Coastal Conservancy, the State Lands Commission, and other public entities, and seek consultation with the United States Army Corps of Engineers and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, in developing the blue carbon demonstration project program.
(d) Each blue carbon demonstration project shall be designed, monitored, and have sufficient data collected in order to demonstrate the carbon uptake and sequestration achieved. This shall include an evaluation of relevant factors affecting the permanence of the sequestration. The results shall be presented to the commission in a public hearing.

SEC. 4.Section 30253 of the Public Resources Code is amended to read:
30253.

New development shall do all of the following:

(a)Minimize risks to life and property in areas of high geologic, flood, and fire hazard.

(b)Ensure stability and structural integrity, and neither create nor contribute significantly to erosion, geologic instability, or destruction of the site or surrounding area or in any way require the construction of protective devices that would substantially alter natural landforms along bluffs and cliffs.

(c)Be consistent with requirements imposed by an air pollution control district or the State Air Resources Board as to each particular development.

(d)Minimize energy consumption, greenhouse gas emissions, and vehicle miles traveled.

(e)Where appropriate, protect special communities and neighborhoods that, because of their unique characteristics, are popular visitor destination points for recreational uses.