Oil spill prevention: gasoline specifications: suspension: California Environmental Quality Act: exemptions: County of Kern: transportation fuels assessment: coastal resources.

Senators Grayson, Hurtado, McNerney, and Richardson, joined by Assembly Member Wilson with Senator Caballero as principal coauthor, present a comprehensive package that weaves oil spill prevention, pipeline safety, and transportation-fuels policy into a coordinated framework for California’s mid-transition away from petroleum. The measure foregrounds transparency and public participation, requiring the administrator to publicly post all applications for certificates of financial responsibility for facilities and to solicit public input on those requirements at regular intervals.

A core set of changes centers on financial responsibility and safety planning. The administrator would publicly list each certificate-of-financial-resource application on the Office of Spill Prevention and Response website, including the facility’s name, the facility’s reasonable worst-case spill volume, the amount of demonstrated financial responsibility, and the type of evidence provided, with postings due within seven business days of receipt. Beginning January 15, 2027, the administrator would solicit public input every decade on the appropriateness of worst-case spill volumes and the financial-assurance calculations, and would revise the criteria and formulas accordingly through rulemaking. The bill also adds state guidance and oversight for oil spill contingency plans, including requirements that plans identify deployable equipment, response timelines, and hazard analyses, and that plans incorporate public-review provisions.

The package tightens pipeline safety and coastal-regulation provisions. It would prohibit restarting certain idle intrastate oil pipelines (6 inches or larger idle for five or more years) without completing a spike hydrostatic test meeting specified parameters, to be performed by a qualified testing company; the State Fire Marshal would issue implementing regulations and post hydrostatic-spike-test results publicly. In the coastal arena, the measure requires onshore transport of offshore oil by pipeline using the best achievable technology and eliminates the use of alternative modes of transportation, while expanding the definition of “expanded oil extraction” to include reactivation of idle facilities and other technologies. New coastal development permits would be required for repair, reactivation, or maintenance of oil facilities and pipelines that have been idle for five years or more, with the Geologic Energy Management Division or a local coastal program acting as appropriate lead agency. Monitoring programs for land-surface and near-shore movements would be instituted where large-scale fluid extraction begins, with costs borne by operators.

The bill also alters California’s land-use and permitting landscape in specific Kern County contexts. It deems a County SSREIR sufficient for full CEQA compliance in connection with amended Kern zoning revisions focused on oil and gas permitting, and it limits approvals reliant on that environmental review unless certain in-state production safeguards are shown to be necessary. The measure makes the Geologic Energy Management Division the lead agency for projects within Kern County that involve drilling notices within health-protection zones, and it imposes annual caps on notices of intention to drill unless a statewide finding supports additional permitting. The provisions are structured to apply prospectively and retroactively under defined conditions and would sunset in 2036, with related reimbursements addressed through state-mandated-review mechanisms.

On the fuels-front, the proposal authorizes temporary suspensions of regulatory control periods that limit gasoline’s Reid vapor pressure during periods of substantial price increases, after consultation with the Resources Board and the Energy Commission, and with attention to potential air-quality implications. It directs the Energy Commission to incorporate the next transportation-fuels assessment with an explicit focus on the feasibility of alternative gasoline specifications, the potential creation of a western regional (westwide) specification, and a strategy for permitting changes, including a possible one-stop permitting approach and fee mechanisms to offset emission impacts. The first assessment would also examine refinery maintenance and supply dynamics, with coordination across the Commission, the Air Resources Board, ports, and other agencies, and would consider leveraging data from the Labor and Industrial Relations agencies to ensure refinery safety considerations are integrated.

The bill’s findings frame the policy as an intentional mid-transition response that protects communities while supporting workers and refineries through a holistic transition away from petroleum. Authors assert a need to plan for refinery closures, address potential financial liabilities, and coordinate governance to stabilize fuel supplies, price competitiveness, and environmental protection, while emphasizing local-to-state coordination and targeted reforms in Kern County. The package thus ties enhanced oversight and transparency to strategic adjustments in fuel regulation, transport, and coastal permitting, all within the broader aim of maintaining safety, public health, and environmental quality during California’s transition away from petroleum.