Overview

California businesses face increasing regulation related to air management and waste disposal. Solutions to improving air quality, safely handling waste, and reducing waste in our landfills must take a broad, science-based approach that does not place the entire burden for funding these programs upon businesses.

California law currently contains a plethora of statutes limiting or banning the use of chemicals in consumer products. The body of law governing the use of chemicals in products, producer responsibility for products, and local government responsibility for diverting portions of the waste stream continues to grow. Legislation dealing with these issues has historically been piecemeal and there is an increasing interest in developing a comprehensive approach to regulating these issues.

Goals

Oversee issues related to air quality and hazardous and solid waste, and recommend policies that meet the mutual objectives of protecting human health and the environment, while conserving the financial resources of business to the fullest extent possible.

Major Victories

• Sidelining Expensive, Unnecessary Regulatory Burdens: Halted proposals that would have increased costs for food packaging (AB 904), plastic packaging (SB 899) and consumer electronics (AB 48).

Issue Summaries

Consumer Product Safety Regulation
Position: The CalChamber will continue to engage with legislators and regulators in an effort to make sure that any decisions are based on sound science. The CalChamber supports efforts to make consumer products safer, and CalChamber members have designed products with that goal in mind. Any proposal must take into consideration the benefits to consumers that result from specific manufacturing processes, and companies that use chemicals in their manufacturing process to achieve specific results must have their trade secrets protected in order to preserve innovation and investment in California. Finally, any proposal must consider the appropriate roles of business, consumers and government when seeking to regulate the disposal of consumer products.

In-Use Heavy-Duty Diesel Vehicle Regulation
Position: The CalChamber believes that it is important to meet state and federal goals for improving California air quality in a timely fashion. However, the CalChamber does not support an overly aggressive implementation of new regulatory requirements that forces California businesses to make major investments in equipment that they already own and are using legally. Many California businesses have made major, long-term investments in vehicle fleets; regulatory action that could force them into replacing a relatively new fleet could be financially devastating. Any action by the ARB should be fashioned in a way that allows long-term investments to be realized in order to prevent significant impact on the California economy.

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