AB 2535: Trade Corridor Enhancement Program.

Existing law requires the California Transportation Commission, under a program commonly known as the Trade Corridor Enhancement Program, to allocate, upon appropriation by the Legislature, revenues from a specified portion of the state excise tax on diesel fuel and certain federal funds to infrastructure projects located on or along specified transportation corridors. Under existing law, eligible projects under the program include, among others, highway improvements to more efficiently accommodate the movement of freight and environmental and community mitigation or efforts to reduce environmental impacts of freight movement.

Under the Trade Corridor Enhancement Program, program, existing law requires the commission to adopt a program of projects from projects nominated by the Department of Transportation and local agencies. In adopting the program of projects, existing law requires the commission to evaluate the total potential economic and noneconomic benefits of the program of projects to Californias economy, environment, and public health, and to specifically assess localized impacts in disadvantaged communities. Existing law also requires the California Environmental Protection Agency to identify disadvantaged communities, and, pursuant to that requirement, the agency has developed a tool to identify those communities, commonly known as CalEnviroScreen.

This bill would would, commencing January 1, 2025, require the commission, the Department of Housing and Community Development, and the State Air Resources Board to create guidance for the programming of projects under the Trade Corridor Enhancement Program that expand the physical footprint of a highway in a community in the highest 10% of CalEnviroScreen communities. Commencing January 1, 2028, the bill would require this guidance to be incorporated into the programming cycle. The bill would require the applicant agency, as a condition of commission funding for design, right-of-way, and capital construction costs, to complete the applicable requirements of the California Environmental Quality Act and the federal National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 within 6 months of the Commission commission adopting the program of projects. The bill would limit the commission, when programming projects in specified communities that both experienced disproportionate burdens from diesel particulate matter in 2024 and did not experience a 50 percent decline in absolute levels of diesel particulate matter by 2030, to programming only projects that result in a net decrease in diesel particulate emissions in those communities on or after January 1, 2030. The bill would also require the commission to establish percentage targets for funds allocated under the program to be allocated to investments in zero-emission freight infrastructure, with a goal an initial target of 50% 15% of program funds awarded in 2030 being awarded to investments in zero-emission freight infrastructure, infrastructure to be increased by 5% each cycle until it reaches 50%, as provided.