Senate Standing Committee on Budget and Fiscal Review

Together, these bills include amendments and resources necessary for implementation of a 2022 law that we passed, Senate Bill 1135 by Senator Gonzalez, related to health protection zones and additional monitoring and leak detection plans for oil and gas operations. We heard significant public comment and discussion on this topic in our Monday hearing on the budget package.

I'm pleased that the measures before us today reflect an agreement among the Administration, Senate, and Assembly. So we will have presentation on these two bills, hear public comment, and then as soon as we can establish quorum, we will vote. The Vice Chair is not here, so I would otherwise offer him an opportunity... Here he is. Mr. Vice Chair, if you'd like to make a few comments. Sorry to put you on the spot.

I could be redundantly redundant again, but I will just let my words from our last Committee meeting and on the floor yesterday, or whenever that was, stand on their own. Thank you very much.

Great. Thank you, Mr. Vice Chair. You have impeccable timing, by the way. Okay, so we'll now turn it over to Erika Li, Chief Deputy Director for the Department of Finance, for an overview of the bills today. And the LAO is here if any questions come up.

Good morning. I feel like we've just been here. Good morning, Chair Wiener, Vice Chair Niello, and Members of the Budget Committee. Erika Li with the Department of Finance. And as stated, I will be presenting on two bills related to implementation of SB 1137.

That's nine. We have one more to go. No one leave, please. Okay.

The first bill, AB 180, is a budget bill that amends the 2024 budget. And this bill appropriates a total of 12.2 million Oil, Gas, and Geothermal Administrative Fund, or OGGA, and authorizes 46 positions in the 24-25 fiscal year for the Department of Conservation and the State Air Resources Board to support implementation of SB 1137, which establishes health protection zones in proximity to oil and gas operations.

Moving on to the the second bill, AB 218, is a resources trailer bill, and this bill allocates 2.6 million Oil, Gas, and Geothermal Administrative Fund and 13 positions to the State Water Resources Control Board. The bill also extends the dates of various implementation deadlines to reflect the referendum related delays to implementation, as well as a more refined timeline necessary to accomplish some required actions. And with that, I'm happy to take questions.

Great. Thank you. Colleagues, are there any questions for Department of Finance? Yes, Senator Niello.

Did we know about this earlier in the year?

The implementation of the bill was put on hold due to litigation, and we did not know until the middle of summer that the proponent opponents would drop their proposition.

Okay, if I may hit the pause button for a moment. Sorry to be rude. Lightning has struck, and we have a quorum. So let's establish a quorum.

Grab it while you can.

[Roll Call]

We have a quorum. Please proceed.

And Senator Niello, in regards to dates, I'll turn to my colleague, who can let you know when some of these things happened. But generally speaking, we did not have the ability to move forward with these resources back in June.

Didn't have the ability to?

There was a... There was a referendum. There was a lot... There was... Everything was frozen.

My understanding is that that was... It was in June that the referendum was dropped.

That's when we passed the budget.

On June 15th, but that's why the date.

Can I just jump in? So it was dropped around the time that we were passing our budget. And at that point in time, it became apparent to the Administration expressed that there was a need to have some sort of delay, a delayed implementation due to the time delay that the oil industry sponsored referendum had caused.

And so it took some time to figure out what that exact delay was. There was a disagreement between the Administration and the Legislature, and that's now been worked out. So, and it caused a 60 day, 75 day delay, which I think is pretty reasonable. I'm sorry, did you want to add anything?

No. Zach Lierly, Department of Finance. Happy to provide more details as well as the dates, but you got it.

Thank you for the clarification.

Colleagues, any other questions or comments? Okay, seeing none, we will now have public... And the LAO, you're here for questions. Anything to add? Nope. Great. Thank you. We'll now open up for public comment. Is there any public comment on either of these two items, item one or item two?

Thank you. Chair and Members Raquel Mason with the California Environmental Justice Alliance in strong support for the reinstatement of funding for SB 1137 implementation. I want to share our strong and immense thanks to the Chair, Senate and Assembly leadership, and the Administration for listening to all the community voices that were here earlier this week and reinstating this funding.

Also registering support for the Environmental Defense Fund, California Environmental Voters, Coalition for Clean Air, San Francisco Baykeeper, Environmental Defense Center, the Center, the Climate Center, 350 Bay Area Action, Center for Biological Diversity, NextGen California, and Voices for Progress. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Is there any additional public comment on either of the two items before us today? Seeing none, we'll close public comment and bring it back to the committee. Seeing no questions or comments. Do I have a motion on item number one, AB 180? Moved by Senator Laird. And we will call the roll.

AB 180. The motion is do pass. [Roll Call]

Okay, we will put that on call for absent Members. We'll now go to item number two, AB 218. Do I have a motion? Moved by Senator Cortese. And we'll call the roll.

AB 218. The motion is do pass. [Roll Call]

Okay, we'll put that on call as well. Everyone is now welcome to vacate. So at this point, we are just waiting for absent Members. And so I think we'll go. Should we...

Okay, we'll take a very brief recess until some more Members show up.

Go back out of our recess, and we will open the rolls. So please call absent Members for item one, AB 180.

AB 180. [Roll Call]

Okay, we'll put it back on call. Item two, AB 218. Please call the absent Members.

[Roll Call]

Put that back on call. Thank you, Senator Menjivar.

Housing Committee. They're on.

Hey, we're hitting the jackpot here. Item number one, AB 180, please call the absent Members.

[Roll Call]

We'll put that back on call. Item two, AB 218. Please call the absent Members.

[Roll Call]

Okay, we'll put it back on call. We're gonna go back into recess.

And we'll open the rolls. So item number one, AB 180, please call the absent Members.

[Roll Call]

We will put it back on call. Item two, AB 218, please call the absent Members.

[Roll Call]

And we'll put it back on call. Thank you. Okay, and we'll go back in the recess.

Okay, we're going to go back from recess. Okay, so we will now open rolls. Item one, AB 180, please call the absent Members.

[Roll Call]

On a vote of 14 to five, that item is out. Item number two, AB 218, please call the absent Members.

[Roll Call]

The vote is 14 to four. That item is out. Okay, we've now disposed of both items on the agenda, and the Committee is adjourned.