931 new laws for 2015: What have they been cooking up in Sacramento?

California’s legislators in Sacramento passed a total of 931 laws during the regular session in 2014. Most took effect on Jan. 1, 2015. Some became effective immediately on passage and others will take effect on July 1, 2015.

A list of all the new California laws can be found at http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pdf/BillsEnactedReport2014.pdf. The laws will touch every California resident in various ways and intensities. Forde Files – while trying not to get distracted by the narrower and regional pieces of legislation – reviewed some bills of interest to Loop readers. The information is sourced for the most part from the Assembly and Senate analyses, which are excellent (available at http://www.leginfo.ca.gov).

Emergency response planning for rail carrier oil spills

Is there a resident of the Greater Tehachapi area who, while waiting on Green Street for a freight train to pass, has not wondered what those round cars contain, and what would happen if the train had an accident? Assembly Bill 380 requires rail carriers to submit specific information regarding the transport of hazardous materials and Bakken oil to the Office of Emergency Services (OES) for the purposes of emergency response planning.

Among other provisions, the bill requires “no later than Jan. 31, 2015, and every three months thereafter, a rail carrier to prepare and submit to OES commodity flow data for the prior three months, broken down by county and track route relevant to the 25 largest hazardous material commodities transported through the state, including tank cars loaded with oil cargo.” Further, the bill requires the development of emergency response plans. Each rail carrier is “to maintain a response management communications center, which is required to provide real-time information to an authorized public safety answering point or 911 emergency response center” regarding a hazardous material or oil cargo incident.

The Senate analysis states that “The shipment of crude oil by rail in tank cars into California is growing exponentially. According to the Association of American Railroads, roughly 400,000 carloads of crude oil traveled to West coast refineries in 2013. This is a 4,000 percent increase when compared to the amount of oil shipped in 2008.” The volume of oil brought into California by rail, the report says, has gone from 45,000 barrels in 2008 to more than six million barrels in 2013.

An Assembly analysis by Bob Fredenburg states that “hydraulic fracturing [fracking] boom in other areas of the country, particularly in North Dakota with its Bakken oil shale formation, has been a major reason for the increase” in oil cargo. In California in 2012, 1.1 million barrels of oil moved by rail; in 2013, the number rose to more than six million. For the first six months of 2014, crude-by-rail numbers were up 66.1 percent (3.1 million barrels) compared to the first six months of 2013 (1.9 million barrels).

Oil spill incidents have increased as well. “In 2013, the country experienced more oil spilled from trains than in the previous 37 years combined,” Fredenburg wrote.

His analysis notes that of six major infrastructure projects involving refinery expansions and retrofits to allow for more imported oil, two are located in Bakersfield: the Plains All American facility, which is under construction and will service 90 cars a day; and the planned Alon facility, which will service 200 cars a day.

The petroleum industry is working with the OES on emergency plans, which complement federal regulations. The Sierra Club opposed the bill.

Single-use plastic bag ban

This plastic bag ban, Senate Bill 270, will prohibit grocery and large retail stores with a pharmacy from providing single-use carry out bags to customers beginning July 1, 2015. Convenience stores, food marts, liquor stores and other establishments (those who care to participate voluntarily) will be required to comply with the new law beginning Jan. 1, 2016. The stores may sell recycled paper bags or reusable plastic bags for 10 cents each at point of sale. People using WIC or EBT cards do not have to pay the 10 cents to receive an approved bag. The reusable bags are supposed to be able to be used 125 times.

According to the Senate analysis, 87 cities and counties throughout California have adopted ordinances banning plastic bags.

“Plastic bags and plastic film together represent just over 2 percent of the waste stream,” the report says, “and every year California taxpayers spend $25 million disposing of the 14 billion plastic bags used annually.” Plastics, while representing a relatively small part of the waste stream in California, comprise 60 to 80 percent of all marine debris and 90 percent of all floating debris.

The law establishes a $2 million special fund for CalRecycle to create a loan program for conversion of plastics manufacturing facilities and worker re-training.

The American Progressive Bag Alliance is mounting a legal challenge to the law. The industry struggles and job losses do not impress the executive of an anti-waste group, who blamed “corporate special interests” for opposing the ban and said in a press release that “the dying plastic bag industry… can’t read the writing on the wall about their product.”

The California Grocers Association, faced with “a dizzying array of more than 100 local ordinances regulating single-use carryout bags” (says Senate analysis), apparently is not unhappy to see some consistency applied throughout the state.

Affirmative consent standard for sexual activity in California colleges and universities

(Only yes means yes)

Senate Bill 967 adds a section to the California Education Code that requires colleges and universities -- in order to receive state funds for student financial assistance -- to adopt policies concerning sexual assault, domestic violence, dating violence and stalking that include an affirmative consent standard to determine whether a complainant agreed to have sexual relations.

The law requires that parties who are working up to a sexual encounter dispel all doubt as to their intentions. It says that all parties must offer “affirmative, conscious and voluntary agreement” to engage in sexual activity.

“It is the responsibility of each person involved in the sexual activity to ensure that he or she has the affirmative consent of the other or others to engage in sexual activity. Lack of protest or resistance does not mean consent, nor does silence mean consent,” the law says.

Under the law, a participant must keep saying he or she wants sex as the encounter progresses, and it doesn’t matter if they have had sex with each other previously.

“Affirmative consent must be ongoing throughout a sexual activity and can be revoked at any time,” the law says. “The existence of a dating relationship between the persons involved, or the fact of past sexual relations between them, should never by itself be assumed to be an indicator of consent.”

The law states that the accused party, upon being faced with a complaint, should have been responsible enough to make sure the complainant was not drunk, incapacitated, asleep or unconscious.

The law calls for investigative protocols, victim advocates and support people.

Hospital seismic extensions

Assembly Bill 2557 grants five hospitals additional extensions to seismic safety deadlines. Following a first extension to Jan. 1, 2008, the five hospitals asked the California Office of Statewide Planning and Development until Sept. 1, 2015 to complete the seismic work as required by the Alfred E. Alquist Hospital Facilities Seismic Act of 1983. The AB 2557 analysis states: “According to the author [of the bill], OSHPD recently identified five outstanding hospital projects that are working toward the Jan. 1, 2015, deadline, which, due to extenuating circumstances such as flooding and unforeseeable construction delays, may not be completed on time. Not meeting the Jan. 1, 2015 deadline could result in the hospitals losing their licenses and jeopardizing their ability to participate in Medicate and Medicaid. This bill provides an eight-month extension to the Jan. 1, 2015 deadline for those hospitals, ensuring their communities’ uninterrupted access to health care.”

The extension will enable to hospitals to obtain either a certificate of occupancy or an OSHPD construction final.

The hospitals are the Goleta Valley Cottage Hospital, Regional Medical Center of San Jose, Santa Ynez Valley Cottage Hospital, Sequoia Hospital (Redwood City) and Sutter Memorial Hospital (Sacramento). See the text of AB 2557 for specific reasons for the delays (Tehachapi isn’t the Lone Ranger!).

The Tehachapi Acute Care Replacement Hospital, now under construction, also has been beset with extenuating circumstances and unforeseeable construction delays, and the Tehachapi Valley Healthcare District is requesting a similar extension. In her December report, Project Manager Stacey Pray said, “The district’s deadline for their seismic compliance deadline has been Jan. 1, 2016. The Replacement hospital will not be completed by the deadline. In October 2014, the board agreed to retain SWA [the hospital architect] to file for an extension under SB90. Prior to filing, a HAZUS analysis is needed for the existing hospital. This analysis is under way.” SB 90, passed in 2012, allows a hospital to seek an extension for seismic compliance for up to seven years based on the structural integrity of the building, the loss of essential hospital services to the community if the hospital is closed and financial hardship. A HAZUS analysis estimates potential losses from earthquakes, floods and hurricanes.

Others (important too)

AB 1104 Biogas pipeline CEQA exemption in Fresno, Kern, Kings and Tulare counties... AB 504 No raising of genetically modified fish...AB 336 Possession of condoms at time of arrest does not mean the person is a prostitute... New carbon tax at the gas pump (from 2006 Greenhouse Gas law).... Legislature 2014-15 session began Dec. 1, 2014; return Jan. 5.