Highlights
  • The 2022-23 budget includes $23.7 billion from various fund sources—the General Fund, bond funds, and a number of special funds—for programs related to natural resources and environmental protection, a net decrease of $8.7 billion compared to the final amount actually implemented in the 2021-22 budget year (many investments in the 2021-22 budget were multi-year). This decrease is primarily due to the large amount of one-time funding (mostly from the General Fund) provided in 2021-22. The largest in terms of General Fund spending is the combined Energy Package ,which includes energy reliability and clean energy for a total of $6.7 billion. This includes $2.4 billion total over five years to secure additional electricity resources intended to ensure summer electric reliability and $900 million for residential solar and storage. Within clean energy, most of the funding is targeted toward equitable building decarbonization ($1.1 billion over five years) and long-duration energy storage ($380 million over two years).
  • The ZEV package includes $6.1 billion in total ($3.56 billion General Fund) over five years, although $3 billion of that total investment in 2023-24 and beyond is subject to future appropriation by the state Legislature. The funding would primarily go toward zero-emission passenger vehicles ($1 billion from the General Fund) and heavy-duty vehicles ($1.8 billion from the General Fund). The ZEV package also includes a total of $383 million of federal funds under the IIJA for the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) Formula Program that provides EV charging infrastructure along federal highways.
Opportunity
  • The 2022-23 budget includes a significant expansion to the state’s Climate Ready Program, which supports coastal adaptation and resilience, with $40 million from the state General Fund plus $80 million in GGRF funds.74 It will support the expansion of natural infrastructure (e.g., oyster beds, dunes), carbon sequestration, and community planning assistance, among other initiatives.75 A quarter of the money will target programming in the San Francisco Bay.

74 “Senate Budget & Fiscal Review Committee 12-2, 6/27/22” Senate Rules Committee, June 27, 2022
https://billtexts.s3.amazonaws.com/ca/ca-analysishttps-leginfo-legislature-ca-gov-faces-billAnalysisClient-xhtml-bill-id-202120220AB178-ca-analysis-352695.pdf

75 “Climate Ready Program” Coastal Conservancy. https://scc.ca.gov/climate-change/climate-ready-program/