SB 1402: Low-carbon fuels.

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 use of market-based compliance mechanisms. Existing law requires all moneys, except for fines and penalties, collected by the state board as part of a market-based compliance mechanism to be deposited in the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund and to be available upon appropriation. Existing law requires the Department of Finance, in consultation with the state board and any other relevant state agency, to develop, as specified, a 3-year investment plan for the moneys deposited in the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund. Existing law authorizes moneys from the fund to be allocated for the purpose of reducing greenhouse gas emissions in this state through specified investments if the investment furthers the regulatory purposes of the act and is consistent with law.

This bill would additionally create the California Low-Carbon Fuels Incentive Program to be administered by the state board and the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission, and would authorize moneys in the fund appropriated to the program to be used to promote and further California climate goals to encourage the in-state production of alternative fuels with low-carbon intensity provide incentives for the in-state production of low-carbon transportation fuels from new and existing facilities, facilities using sustainable feedstock, with preference priority to be given to projects benefitting disadvantaged communities.