AB 2566 (C. Garcia) – Consumption-based Greenhouse Gas Inventory
Would require the State Air Resources Board to create and track a consumption-based greenhouse gas inventory for animal products for human consumption and to update that inventory every 5 years. The bill would require the State Board to update that scoping plan once the initial consumption-based greenhouse gas inventory has been completed.
AB 2645 (Nazarian) – Advocates for Animals
The bill would authorize a court to request counsel to represent the interests of an animal that is subject to a criminal proceeding relating to animal abuse or neglect. The bill would also include animals that are owned by dairy producers or ranchers and those animals cared for by employees of dairy and cattle producers.
AB 479 (Nazarian) – State Board of Education Plant-Based Food & Beverage Program
This bill has been held in the Senate Appropriations Committee and is now a 2-year bill. The sponsors of AB 479, (Social Compassion in Legislation) have requested a 2020-21 State Budget appropriation to allocate dollars to school districts to incentivize plant-based meal options in K-12 public schools in California.
The bill was gutted in the Assembly Education Committee and the provisions that would have established the “Climate-Friendly Food Program” would charge the State Air Resources Board with new duties designed to achieve a pre-determined policy outcome, as the bill states, “to measure the average reduction in greenhouse gas emissions when a typical school meal is replaced by a plant-based food option” were removed from the bill. The latest version of the bill establishes within the California Department of Education (CDE) the California School Plant-Based Food and Beverage Program to provide incentives for making plant-based food and beverages available to students.
SB 54 (Allen) – Solid Waste Plastics Reduction
Requires CalRecycle to develop regulations by January 1, 2024, to achieve the 75% by 2030 reduction goal for single-use packaging. Requires producers of single-use packaging to source reduce the packaging to the maximum extent feasible and to ensure that all single-use packaging material manufactured on or after January 1, 2030, and that is offered for sale, sold, distributed, or imported into California is recyclable or compostable.
WUD, in coordination with CCA, is looking to ensure amendments to the bill that would provide for considerations of products that are regulated by the USDA or the FDA. WUD is also are seeking amendments that would prohibit CalRecycle from regulating single-use packaging in cases where doing so would impact health and safety of the public because it would be unsafe to recycle that material. WUD is also coordinating with the Dairy Institute to assist our processors with additional amendments to address concerns about the ability to recycle dairy products.
SB 950 (Jackson) – Expansion of CEQA
The bill would expand the CA Environmental Quality Act’s existing requirements by adding costly new mandates that will burden local agencies, add substantial time and costs to the CEQA process and provide project opponents with new legal arguments to delay or block housing and other projects.