2025 legislation tracker
👀 Bills we're watching ✅ Bills we support ❌ Bills we oppose
Coasts & Climate
This bill would authorize the California Coastal 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 nonresidential project that impacts coastal wetland, subtidal, intertidal, or marine habitats or ecosystems to build or contribute to a blue carbon demonstration project.
This bill would authorize the California Coastal 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 nonresidential project that impacts coastal wetland, subtidal, intertidal, or marine habitats or ecosystems to build or contribute to a blue carbon demonstration project.
This bill would require the Controller to continue to annually transfer $30,000,000 from the General Fund, less any amount transferred to the Habitat Conservation Fund from specified accounts and funds, to the Habitat Conservation Fund indefinitely, and would continuously appropriate that amount on an annual basis in the same proportions, indefinitely. Support letter.
Would overturn California Coastal Commission's action on the increased launch cadence at Vandenberg Air Force Base. Bill raises separation of powers questions.
This bill would amend the Coastal Act to broaden the emergency permit provisions of the Act to include any work undertaken pursuant to a declaration of emergency by a local government or a special district. Current law limits the issuance of emergency permits to work necessary to protect life and property from a sudden, unexpected occurrence; or immediate repairs to public service facilities necessary to maintain service in the wake of a disaster in which a state of emergency has been proclaimed by the Governor. This bill is concerning, because it would give local governments special districts broad discretion to avoid the regular planning and permitting process by declaring a state of emergency for priority projects that don’t otherwise meet the Coastal Act definition of an emergency, and then undertake immediate actions that would not require Coastal Act review. We're working with the author's office to amend the bill accordingly.
Plastic Pollution
Known as the "Leash the Lid" law, this bill would delete that authorization. The bill would instead require, on and after January 1, 2027, if a beverage is subject to the act and offered for sale in a plastic beverage container with a plastic cap, beverage manufacturers to ensure that the container has a cap that is tethered to the container that prevents the separation of the cap from the container when the cap is removed from the container by the consumer.
This bill would prohibit, beginning January 1, 2026, a person from selling, distributing, or offering for sale a new or refurbished disposable, battery-embedded vapor inhalation device in this state. The bill would define a “disposable, battery-embedded vapor inhalation device” to mean a vaporization device that is not designed or intended to be reused, as specified.
This bill would, on and after January 1, 2027, prohibit a person from selling, distributing, or offering for promotional purposes in this state a cleaning product, as defined, or a personal care product in a rinse-off product, containing one ppm or more by weight of plastic microbeads that are used as an abrasive, as specified. The bill would, on and after January 1, 2028, prohibit a person from selling, distributing, or offering for promotional purposes in this state a coating, as defined, cleaning product, or personal care product, that contains one ppm or more by weight of plastic microbeads that are not used as an abrasive. By adding these prohibitions to the Plastic Microbeads Nuisance Prevention Law, the bill would impose the civil penalty for violations of these prohibitions.
Beach Access
This bill would exempt the construction of accessory dwelling units (ADUs) in Los Angeles County, and in any county that is subject of a Governor state of emergency declaration that involved damage to housing after February 1, 2025, from the requirements of the Coastal Act. As written, the Coastal Act exemptions are far too broad and ripe for abuse. We're working with the author's office to find language that helps align ADU construction in the Coastal Zone with regulations outside the Coastal Zone (their priority) while protecting beach access and coastal resources (our priority).
Ocean Protection
This bill would prevent the State Lands Commission from entering into a new lease or other conveyance authorizing new construction of oil- and gas-related infrastructure upon tidelands and submerged lands within state waters associated with Pacific Outer Continental Shelf leases issued after January 1, 2018.
Clean Water
This bill would authorize Otay Mesa East Port of Entry toll revenues to be used to assist in the maintenance of the IBWC wastewater treatment plant and the development of additional sanitation infrastructure projects related to the Tijuana River. Support letter.
This bill would require the board, by June 1, 2026, to establish guidance for stormwater capture and use for the irrigation of urban public lands, as defined. The bill would require the guidance to include, but not be limited to, the use of captured stormwater for irrigation to offset the use of potable water, as specified, and criteria for among other things, pathogens and pathogen indicators and total suspended solids. Support letter.