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Omnibus California Green New Deal Act

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Emission Standards

Standards for Overall Statewide Greenhouse Gas Emission Reduction & Sequestration. Using both production- and consumption-based emission inventories, the State shall achieve an 80% reduction in California global greenhouse gas emissions below 1990 baseline year emissions by 2028; net zero carbon emissions by 2030; and annual net negative carbon sequestration rates equal to 10% of 1990 baseline levels by 2035.

Governance

Emergency Status. Declare the climate crisis to be a statewide emergency and immediately devote all necessary state resources on transitioning to a 100% clean energy economy as soon as technologically possible.

Establishment of Climate Score Rating. The State will immediately establish a statewide process for developing criteria against which climate impacts upon the health and well-being of people and natural systems, resulting from any actions of any State agency may be as accurately assessed as current science permits. These criteria shall be guided by what has been determined to be scientifically necessary and technologically feasible, and shall be divided into three umbrella categories: sustainability, equity, and resilience.

Green Financing

California State Bank. For the purpose of encouraging and promoting sustainable social and economic development, the State of California shall reestablish the existing California Infrastructure and Economic Development Bank as a State central public bank and engage in the business of banking, and for that purpose shall maintain a system of banking owned, controlled, and operated by it, under the name of the California State Bank (CalBank). CalBank will be responsible for expanding the California Green Bond market to at least $100 billion by 2025, $500 billion by 2030, and $1 trillion by 2035 in order to fund coordinated climate action throughout the State.

Cap-and-Fee Program. The State shall direct the Air Resources Board to review and revise the current Cap-and-Trade program to create a Cap-and-Fine program in its place to strongly disincentivize continued pollution by major industrial polluters, specifically preventing them from continuing to purchase credits allowing them to continue polluting. This program will impose a filing requirement on corporations.

Green Workforce

California Green Corps. The State shall create and fund a California Green Corps (CGC) administered through the California Labor & Workforce Development Agency, the purpose of which is to give Californians the means and opportunity to work together in the domestic and global effort to secure a sustainable and healthy future. The CGC shall employ at least 1 million Californians by 2025 in “green jobs” as defined by the Federal Bureau of Labor Statistics, and at least 2 million by 2030. Workers who join the CGC will be guaranteed a living wage, job placement assistance, relocation assistance, full healthcare benefits, and education and/or vocational training as needed for the worker’s desired career path in green jobs. 

Education

California Community Colleges. Revisit the California Community College Master Plan to define new paraprofessional occupations in emerging technologies, particularly those pertaining to sustainability, and specify standards for credentialing, continuing professional education and career transfer requirements, as well as to ensure that California Community Colleges act as local centers of public information, community leadership, and the knowledge essential for the general public to achieve the structural changes and community actions required for the challenges of a changing climate.

Transportation

Fossil Fuel-Burning Automobile Ban. The State of California shall establish and implement a policy that no new fossil fuel-burning private or commercial automobile truck, bus or other means of transportation shall be registered with the California Department of Motor Vehicles after January 1st of 2025.

Zero Carbon Fuel Standard. Amend the Low Carbon Fuel Standard to eliminate petroleum use and dependency by requiring all transportation fuels purchased and sold in the State of California to be renewable by 2030.

Community Planning

Building Emissions Standards. Achieve 50% below 1990 baseline year GHG emission levels by 2025, 80% below 1990 levels by 2028, and net zero carbon emissions by 2030.

Regional Resilience Network and Community Resilience Centers. The State shall implement a statewide Regional Resilience Network program, coordinated through the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services and run by local municipal and participating tribal governments, that establishes a network of always-open Community Resilience Centers (CRCs) to improve disaster response, prevention, recovery, and, where necessary, managed retreat for all communities throughout California. 

Agriculture & Food Security

Reduce agriculture-related emissions and transition all of California’s 25 million acres of agricultural lands to be maintained as a net sink of carbon. Reduce sector-wide net GHG emissions by 50% by 2025, achieve sector-wide net zero emissions by 2030, and maintain net annual negative carbon sequestration rates equivalent to at least 5% of the State 1990 baseline GHG emission levels by 2035. 

Transition to Regenerative Farming. The State shall lead a transition to sustainable, regenerative agricultural practices based on sound ecological principles that reduce GHG emissions, sequester carbon, bolster agricultural and food system resilience under climate change, and increase equitable ownership of California’s agricultural lands by developing and enforcing State standards for regenerative agriculture, with the target of implementing carbon-sequestering CDFA Healthy Soils management practices on at least 1 million acres of rangeland and farmland combined by 2025, 5 million acres by 2030, and 10 million acres by 2035. 

California Central Seed Supplier. The CDFA, under the supervision of its Director and in cooperation with the University of California and other California-based agricultural research organizations, shall establish a Central Seed Supplier responsible for securely maintaining healthy, genetically diverse stocks of agricultural and vegetable seeds for equitable distribution and sale to California-based farming operations at no or low cost. 

Sustainable fisheries and regenerative aquaculture. The State shall invest in regenerative ocean farming, community-based fisheries, and the development of blue economies to sequester carbon, create new jobs, and reduce food insecurity.

Energy

Regulatory Structure. Recreate California’s energy procurement, transmission, and distribution structure as a bottom-up, decentralized, layered-decomposition optimization model based on interlocking, islandable micro- and mesogrids overseen on local levels by Community Choice Energy (CCE) agencies, municipal utilities, or other non-profit Electric Service Providers, and on the state level by the California Independent Systems Operator, with the new California Energy Authority designated as the Provider of Last Resort for energy services for the entire State.

Energy Storage Investments. California shall increase its total energy storage capacity to 5 GW by 2025, 15 GW by 2030, and 40 GW by 2040 through the expansion of existing programs like Self-Generation Incentive Program (SGIP) and through other activities, such as retiring and replacing existing fossil fuel peaker power plants with energy storage. At least 50% of total storage capacity shall be installed as part of local microgrids, regional mesogrids, and/or as behind-the-meter distributed storage in order to ensure grid resiliency under disaster conditions.

Nuclear Decommissioning. Ensure the safe and rapid decommission of the state’s remaining nuclear power facilities, and provide transition funding for plant workers and local communities to offset economic and environmental costs associated with the facilities’ operation, closure, demolition, and waste management.

Industry 

Reduce total emissions from California’s industrial sector by 80% by 2028 and achieve a carbon neutral industrial and manufacturing sector by 2030. 

Fossil Fuel Production Ban. Place an immediate moratorium on all new in-state fossil fuel extraction operations and infrastructure, including wells, storage facilities, pumping stations, pipelines, etc, and take steps to end all production and use of fossil fuels in California. 

Environmental Accountability. In recognition that most environmental damage is done by corporate entities under the direction of private individuals, the State shall increase taxes, fines, and penalties for corporations, executives, board members, employees, and investors found guilty of environmental harm to actually deter violation of State and Federal law. Instances where corporate environmental harm has been proven to have directly and avoidably resulted in the loss of human life shall be required to result in non-avoidable prison time for any corporate leadership found responsible. 

Intensive Goods & Services Ban. Distributors of products or services determined by CalEPA through an annual review to be in the 90th percentile of carbon- or water-intensity for similar products or services shall be given until the next annual review to lower their score out of the 90th percentile, and if this target is not met that product or service shall be banned for sale in California until the distributor can prove to CalEPA’s satisfaction that the product or service is no longer in the 90th percentile of carbon- or water-intensity for similar products or services, to be enforced by the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA).

Community Food Program. The State shall direct the Department of Public Health (CDPH) and the CDFA to combine and expand California’s Farmer’s Market and Cottage Food Programs into a Community Food Program that will further incentivize local business creation and promote local food growth and distribution. This program shall allow individuals and small producers become certified Community Foods providers to sell foods they grow and/or prepare out of their homes and at designated Community Food Markets.

Waste Management

Promote a circular economy in California. Increase landfill diversion rate for compostable, organic materials and recyclable materials to 90% by 2025, and 100% by 2030. Ban the production and sale of single-use packaging and priority single-use plastic products in California by 2025 and all other single-use plastic articles by 2028. Require all municipal waste management districts to provide every business and household with waste pickup receptacles for both compostable and recyclable goods. Provide subsidies and grants to support the development of high-quality community reuse centers, where residents can procure low- or no-cost donated goods. 

Water

Modernize California water resource management. The State shall amend the California Water Code to review and redefine the “reasonable and beneficial” use of State water resources to explicitly account for the increasingly greater challenges faced by California under a rapidly-changing climate, in particular prohibiting the growing of crops in water-scarce areas that the CDFA determines to be low-utility or luxury crops. 

Statewide Water Bank System. Create a permanent Central Water Bank administered by the State Water Resources Control Board (WRCB), with coordinated Regional Water Banks in the nine regional WRCBs, to enable and facilitate statewide, inter-regional, and intra-regional groundwater and surface water transfers.

New & Reformed State Entities

  • Office of Climate Action (OCA). Part of the Air Resources Board (CARB), the OCA will coordinate regional climate action and serve as a central hub for climate action information.
  • California State Bank (CalBank). The existing California Infrastructure and Economic Development Bank (IBank) will be reformed as a central public bank that will coordinate climate action financing with regional public banks and administer the California Green Bond program that will be the main funding vehicle for California climate action.
  • California Green Corps (CGC). Administered through the California Labor & Workforce Development Agency, the CGC shall provide guaranteed education, training, and employment in green jobs for all Californians, and is responsible for ensuring a world-class green workforce and a just transition for all workers.  
  • Central Seed Supplier (CSS). As part of the Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA), the CSS will be responsible for securely maintaining healthy, genetically diverse stocks of agricultural and vegetable seeds for equitable distribution and sale to California-based farming operations at no or low cost to diminish the power of large private seed suppliers over small farmers. 
  • California Energy Authority (CEA). Re-establish the California Alternative Energy and Advanced Transportation Financing Authority as the CEA, which will be the Provider of Last Resort for energy procurement within a bottom-up, decentralized, layered-decomposition optimization model based on interlocking, islandable micro- and mesogrids overseen on municipal/regional scale by Community Choice Energy (CCE) agencies, municipal utilities, or other non-profit Electric Service Providers (ESP).
  • Office of Environmental Justice (OEJ). The OEJ will be established within the State Department of Justice to investigate and prosecute corporations, executives, and boards of directors responsible for grievous environmental harm by intent or willful neglect, and instances where corporate environmental harm has been proven to have directly and unavoidably resulted in the loss of human life will be required to result in non-avoidable prison time for any corporate leadership found responsible. 
  • Central & Regional Water Banks. A permanent Central Water Bank will be administered by the State Water Resources Control Board (WRCB), with coordinated Regional Water Banks in the nine regional WRCBs, to enable and facilitate statewide, inter-regional, and intra-regional groundwater and surface water management.
  • Water Rights Accounting Task Force. This Task Force will be responsible for immediately and regularly reviewing and quantifying existing claims to water use rights throughout the State to ensure all water use in California is for reasonable and beneficial use.

Expanded State Entities

  • Fair Political Practices Committee. This committee shall be specifically tasked with monitoring and correcting regulatory capture in State agencies, especially within agencies responsible for overseeing operations of the fossil fuel industry such as the Public Utilities Commission or the Geological Energy Management Division.
  • Climate and Sustainability Office (CSO). This California Department of Insurance office will be responsible for creating and enforcing climate-specific insurance regulations and ensuring Californians have access to affordable, reasonable climate insurance.