Legislative policy committee hearings are in full swing at the California Capitol. CLFP is tracking over 175 bills and has taken a position on nearly 50 bills that impact the food processing industry. All lobbying efforts are remote due to the pandemic. The deadline to pass bills out of each house is May 21, 2021. There are several priority issues that CLFP is actively engaging on or closely monitoring.
• Employer Mandates: There is an unprecedented number of bills that would adversely impact employers. The highest priority bills that CLFP is actively opposing include burdensome new leave proposals, a forced unionization process for agricultural workers, COVID-19 employee notification requirements, costly requirement for employers to pay for employee childcare, and criminal liability for good faith mistakes on wage and hour laws.
• Air Quality Permits: CLFP is opposing a measure that would require facilities applying for a new or modified permit to prepare a duplicative environmental impact report and would require air districts to pass new rules that would apply to a significantly expanded list of facilities. The bill would require unnecessary and overlapping regulations for criteria pollutants that are already regulated and managed at the Federal, State, and local level, creating administrative hurdles and substantial costs on the regulated community.
• Climate Corporate Accountability Act: CLFP is strongly opposed to a measure that would impose a mandatory climate tracking, auditing, and cap on climate emissions. The requirements of the bill apply to not only a company’s California plant sites or products, but for its worldwide operations. It sets out three types of emissions including direct emissions, indirect emissions from electricity purchased by a company, and “all other” indirect emissions including supply chain, business travel, employee commutes, procurement, waste, and water usage. The bill is unworkable and would impose a heavy and costly burden on companies throughout California.
• Non-Energy Benefits/Rate Increase: A CLFP opposed bill proposes to add non-jurisdictional “benefits” into statutory cost-benefit analysis conducted by the Public Utilities Commission, resulting in cost shifts to ratepayers. The bill would require that the California Public Utility Commission (CPUC) develop a common definition of “nonenergy benefits” in all distributed energy resource programs, which, in many circumstances could be contrary to the core purpose of the CPUC to determine appropriate rates and ensure reliable utility services.
• Plastics Pollution Reduction: As a continuation from last session, several bills have been introduced to reduce single-use plastic packaging. CLFP remains engaged in an industry coalition stakeholder process with the authors and proponents of the measures. The industry coalition is advocating for a workable solution to plastic pollution that includes enhanced infrastructure funding and statewide jurisdictional recycling uniformity.
• Surface Water Standard: CLFP is part of a diverse coalition of agricultural, industrial, and municipal interests in opposition to a bill that would impose unobtainable discharge limits to surface water. The bill would require discharges to meet drinking water standards which would cripple industrial, institutional, and agricultural operations.
California League Of Food Producers