SB 527: Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund: high-speed rail: Salton Sea restoration.

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 in its regulation of those emissions 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. Existing law continuously appropriates 25% of the annual proceeds of the fund to the High-Speed Rail Authority for certain components of a specified high-speed rail project.

Existing law establishes the Salton Sea Restoration Fund and requires the fund to be administered by the Director of Fish and Wildlife. Existing law requires the moneys deposited in the fund to be expended, upon appropriation by the Legislature, for various purposes relating to the restoration of the Salton Sea.

This bill would eliminate the continuous appropriation of 25% of the annual proceeds of Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund to the High-Speed Rail Authority on June 30, 2022. The bill, beginning with the 202223 fiscal year, would annually transfer 25% of the annual proceeds of the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund to the Salton Sea Restoration Fund.