Legislation Update

The legislature is back in full swing and the bill introduction deadline has passed. CRA compiled a list of bills for review with feedback needed on a lot of them. We rely heavily on the feedback our members provide so please take a look at the list and let Ryan know any thoughts, concerns and general feedback. View CRA's bill list here.

Also, if you have no concerns or feedback please let Ryan know that as well as this will help prioritize our issues. As a reminder, bills must be in print for 30 days after their introduction before they can be acted upon, and given the California Primary election is next Tuesday, March 5, we do not expect many bills to be taken up in committee until mid-March at the earliest. We did want to highlight a few bills below that are not on the bill list as their language is still being worked on.

Self-checkout – CRA was notified that Sen. Smallwood-Cuevas will be amending one of her current bills to address staffing requirements for self-checkout. We understand this may take the form of a staffing floor or ratio for staff per self-checkout lane. This bill is sponsored by labor.

Warehouses – Last year Asm. Reyes ran a bill, AB 1000, that required minimum setback measurements to be made from the property line of the sensitive receptor to the property line of warehouses. This was effectively a moratorium on the building of new warehouses in California. The author attempted to move this bill out of the Assembly in January, but assembly leadership stepped in and had the author pull the bill from committee, effectively killing the bill in the current form. As a compromise, the assembly now has a warehouse working group of legislators and a few stakeholders. We will update members as those discussions progress and once a new bill is introduced. 

Receipts –  Asm. Ting has shared with us he intends to insert language into AB 2244 that will prohibit bisphenols in receipt paper. Specifically, starting on January 1, 2025, AB 2244 would prohibit manufacturers and businesses from using BPA chemicals in paper receipts. Starting on January 1, 2026, manufacturers and businesses will be prohibited from using all bisphenol chemicals in receipts. Asm. Ting ran a bill last year targeted at receipts and included very problematic language dictating when retailers can or cannot give receipts, along with requiring an e-receipt option, in addition to the bisphenol language. Last year, a CRA-led coalition asked for the bill to be amended to only include the bisphenol language. 

Additional Advocacy

State Budget – CRA sent a letter to the California Department of Finance opposing Governor Newsom's proposal to eliminate a provision of the Revenue and Tax Code that allows a retailer or lender to take a deduction or refund of the sales or use tax previously reported and paid by the retailer. This proposal would only increase tax revenues by $25 million, yet it would have a significant negative impact on California businesses, consumers and the state’s economy as a whole. Read the letter here.

Anti-Trust – CRA sent a letter to the California Law Revision Commission Legislative Counsel Bureau regarding the Commission's Study B-750 of antitrust and competition laws. The Commission has developed a comprehensive and ambitious agenda, covering business practices and legal arrangements that would implicate the entire California economy – large and small businesses, the vast and diverse range of industrial and service sectors, reaching economic activity in every corner of the state and we are requesting that the all reports from the study be released together rather than in isolated batches to allow for a better understanding of the complexity of issues that are being framed for the Commission, and to provide comment and deeper analysis, if necessary, on the work products. Read the letter here.

CRA Monthly Policy Calls

The following includes the remainder of the 2024 monthly policy call calendar covering this year's legislative session (dates are subject to change). Policy calls are held on Fridays at 10:00am PT.

• March 15
• April 19
• May 17
• June 21
• No meeting in July
• August 16

CARB Updates

Advanced Clean Fleets

Reporting Instructional Videos

Trucks covered by the ACF regulation will need to be reported in the Truck Regulation Upload, Compliance and Reporting System (TRUCRS). Several instructional videos have been created that demonstrate the basics of reporting into the TRUCRS system. These videos are short and provide step by step instructions for how to report. View the videos here.

Reporting guidance, regulation language, advisories, fact sheets and other compliance tools can be accessed through the Advanced Clean Fleets, Registration and Reporting webpage here.

If you already have a TRUCRS account and cannot remember your login, do not create another account. Please use the password recovery feature as creating a second account will automatically lock both accounts. Access the recovery feature here.

If you have created a second account or are locked out and don’t have access to the email used to create the original account, reach out to TRUCRS@arb.ca.gov or call the Hotline at (866) 634-3735 for assistance.

Timely reporting is essential to avoid potential registration denial or delay when registering your vehicle with DMV.

To begin the reporting process, please visit the TRUCRS online reporting portal here.

TRUCRS Questions and Answers (Q&A) Session

CARB will be holding a Q&A session for TRUCRS reporting system on Tuesday, March 5, 2024 from 9AM -11AM PST. The Q&A session is free and will only focus on ACF reporting in TRUCRS, fleet specific ACF compliance assistance will not be provided at this session. For more information including how to register and submit questions/comments click here.

TRIG

CARB held the third Truck Regulation Implementation Group (TRIG) Outreach meeting and during the meeting the Agency announced the publishing of a new calendar that provides regulation compliance information and deadlines by month. View the calendar here. If your company has feedback to share with CARB on the calendar and any other outreach related items for the ACF (how CARB can better communicate/reach out to the public about ACF compliance) and/or would like to request a CARB ACF representative to speak with your company or our members about compliance-related issues, please email sarah@calretailers.com. These meetings are also open to the public. Access to past TRIG meeting recordings are available here.

Cal Fleet Advisor Update

Cal Fleet Advisor offers personalized assistance in transitioning to medium- and heavy-duty zero-emission vehicles (ZEVs). Get information on how to enroll and upcoming events that offer hands-on knowledge here.

Postponement of the Public Hearing to Consider Proposed Low Carbon Fuel Standard Amendments

By notice dated December 19, 2023, CARB announced it would conduct a public hearing to consider proposed amendments to the Low Carbon Fuel Standard Regulation under Division 3, Chapter 1, Subchapter 10, Article 4, Subarticle 7 (Low Carbon Fuel Standard) under Title 17, California Code of Regulations. The hearing was scheduled for March 21, 2024, at 9:00 a.m. at the Cal EPA building located at 1001 “I” Street, Byron Sher Auditorium, Second Floor, Sacramento, CA, but has now been postponed. A subsequent notice will follow in the future with more information, including the date, time and location of the rescheduled hearing. The public comment period for this regulatory action, which began on January 5, 2024, and closed on February 20, 2024, will not be extended. View the postponement notice here.

Privacy

The California Chamber of Commerce petitioned the state Supreme Court to review an appellate court decision to allow the California Privacy Protection Agency to begin enforcing California Privacy Rights Act regulations. CalChamber argued the CPPA failed to develop final regulations as required under the ballot measure approving the CPRA, and therefore cannot begin enforcement until the completion of a year-long grace period for businesses to comply with the law. 

Cal/OSHA Updates

Lead

As expected, the Board passed the proposed update to CA’s lead regulation (applying to both construction and general industry) by a vote of 5-2, despite significant opposition comments. Criticisms from stakeholders included:

• New draft will not significantly improve safety but will raise cost.
• The relevant cost estimates grossly inaccurate.
• No clear evidence that current standard isn’t protecting workers sufficiently.

Opponents pushed Cal/OSHA to delay and improve this draft, but were unsuccessful in convincing the Board. Proponents pointed out that the present lead standard is outdated and needs to be significantly lowered. Numerous CA Dept of Public Health officials called in and commented, which is relatively uncommon. Full information is available here.

Board Members spoke strongly on both sides - with Management Representatives Kathleen Crawford and Chris Laczsz-Davis voicing strong concerns about the requirements of the standard being unclear and badly written, despite widespread agreement on the science. Chair Thomas, Labor Rep Laura Stock, and others pushed strongly for adoption. Ultimately, all except the 2 management representatives voted in favor.

Indoor Heat

To be voted on in March 2024. A surprising 3rd 15-day change was sent out in late Dec, with the text available here.

The change was relatively small and focused on the issue of “outdoor sheds”, or structures that employees enter briefly but are not air conditioned. Full regulatory information here.

Workplace Violence

Recent legislation (SB 553 – 2023) essentially puts a “regulation-like” set of requirements into effect on July 1 of 2024, even though the Board has not begun formal rulemaking. Cal/OSHA plans to conduct an Advisory Committee to move the recent legislative text (with small potential tweaks) into Title 8 – but that advisory committee will likely not take place until mid-late 2024. 



The communications team at Cal/OSHA program has emphasized that they intend to release helpful informational materials (such as template workplace violence prevention plans and FAQs for employers/employees) well before the July 1 effective date, but we don’t know exactly when this will be out.

A request was made in public comment for inclusion of naloxone on job sites, which is also presently being pushed via legislation (AB 1976 - Haney). However, there has not been any petition on this front at this point, so this is not yet a rulemaking, though it could be merged into the Board’s second attempt to update their First Aid regulation, which should be proceeding this year.