SB 859: Public resources: greenhouse gas emissions and biomass.

(1)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 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 requires moneys from the fund to be allocated for the purpose of reducing greenhouse gas emissions in this state and satisfying other purposes, where applicable and to the extent feasible, and authorizes specified investments if the investment furthers the regulatory purposes of the act and is consistent with law.

Existing law, the Cannella Environmental Farming Act of 1995, requires the Department of Food and Agriculture to establish and oversee an environmental farming program to provide incentives to farmers whose practices promote the well-being of ecosystems, air quality, and wildlife and their habitat. The act requires the Secretary of Food and Agriculture to convene a 5-member Scientific Advisory Panel on Environmental Farming, as prescribed, for the purpose of providing advice and assistance to federal, state, and local government agencies on issues relating to air, water, and wildlife habitat, as specified. Existing law authorizes the panel to establish ad hoc committees to assist the panel in performing its functions.

This bill would increase the number of members on the panel from 5 to 9 members and would require that the secretary appoint 5 instead of 3 of these members, the Secretary for Environmental Protection appoint 2 instead of one of these members, and the Secretary of the Natural Resources Agency appoint 2 instead of one of these members, as prescribed. The bill would additionally allow the secretary to appoint, in consultation with the panel, ex officio nonvoting members to the panel. The bill would add representatives of nongovernmental entities to persons who may be on the ad hoc committees.

This bill would require the State Air Resources Board to consult with the Secretary of Food and Agriculture and the panel in developing the quantification methods to demonstrate and quantify on-farm greenhouse gas emissions reductions.

This bill would require the Department of Food and Agriculture, in consultation with the panel, to establish and oversee a Healthy Soils Program to seek to optimize climate benefits while supporting the economic viability of California agriculture by providing incentives, including loans, grants, research, and technical assistance, or educational materials and outreach, to farmers whose management practices contribute to healthy soils and result in net long-term on-farm greenhouse gas benefits. The bill would authorize the program to include funding of on-farm demonstration projects and, if the funding of those projects is included, would require the department to establish a technical advisory committee to review the project applications for scientific validity and the projects potential to achieve greenhouse gas benefits. The bill would require the department to implement the program and quantify greenhouse gas emissions reductions in accordance with the quantification methods developed by the State Air Resources Board and specified funding guidelines.

This bill would require the Department of Food and Agriculture, prior to awarding grant funds from moneys from the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, to review the applicant analysis identifying potential adverse impacts of a proposed project. The bill would prohibit a project from receiving funding from the department unless the applicant has made certain demonstrations to the department. The bill would require the department to prioritize projects based on the criteria pollutant emission benefits achieved by the project.

Existing law requires the California Environmental Protection Agency to identify disadvantaged communities and requires the Department of Finance, in consultation with the State Air Resources 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.

This bill would additionally require moneys in the fund, where applicable and to the extent feasible, to be allocated to provide opportunities for Native American tribes in the state to participate in and benefit from statewide efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The bill also would additionally authorize moneys in the fund to be allocated to fund investments in programs implemented by Native American tribes in the state if the investments further the regulatory purposes of the act and are consistent with law.

This bill would require the Secretary of the Natural Resources Agency to support the development of sustainable communities by managing and awarding financial assistance for the preparation and implementation of specified green infrastructure projects that reduce greenhouse gas emissions and provide multiple benefits, as defined, to specified entities. The bill would authorize moneys from the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, upon appropriation, to be available for allocation by the Secretary of the Natural Resources Agency for the purposes of awarding the financial assistance. The bill would require the Secretary of the Natural Resources Agency to allocate at least 75% of the moneys to projects in disadvantaged communities, as specified. The bill would exempt the development and adoption of guidelines and selection criteria from the Administrative Procedure Act.

This bill would require the State Air Resources Board, no later than December 30, 2018, in consultation with the Natural Resources Agency and the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, to complete a standardized greenhouse gas emissions inventory, as specified, and, by December 30, 2018, to complete a standardized accounting framework that supports statewide greenhouse gas emissions reduction goals and investments of moneys from the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, as specified.

This bill would find and declare that a diversity of dairy methane management practices, including anaerobic digesters and nondigester dairy methane management strategies, can effectively reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

(2)Existing law establishes the Air Quality Improvement Program that is administered by the State Air Resources Board for the purposes of funding projects related to, among other things, the reduction of criteria air pollutants and improvement of air quality. Pursuant to its existing statutory authority, the state board has established the Clean Vehicle Rebate Project, as a part of the Air Quality Improvement Program, to promote the production and use of zero-emission vehicles by providing rebates for the purchase of new zero-emission vehicles.

The Charge Ahead California Initiative requires the State Air Resources Board to adopt, no later than June 30, 2015, revisions to the criteria and other requirements for the Clean Vehicle Rebate Project to, among other things, limit eligibility based on income.

This bill would, between November 1, 2016, and July 1, 2017, require the State Air Resources Board, for the purposes of the Clean Vehicle Rebate Project, to, among other things, offer rebates only to applicants who purchase an eligible vehicle and have a specified maximum gross annual income; increase rebate payments by $500 for low-income applicants, as defined; and prioritize rebate payments for low-income applicants.

(3)Existing law authorizes the Director of Forestry and Fire Protection to enter into agreements and make loans for various forest resource improvement projects to improve the timber productivity of forest lands in the state and to improve all forest resources and the total forest resource system.

This bill would additionally authorize the Director of Forestry and Fire Protection to provide grants to, or enter into contracts or other cooperative agreements with, private or nongovernmental entities, Native American tribes, or local, state, and federal public agencies for the implementation and administration of projects and programs to improve forest health and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The bill would require any such project or program funded with moneys from the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund to comply with all statutory and program requirements applicable to the use of moneys from that fund.

This bill would require the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection to allocate funding to specified landscape-scale projects.

(4)Existing law establishes the CalRecycle Greenhouse Gas Reduction Revolving Loan Program, administered by the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery (CalRecycle), to provide loans to reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases by promoting in-state development of infrastructure to process organic and other recyclable materials into new value-added products. Existing law requires CalRecycle to administer a grant program to provide financial assistance, in the form of grants, incentive payments, contracts, or other funding mechanisms, to reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases by promoting in-state development of infrastructure to process organics and other recyclable materials into new value-added products.

This bill would revise the 2 programs described above to, among other things, expand the projects eligible for financial assistance under those programs to other projects to reduce organic waste.

(5)Existing law grants to various local entities the right, title, and interest of the state in and to certain tidelands and submerged lands in trust for public trust purposes. Existing law makes legislative declarations and findings regarding those granted public trust lands, the role of the state as both trustor and representative of the people of the state, who are the trust beneficiaries, and the fiduciary duties of the trustee, including the duty to take reasonable steps to enforce claims that are part of the trust property and to defend actions that may result in a loss to the trust.

This bill would additionally find and declare that a trustee of public trust lands may bring any action related to its granted public trust lands, including an action to abate a public nuisance, as a representative of the trust beneficiaries.

(6)Under existing law, the Public Utilities Commission has regulatory authority over public utilities, including electrical corporations. Existing law requires every electrical corporation to file with the commission a standard tariff for electricity generated by an electric generation facility, as defined, that qualifies for the tariff, is owned and operated by a retail customer of the electrical corporation, and is located within the service territory of, and developed to sell electricity to, the electrical corporation. The commission refers to this requirement as the renewable feed-in tariff. Existing law requires that, in order to qualify for the tariff, the electric generation facility: (1) have an effective capacity of not more than 3 megawatts, subject to the authority of the commission to reduce this megawatt limitation, (2) be interconnected and operate in parallel with the electric transmission and distribution grid, (3) be strategically located and interconnected to the electrical transmission and distribution system in a manner that optimizes the deliverability of electricity generated at the facility to load centers, and (4) meet the definition of an eligible renewable energy resource under the California Renewables Portfolio Standard Program. Existing law requires an electrical corporation to make the tariff available to the owner or operator of an electric generation facility within the service territory of the electrical corporation, upon request, on a first-come-first-served basis, until the electrical corporation meets its proportionate share of a statewide cap of 750 megawatts cumulative rated generation capacity served under the renewable feed-in tariff and a renewable feed-in tariff that is applicable to a local publicly owned electric utility. In addition to the 750 megawatt limitation, the renewable feed-in tariff law requires the commission to direct the electrical corporations to collectively procure at least 250 megawatts of cumulative rated generating capacity from developers of bioenergy projects that commence operation on or after June 1, 2013. The commission is required to undertake specific steps to implement the bioenergy feed-in tariff requirement.

This bill would additionally require electrical corporations, by December 1, 2016, to collectively procure, through financial commitments of 5 years, their proportionate share of 125 megawatts of cumulative rated generating capacity from bioenergy projects commencing operation prior to June 1, 2013, that each produces its generation using specified minimum percentages of certain types of forest feedstock. The bill would require local publicly owned electric utilities serving more than 100,000 customers to procure their proportionate shares of 125 megawatts of cumulative rated capacity from those kinds of bioenergy projects subject to terms of at least 5 years. Because this bill would impose additional duties on a local publicly owned electric utility, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program.

Under existing law, a violation of the Public Utilities Act or any order, decision, rule, direction, demand, or requirement of the commission is a crime.

Because the provisions of this bill would be a part of the act and because a violation of an order or decision of the commission implementing its requirements would be a crime, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program.

(7)Existing law establishes the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection in the Natural Resources Agency and requires the department to coordinate programs of fire protection, fire prevention, pest control, and forest and range maintenance and enhancement.

This bill would require the Secretary of the Natural Resources Agency to establish a working group on expanding wood product markets that can utilize woody biomass, especially biomass removed from high hazard zones, as determined by the department.

(8)This bill would appropriate $1,400,000 from certain moneys deposited in the Waste Discharge Permit Fund to the State Water Resources Control Board to provide grants or contracts for the development of planning, environmental, and design documents in furtherance of projects for eliminating public health and safety risks from wastewater, and agricultural and other drainage of urbanized areas for tributaries to the Salton Sea.

(9)This bill would incorporate changes to Section 42999 of the Public Resources Code proposed by this bill and SB 970, which would become operative only if both bills are enacted and become effective on or before January 1, 2017, and this bill is chaptered last.

(10)The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement.

This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for specified reasons.

(11)This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as a bill providing for appropriations related to the Budget Bill.