AB 38: Light pollution control.

Existing law, the California Building Standards Law, establishes the California Building Standards Commission within the Department of General Services and sets forth its powers and duties, including approval and adoption of building standards and codification of those standards into the California Building Standards Code.

Existing law, the Warren-Alquist State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Act, requires the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission to adopt, among other regulations, lighting and other building design and construction standards that increase efficiency in the use of energy for new residential and nonresidential buildings to reduce the wasteful, uneconomic, inefficient, or unnecessary consumption of energy, including energy associated with the use of water, and to manage energy loads to help maintain electrical grid reliability. Existing law also requires the commission to adopt standards for minimum levels of operating efficiency and other cost-effective measures to promote the use of certain energy- and water-efficient appliances.

This bill would require, with certain exceptions, a state agency, as defined, to ensure that an outdoor lighting fixture that is newly installed or replaced on or after January 1, 2024, on a structure or land that is owned, leased, or managed by the state agency meets prescribed criteria, including using a lamp with a correlated color temperature that does not exceed 2,700 Kelvin.