AB 590: Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund.

The California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 designates the State Air Resources Board as the state agency charged with monitoring and regulating sources of emissions of greenhouse gases. The act authorizes the state board to include the use of market-based compliance mechanisms. Existing law requires all moneys, except for fines and penalties, collected by the state board from the auction or sale of allowances as part of a market-based compliance mechanism to be deposited in the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund.

This bill would provide that moneys in the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, upon appropriation, may be made available for expenditure by the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission for the purposes of maintaining the current level of biomass power generation or geothermal energy generation in the state and revitalizing currently idle facilities in strategically located regions. The bill would establish requirements for an applicant to receive available funding for a facilitys eligible electrical generation.