My Legislation

Assemblymember Nava is working on two bills addressing oil spills. The first bill, AB 1960 will establish a comprehensive spill prevention program through the Department of Conservation’s Division of Oil, Gas, and Geothermal Resources.

Nava’s bill requires the Division of Oil and Gas to set minimum maintenance standards for oil facilities. If an oil operator fails to meet these minimum maintenance standards, the Division will be authorized to shut the facility down until it meets the new maintenance standards.

AB 1960 further prevents spills by requiring that oil production facilities with a history of negligence put money into a bond fund that will be controlled by the Division of Oil and Gas. The Division will be able to use this bond fund to pay for the negligent operators’ shortcomings in oil spill prevention efforts and it will ensure the safe decommissioning of wells and tanks.

Where AB 1960 will work to prevent oil spills, a second bill AB 2911, that Mr. Nava is Coauthoring with Assemblymember Lois Wolk, will improve oil spill response and enforcement. AB 2911 will require the Department of Fish and Game’s Office of Spill Prevention and Response to respond to inland oil spills in the same manner that they respond to marine oil spills. While inland spills in California occur roughly three times as frequently as marine spills and represent a substantially larger volume of pollution, there is less funding and less personnel available to respond to these spills.  

According to data provided by the Office of Spill Prevention and Response, only about 1/3 of inland spills are even responded to. AB 2911 will address these shortcomings in inland spill response and enforcement by authorizing the Department of Fish and Game to develop new funding sources to cover costs for response and cleanup of inland oil spills in waters of the state.

This bill will not only improve the Department of Fish and Game’s inland oil spill response capabilities it also augments enforcement capabilities. AB 2911 doubles civil penalties for both inland and marine spills, increases the criminal penalties for inland oil spills, and doubles the administrative penalties that exist for spills caused by negligence. Fish and Game will be able to increase the penalties depending on the operator’s history of offenses and how much harm was caused to the environment. 

These two measures, which are both supported by Governor Schwarzenegger, will change the way that negligent operators in California are dealt with by state agencies. They will both improve prevention of oil spills as well as increase spill enforcement and response. When enacted, AB 1960 and AB 2911 will ensure that the amount and volume of environmental degradation in California is drastically reduced.

These two measures, which are both supported by Governor Schwarzenegger, will change the way that negligent operators in California are dealt with by state agencies. They will both improve prevention of oil spills as well as increase enforcement and response of spills. When enacted, AB 1960 and AB 2911 will ensure that the amount and volume of environmental degradation is drastically reduced.