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	<ns0:Description>
		<ns0:Id>20250AB__039996ENR</ns0:Id>
		<ns0:VersionNum>96</ns0:VersionNum>
		<ns0:History>
			<ns0:Action>
				<ns0:ActionText>INTRODUCED</ns0:ActionText>
				<ns0:ActionDate>2025-02-04</ns0:ActionDate>
			</ns0:Action>
			<ns0:Action>
				<ns0:ActionText>AMENDED_SENATE</ns0:ActionText>
				<ns0:ActionDate>2025-06-25</ns0:ActionDate>
			</ns0:Action>
			<ns0:Action>
				<ns0:ActionText>AMENDED_SENATE</ns0:ActionText>
				<ns0:ActionDate>2025-08-29</ns0:ActionDate>
			</ns0:Action>
			<ns0:Action>
				<ns0:ActionText>PASSED_ASSEMBLY</ns0:ActionText>
				<ns0:ActionDate>2025-09-08</ns0:ActionDate>
			</ns0:Action>
			<ns0:Action>
				<ns0:ActionText>PASSED_SENATE</ns0:ActionText>
				<ns0:ActionDate>2025-09-04</ns0:ActionDate>
			</ns0:Action>
			<ns0:Action>
				<ns0:ActionText>ENROLLED</ns0:ActionText>
				<ns0:ActionDate>2025-09-10</ns0:ActionDate>
			</ns0:Action>
		</ns0:History>
		<ns0:LegislativeInfo>
			<ns0:SessionYear>2025</ns0:SessionYear>
			<ns0:SessionNum>0</ns0:SessionNum>
			<ns0:MeasureType>AB</ns0:MeasureType>
			<ns0:MeasureNum>399</ns0:MeasureNum>
			<ns0:MeasureState>ENR</ns0:MeasureState>
		</ns0:LegislativeInfo>
		<ns0:AuthorText authorType="LEAD_AUTHOR">Introduced by Assembly Member Boerner</ns0:AuthorText>
		<ns0:AuthorText authorType="COAUTHOR_ORIGINATING">(Coauthors: Assembly Members Bryan, Kalra, and Muratsuchi)</ns0:AuthorText>
		<ns0:Authors>
			<ns0:Legislator>
				<ns0:Contribution>LEAD_AUTHOR</ns0:Contribution>
				<ns0:House>ASSEMBLY</ns0:House>
				<ns0:Name>Boerner</ns0:Name>
			</ns0:Legislator>
			<ns0:Legislator>
				<ns0:Contribution>COAUTHOR</ns0:Contribution>
				<ns0:House>ASSEMBLY</ns0:House>
				<ns0:Name>Bryan</ns0:Name>
			</ns0:Legislator>
			<ns0:Legislator>
				<ns0:Contribution>COAUTHOR</ns0:Contribution>
				<ns0:House>ASSEMBLY</ns0:House>
				<ns0:Name>Kalra</ns0:Name>
			</ns0:Legislator>
			<ns0:Legislator>
				<ns0:Contribution>COAUTHOR</ns0:Contribution>
				<ns0:House>ASSEMBLY</ns0:House>
				<ns0:Name>Muratsuchi</ns0:Name>
			</ns0:Legislator>
		</ns0:Authors>
		<ns0:Title> An act to add Sections 30100.3 and 30237 to the Public Resources Code, relating to coastal resources. </ns0:Title>
		<ns0:RelatingClause>coastal resources</ns0:RelatingClause>
		<ns0:GeneralSubject>
			<ns0:Subject>Coastal resources: coastal development permits: blue carbon demonstration projects.</ns0:Subject>
		</ns0:GeneralSubject>
		<ns0:DigestText>
			<html:p>Existing law, the California Coastal Act of 1976, among other things, requires anyone wishing to perform or undertake any development in the coastal zone, except as specified, in addition to obtaining any other permit required by law from any local government or from any state, regional, or local agency, to obtain a coastal development permit from the California Coastal Commission or local government, as provided.</html:p>
			<html:p>This bill, upon appropriation, would authorize the commission to authorize blue carbon demonstration projects, as defined, in order to demonstrate and quantify the carbon sequestration potential of these projects to help inform the state’s
			 natural and working lands and climate resilience strategies. The bill, upon appropriation, would, among other things, authorize the commission to require an applicant with a nonresidential project that impacts coastal wetland, subtidal, intertidal, or marine habitats or ecosystems to build or contribute to a blue carbon demonstration project as mitigation for those impacts.</html:p>
		</ns0:DigestText>
		<ns0:DigestKey>
			<ns0:VoteRequired>MAJORITY</ns0:VoteRequired>
			<ns0:Appropriation>NO</ns0:Appropriation>
			<ns0:FiscalCommittee>YES</ns0:FiscalCommittee>
			<ns0:LocalProgram>NO</ns0:LocalProgram>
		</ns0:DigestKey>
		<ns0:MeasureIndicators>
			<ns0:ImmediateEffect>NO</ns0:ImmediateEffect>
			<ns0:ImmediateEffectFlags>
				<ns0:Urgency>NO</ns0:Urgency>
				<ns0:TaxLevy>NO</ns0:TaxLevy>
				<ns0:Election>NO</ns0:Election>
				<ns0:UsualCurrentExpenses>NO</ns0:UsualCurrentExpenses>
				<ns0:BudgetBill>NO</ns0:BudgetBill>
				<ns0:Prop25TrailerBill>NO</ns0:Prop25TrailerBill>
			</ns0:ImmediateEffectFlags>
		</ns0:MeasureIndicators>
	</ns0:Description>
	<ns0:Bill id="bill">
		<ns0:Preamble>The people of the State of California do enact as follows:</ns0:Preamble>
		<ns0:BillSection id="id_918BB71D-25DB-4DF1-ACF8-549860717748">
			<ns0:Num>SECTION 1.</ns0:Num>
			<ns0:Content>
				<html:p>The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:</html:p>
				<html:p>
					(a)
					<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
					California has set the targets to reduce carbon emissions 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2030 and 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050.
				</html:p>
				<html:p>
					(b)
					<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
					In 2020, Governor Gavin Newsom signed Executive Order No. N-82-20, directing the Natural Resources Agency, in consultation with other state agencies, to develop a Natural and Working Lands Climate Smart Strategy that serves as a framework to advance the state’s carbon neutrality goal and build climate resilience.
				</html:p>
				<html:p>
					(c)
					<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
					Executive Order No. N-82-20 also set the goal to conserve at least 30 percent of state land and coastal waters by 2030 and a recent Natural Resources Agency report on implementation recognizes the need to restore degraded coastal habitats to capture carbon and mitigate climate change impacts.
				</html:p>
				<html:p>
					(d)
					<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
					Blue carbon, which is carbon held and stored in coastal vegetation, such as seagrasses and wetlands, holds great potential to help the state meet its climate goals. Recent studies have found that coastal wetlands in some instances capture carbon at a greater rate than tropical forests and store three to five times more carbon per equivalent area than these forests.
				</html:p>
				<html:p>
					(e)
					<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
					The State Air Resources Board’s draft 2022 scoping plan update does not specifically include blue carbon in
				the state’s natural and working lands inventory due, in part, to the limited availability of data and methodologies to inventory the stored carbon.
				</html:p>
				<html:p>
					(f)
					<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
					Given the potential of blue carbon sequestration, blue carbon demonstration projects in California may help the state better understand how blue carbon could potentially contribute to the state achieving its carbon neutrality and climate resilience goals.
				</html:p>
			</ns0:Content>
		</ns0:BillSection>
		<ns0:BillSection id="id_6E2BFA7E-D283-4A4C-A6C6-D97EB0E21110">
			<ns0:Num>SEC. 2.</ns0:Num>
			<ns0:ActionLine action="IS_ADDED" ns3:href="urn:caml:codes:PRC:caml#xpointer(%2Fcaml%3ALawDoc%2Fcaml%3ACode%2F%2Fcaml%3ALawSection%5Bcaml%3ANum%3D'30100.3'%5D)" ns3:label="fractionType: LAW_SECTION" ns3:type="locator">
				Section 30100.3 is added to the 
				<ns0:DocName>Public Resources Code</ns0:DocName>
				, to read:
			</ns0:ActionLine>
			<ns0:Fragment>
				<ns0:LawSection id="id_078A3C5F-CB42-454E-80DB-534197296DE5">
					<ns0:Num>30100.3.</ns0:Num>
					<ns0:LawSectionVersion id="id_C90C7516-F8B3-4201-A207-651C295104AC">
						<ns0:Content>
							<html:p>“Blue carbon demonstration project” means the restoration of coastal wetland, subtidal, intertidal, or marine habitats or ecosystems, including, but not limited to, wetlands and seagrasses, that can take up and sequester carbon. A blue carbon demonstration project is limited to all of the following:</html:p>
							<html:p>
								(a)
								<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
								Ecologically appropriate locations where the habitat or ecosystem had historically occurred and subsequently become degraded or removed.
							</html:p>
							<html:p>
								(b)
								<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
								The restoration of the habitat or ecosystem to its historical state to provide ecosystem services and habitat values, to the extent feasible.
							</html:p>
							<html:p>
								(c)
								<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
								The use of diverse native species.
							</html:p>
						</ns0:Content>
					</ns0:LawSectionVersion>
				</ns0:LawSection>
			</ns0:Fragment>
		</ns0:BillSection>
		<ns0:BillSection id="id_940B9F37-41AF-4C1D-AD53-685FCF8AAD86">
			<ns0:Num>SEC. 3.</ns0:Num>
			<ns0:ActionLine action="IS_ADDED" ns3:href="urn:caml:codes:PRC:caml#xpointer(%2Fcaml%3ALawDoc%2Fcaml%3ACode%2F%2Fcaml%3ALawSection%5Bcaml%3ANum%3D'30237'%5D)" ns3:label="fractionType: LAW_SECTION" ns3:type="locator">
				Section 30237 is added to the 
				<ns0:DocName>Public Resources Code</ns0:DocName>
				, to read:
			</ns0:ActionLine>
			<ns0:Fragment>
				<ns0:LawSection id="id_D26976A6-3D5D-471B-B6EB-1587423F7B28">
					<ns0:Num>30237.</ns0:Num>
					<ns0:LawSectionVersion id="id_B24ED33D-472C-423A-9AF0-92F2E36F2E68">
						<ns0:Content>
							<html:p>
								(a)
								<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
								The commission may authorize blue carbon demonstration projects in order to demonstrate and quantify the carbon sequestration potential of these projects to help inform the state’s natural and working lands and climate resilience strategies.
							</html:p>
							<html:p>
								(b)
								<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
								The commission may require an applicant with a nonresidential project that impacts coastal wetland, subtidal, intertidal, or marine habitats or ecosystems to build or contribute to a blue carbon demonstration project as mitigation for those impacts.
							</html:p>
							<html:p>
								(c)
								<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
								The commission shall consult with the State Air Resources Board, the Department of Fish and Wildlife, the
						State Coastal Conservancy, the State Lands Commission, and other public entities, and seek consultation with the United States Army Corps of Engineers and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, in developing the blue carbon demonstration project program.
							</html:p>
							<html:p>
								(d)
								<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
								Each blue carbon demonstration project shall be designed, monitored, and have sufficient data collected in order to demonstrate the carbon uptake and sequestration achieved. This shall include an evaluation of relevant factors affecting the permanence of the sequestration. The results shall be presented to the commission in a public hearing.
							</html:p>
							<html:p>
								(e)
								<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
								This section shall become operative only upon appropriation by the Legislature for its purposes.
							</html:p>
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					</ns0:LawSectionVersion>
				</ns0:LawSection>
			</ns0:Fragment>
		</ns0:BillSection>
	</ns0:Bill>
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