Existing law establishes the Bay Area Air Quality Management District, which is vested with the authority to regulate air emissions located in the boundaries of the Counties of Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, San Francisco, San Mateo, and Santa Clara and portions of the Counties of Solano and Sonoma.

Under existing law, the Lewis-Presley Air Quality Management Act establishes the South Coast Air Quality Management District in those portions of the Counties of Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, and San Bernardino included within the South Coast Air Basin as the local agency with the responsibility for comprehensive air pollution control within the basin.

This bill would require the Bay Area Air Quality Management District and the South Coast Air Quality Management District District, on or before December 31, 2027, to analyze all of their policies that have been adopted and all future policies that they are considering adopting that impact oil refineries located in their districts and specified policies to determine the cost of compliance, potential cost to consumers, impacts on state and local tax revenue, and refinery employment. refinery employment, and impacts on the statewide gasoline supply, as provided. The bill would also require those districts, on or before January 1, 2028, to make a good faith effort to minimize any adverse impacts identified pursuant to that requirement. By requiring a higher level of service of local entities, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program.

This bill would make legislative findings and declarations as to the necessity of a special statute for the Bay Area Air Quality Management District and the South Coast Air Quality Management District.

The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement.

This bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above.

Existing law establishes the Bay Area Air Quality Management District, which is vested with the authority to regulate air emissions located in the boundaries of the Counties of Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, San Francisco, San Mateo, and Santa Clara and portions of the Counties of Solano and Sonoma.

Under existing law, the Lewis-Presley Air Quality Management Act establishes the South Coast Air Quality Management District in those portions of the Counties of Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, and San Bernardino included within the South Coast Air Basin, Basin as the local agency with the responsibility for comprehensive air pollution control within the basin.

Existing law establishes the Bay Area Air Quality Management District, which is vested with the authority to regulate air emissions located in the boundaries of the Counties of Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, San Francisco, San Mateo, and Santa Clara and portions of the Counties of Solano and Sonoma.

Under existing law, the Lewis-Presley Air Quality Management Act establishes the South Coast Air Quality Management District in those portions of the Counties of Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, and San Bernardino included within the South Coast Air Basin, as the local agency with the responsibility for comprehensive air pollution control within the basin.

This bill would state the intent of the Legislature to enact future legislation to ensure accountability and oversight of the Bay Area Air Quality Management District and the South Coast Air Quality Management District to ensure the rules and regulations they adopt are cost effective, affordable, and achievable.

Date of Hearing: April 20, 2026

ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON NATURAL RESOURCES

Isaac G. Bryan, Chair

ABPCA Bill Id:AB 2752 (

Author:Ávila Farías) – As Amended Ver:April 6, 2026

SUBJECT: Bay Area Air Quality Management District and South Coast Air Quality Management District: policies: oil refineries

SUMMARY: Requires the Bay Area Air quality Management District (BAAQMD) and the South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD) to reanalyze specified adopted rules to determine, with respect to oil refineries, the cost of compliance, potential cost to consumers, impacts on state and local tax revenue, refinery employment, and impacts on statewide gasoline supply. Requires, with respect to BAAQMD and SCAQMD rules pertaining to oil refineries going forward, that the district’s socioeconomic impact analysis specifically consider cost to consumers, impacts on state and local tax revenue, and impacts on the statewide gasoline supply. Requires the BAAQMD and SCAQMD to make a “good faith effort” to minimize adverse impacts on these topics.

EXISTING LAW:

1. The federal Clean Air Act (CAA) and its implementing regulations set National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS) for six criteria pollutants, designate air basins that do not achieve NAAQS as nonattainment, and require states with nonattainment areas to submit a State Implementation Plan (SIP) detailing how they will achieve compliance with NAAQS. (42 U.S.C. 7401 et seq.)
2. Establishes the Air Resources Board (ARB) as the air pollution control agency in California and requires the ARB, among other things, to control emissions from a wide array of mobile sources and coordinate with local air districts to control emissions from stationary sources in order to implement the CAA. (Health and Safety Code (HSC) 39000 et seq.)
3. Requires, subject to the powers and duties of the ARB, air districts to adopt and enforce rules and regulations to achieve and maintain the state and federal air quality standards in all areas affected by emission sources under their jurisdiction, and to enforce all applicable provisions of state and federal law. (HSC 40001)
4. Requires each air district that is a nonattainment area for one or more air pollutants to adopt an expedited schedule for the implementation of best available retrofit control technology (BARCT) for each industrial source subject to ARB’s cap and trade regulation, including sources at oil refineries, no later than December 31, 2023. (HSC 40920.6)
5. Prohibits a person, except as specified, from discharging air contaminants or other material that cause injury, detriment, nuisance, or annoyance or endanger the comfort, repose, health or safety to any considerable number of persons, or to the public, or that cause, or have a tendency to cause, injury or damage to a business or property. (HSC 41700)
6. Deems any person who violates air pollution laws, rules, regulations, permits, or orders of ARB or of a district, including a district hearing board, as specified to be guilty of a misdemeanor and subject to specified fines, imprisonment in the county jail for not more than six months, or both. (HSC 42400)
7. Requires a district with a population over 500,000 to perform an assessment of the socioeconomic impacts of the adoption, amendment, or repeal of any rule or regulation that will significantly affect air quality or emissions limitations. (HSC 40728.5)

THIS BILL:

1. Requires BAAQMD and SCAQMD, on or before December 31, 2027, shall analyze the following policies to determine, with respect to oil refineries, the cost of compliance, potential cost to consumers, impacts on state and local tax revenue, refinery employment, and impacts on statewide gasoline supply:
   1. BAAQMD Regulation 3 fees.
   2. BAAQMD District Regulation 6 Rule 5.
   3. SCAQMD Regulation III fees.
   4. SCAQMD Rule 1109.1.
2. Requires BAAQMD and SCAQMD, on or before January 1, 2028, to make a good faith effort to minimize any adverse impacts identified pursuant to this analysis.
3. Requires, for BAAQMD and SCAQMD rules related to oil refineries, that the existing socioeconomic impacts analysis consider cost to consumers, impacts on state and local tax revenue, and impacts on the statewide gasoline supply. Requires BAAQMD and SCAQMD to actively consider and make a good faith effort to minimize any adverse impacts related to these particular “socioeconomic impacts,” as well as related to employment and the economy of the region affected and the range of probable costs, including costs to industry or business, including small business.

FISCAL EFFECT: Unknown

COMMENTS:

1. Author’s statement:

In spite of increases in fuel efficiency and electric vehicle usage, safe, reliable and affordable fuel supply remains of statewide importance for the 26.8 million gasoline-powered vehicles registered in California, the state’s residents, and California's economy. With more than 30 refineries in California in the 1980s having been reduced to six major refineries today and another refinery scheduled to close in April 2026, California’s oil refining capacity is declining faster than gasoline usage, putting an upward pressure on pricing and encouraging oil and gasoline imports from locales with less friendly environmental and labor protections.

Both state and local policy has contributed to refiners leaving the state. ARB is reviewing the state impacts of the Cap and Invest Program as we speak. At the regional level, BAAQMD and SCAQMD have adopted significant fees and policies that increase refinery compliance costs and make California gasoline uncompetitive. Annual fees will cost refiners $103 million in the Bay Area and $140.6 million in Southern California between 2026 and 2030. In addition, since 2017, the BAAQMD has imposed one-time refinery compliance costs of $700 million and the SCAQMD compliance costs of $3.4 billion.

AB 2752 seeks to help restore the balance between environmental and economic impacts by reevaluating these regional compliance costs that have led to refinery closure and more expensive gasoline for our constituents.

These cost estimates are drawn from a white paper “Regulatory Costs for refineries operating in the (SCAMQD) and (BAAQMD)” developed by Ramboll under contract to the Western States Petroleum Association (WSPA).

1. Summary of the district rules in question:

BAAQMD Regulation 3: Fees include revisions to the district’s fees and fee schedules and other regulatory language, and coincide with the district’s annual budget process. Recommendations to adjust fees begin in the District Finance and Administration Committee in the February/March time period, and are then considered over two public hearings by the Board of Directors leading up to the beginning of the fiscal year on July 1.

BAAQMD Rule 6-5: Included new and modified limits on ammonia and sulfur dioxide, and also included a direct limit on total particulate matter less than 10 microns in diameter (total PM10), which included both filterable and condensable particulate matter. The proposed amendments also included modifications to existing rule language to clarify existing provisions and improve monitoring requirements. As part of the district’s BARCT retrofit schedule, the district identified a number of potential rule development projects to evaluate and implement BARCT levels of emission control, including a rule development project to control emissions of total particulate matter from fluidized catalytic cracking units at oil refineries. Staff identified strategies for addressing these emissions through potential amendments to Rule 6-5 that would address components of condensable particulate matter, including ammonia and sulfur dioxide.

SCAQMD Regulation III: Establishes emission and permitting fees for sources regulated by the district, including new and annual permitting fees, criteria pollutant and toxic emissions fees, and program-specific and administrative costs for cost recovery for implementation of the Toxics Hot Spots program, fenceline monitoring, review and approval of source tests, and Hearing Board fees. In general, most fees are increased annually by the Consumer Price Index.

SCAQMD Rule 1109.1: Establishes oxides of nitrogen (Nox) and carbon monoxide (CO) concentration limits that represent BARCT for combustion equipment located at sixteen petroleum refineries and facilities with operations related to petroleum refineries (e.g., sulfur recovery plants).

1. Oil companies already took one or two bites at these rules. This bill gives them one or two more. Oil companies and industry trade groups actively participated in each of the rulemaking processes above. BAAQMD Rule 6-5 was challenged in court by Chevron and Martinez Refining Company (MRC). Chevron and MRC eventually settled and agreed to be bound by the rule. MRC installed controls that did not require a wet gas scrubber, and met the requirements of the rule at less cost than they claimed they would have to spend, and that the district’s socioeconomic analysis projected. Note this rule didn’t impose new requirements on the Valero Benicia refinery because Valero installed the required controls 10 years prior to the rulemaking.

WSPA supported adoption of SCAQMD Rule 1109.1.

The bill would permit oil companies to relitigate the districts’ adopted rules under the new standards imposed by the bill’s reanalysis and “good faith effort” requirements.

1. Measuring clean air rules in cents per gallon? This bill attempts to unpack the effect of specified district refinery rules on gas prices and oil companies’ strategic decisions, while apparently discounting other significant factors on both sides of the ledger, such as Clean Air Act objectives, public health benefits, global oil markets, market power, and oil companies’ determination to maximize profits above all else.

A more effective approach to obtain new, relevant information may be to request the affected refineries to provide their actual compliance costs, pass through costs to consumers, tax payments, and employment impacts of the specified rules and regulations.

REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION:

Support

Asians in Energy
Bay Area Council
Bay Planning Coalition
California African American Chamber of Commerce
California Hispanic Chambers of Commerce
California Multicultural Business Alliance
Central City Association of Los Angeles
Central Valley Yemen Association
Coalition of Filipino American Chambers of Commerce
Contra Costa Building and Construction Trades Council
East Bay Leadership Council
Garden Grove Chamber of Commerce
Harbor Association of Industry and Commerce
Hispanic 100
Hispanic Chambers of Commerce of San Francisco
IBEW Local 302
Industrial Association
International Brotherhood of Boilermakers Local 549
International Brotherhood of Boilermakers Local 92
International Brotherhood of Boilermakers, Western States Section
Latin American and Caribbean Business Chamber of Commerce
Latin Business Association
Long Beach Area Chamber of Commerce
Los Angeles / Orange Counties Building and Construction Trades Council
Marina Chamber of Commerce
Pleasant Hill Chamber of Commerce
Redondo Beach Chamber of Commerce
San Pedro Chamber of Commerce
Smart Local Union 105
South Bay Association of Chambers of Commerce
State Building & Construction Trades Council of California
Torrance Area Chamber of Commerce
Western States Petroleum Association
Wilmington Chamber of Commerce

Opposition

350 Bay Area Action
Active San Gabriel Valley
Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments
American Lung Association
APEN Action
Bay Area Air Quality Management District
California Air Pollution Control Officers Association
California Environmental Voters
California Nurses for Environmental Health and Justice
Center for Biological Diversity
Center for Community Action and Environmental Justice (CCAEJ)
Center for Environmental Health
Cleanearth4kids.org
Climate Action California
Coalition for Clean Air
Communities for a Better Environment
Earthjustice
East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice
Environmental Protection Information Center
EPIC - Environmental Protection Information Center
Facts Families Advocating for Chemical and Toxics Safety
Families Advocating for Chemical and Toxics Safety
Industrious Labs
Legacy LA
Pacific Environment
Regional Asthma Management and Prevention
Resource Renewal Institute
San Francisco Bay Physicians for Social Responsibility
San Francisco Baykeeper
Sierra Club California
South Coast Air Quality Management District
Sunflower Alliance
The Climate Center
West Long Beach Neighborhood Association

Analysis Prepared by: Lawrence Lingbloom / NAT. RES. /