AB986 - State of emergency and local emergency: landslides and climate change.

Enrolled September 16, 2025 Passed IN Senate September 11, 2025 Passed IN Assembly September 12, 2025 Amended IN Senate August 29, 2025 Amended IN Assembly May 23, 2025 Amended IN Assembly March 24, 2025 CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2025–2026 REGULAR SESSION Assembly Bill No. 986 Introduced by Assembly Member Muratsuchi (Principal coauthor: Senator Allen) February 20, 2025 An act to amend Section 8558 of the Government Code, relating to emergency services. LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST AB 986, Muratsuchi. State of emergency and local emergency: landslides and climate change. Existing law, the California Emergency Services Act, authorizes the Governor to declare a state of emergency, and local officials and local governments to declare a local emergency, when specified conditions of disaster or extreme peril to the safety of persons and property exist, and authorizes the Governor or the appropriate local government to exercise certain powers in response to that emergency. Existing law defines 3 conditions or degrees of emergency for purposes of these provisions. This bill would additionally include a landslide among those conditions constituting a state of emergency or local emergency. Digest Key Vote: MAJORITY Appropriation: NO Fiscal Committee: YES Local Program: NO Bill Text The people of the State of California do enact as follows: SECTION 1. Section 8558 of the Government Code is amended to read: 8558. Three conditions or degrees of emergency are established by this chapter: (a) “State of war emergency” means the condition that exists immediately, with or without a proclamation by the Governor, whenever this state or nation is attacked by an enemy of the United States, or upon receipt by the state of a warning from the federal government indicating that an enemy attack is probable or imminent. (b) “State of emergency” means the duly proclaimed existence of conditions of disaster or of extreme peril to the safety of persons and property within the state caused by conditions, including air pollution, fire, flood, storm, epidemic, riot, drought, landslide, cyberterrorism, sudden and severe energy shortage, electromagnetic pulse attack, plant or animal infestation or disease, the Governor’s warning of an earthquake or volcanic prediction, or an earthquake, or other conditions, other than conditions resulting from a labor controversy or conditions causing a “state of war emergency,” that by reason of their magnitude, are or are likely to be beyond the control of the services, personnel, equipment, and facilities of any single county, city and county, or city and require the combined forces of a mutual aid region or regions to combat, or with respect to regulated energy utilities, a sudden and severe energy shortage requires extraordinary measures beyond the authority vested in the Public Utilities Commission. (c) (1) “Local emergency” means the duly proclaimed existence of conditions of disaster or of extreme peril to the safety of persons and property within the territorial limits of a county, city and county, or city, caused by conditions, including air pollution, fire, flood, storm, epidemic, riot, drought, landslide, cyberterrorism, sudden and severe energy shortage, deenergization event, electromagnetic pulse attack, plant or animal infestation or disease, the Governor’s warning of an earthquake or volcanic prediction, or an earthquake, or other conditions, other than conditions resulting from a labor controversy, that are or are likely to be beyond the control of the services, personnel, equipment, and facilities of that political subdivision and require the combined forces of other political subdivisions to combat, or with respect to regulated energy utilities, a sudden and severe energy shortage or deenergization event that requires extraordinary measures beyond the authority vested in the Public Utilities Commission. (2) A local emergency proclaimed because of a deenergization event does not trigger the electric utility obligations set forth in Public Utilities Commission Decision 19-07-015 or its successor decisions as related to deenergization events. A local emergency proclaimed as the result of a deenergization event does not alter the electric utilities’ Public Utilities Commission-approved cost-recovery mechanisms for their own costs associated with deenergization events.