Bay Area Air Quality Management District and South Coast Air Quality Management District: policies: oil refineries.

Under existing law, the Lewis-Presley Air Quality Management Act establishes the South Coast Air Quality Management District in those portions of the Counties of Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, and San Bernardino included within the South Coast Air Basin as the local agency with the responsibility for comprehensive air pollution control within the basin.

This bill would require the Bay Area Air Quality Management District and the South Coast Air Quality Management District, on or before December 31, 2027, to analyze specified policies to determine the cost of compliance, potential cost to consumers, impacts on state and local tax revenue, refinery employment, and impacts on the statewide gasoline supply, as provided. The bill would also require those districts, on or before January 1, 2028, to make a good faith effort to minimize any adverse impacts identified pursuant to that requirement. By requiring a higher level of service of local entities, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program.

Existing law requires, whenever a district intends to propose the adoption, amendment, or repeal of a rule or regulation that will significantly affect air quality or emissions limitations, that district to perform an assessment of the socioeconomic impacts of the adoption, amendment, or repeal of the rule or regulation. Existing law defines "socioeconomic impact" for these purposes.

With respect to the adoption, amendment, or repeal of a rule or regulation related to oil refineries by the Bay Area Air Quality Management District and the South Coast Air Quality Management District, the bill would expand the definition of "socioeconomic impact" to also mean the cost to consumers, impacts on state and local tax revenue, and impacts on the statewide gasoline supply. The bill would also require those districts to actively consider those additional socioeconomic impacts and make a good faith effort to minimize any adverse impacts, as provided, before adopting, amending, or repealing a rule or regulation related to oil refineries.

This bill would make legislative findings and declarations as to the necessity of a special statute for the Bay Area Air Quality Management District and the South Coast Air Quality Management District.

The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement.

This bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above.