BILL NUMBER: AB 590 AMENDED
BILL TEXT
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY APRIL 21, 2015
INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Dahle
Members Dahle and Salas
( Coauthors: Assembly Members
Brough, Chávez, Gordon, Olsen,
Mark Stone, and Wood )
FEBRUARY 24, 2015
An act to add Section 16428.81 to the Government Code, relating to
greenhouse gases.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 590, as amended, Dahle. 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 create the Biomass State Cost Share Account within
the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund. The bill would require
an unspecified amount of moneys certain
amounts to be transferred from the Greenhouse Gas Reduction
Fund to the Biomass State Cost Share Account for the 2015-16
through 2019-20 fiscal years . Moneys
The moneys in the account, upon appropriation, would be
available for expenditure by the State Energy Resources Conservation
and Development Commission for the purposes of maintaining the
current level of biomass power generation in the state and
revitalizing currently idle facilities in strategically located
regions. The bill would establish requirements for an applicant
to receive funding from the account for a facility's eligible
electrical generation.
Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: no.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. The Legislature finds and declares all of the
following:
(a) California leads the nation in bioenergy production, with
one-half of the industry located in this state, which has an abundant
supply of bioenergy resources.
(b) Biomass power generation provides electric ratepayers with
clean, renewable energy that supplies the grid 24 hours a day, seven
days a week regardless of atmospheric conditions. These benefits are
paid for through contracts with the state's electric utilities.
(c) Biomass power generation also provides valuable,
environmentally preferred wood waste disposal service for the
disposal of 7.5 to 8 million tons of California's annual solid waste
stream and the avoidance of 1.5 to 3.5 million tons annually of
biogenic CO2 emissions. By diverting biomass residues away from open
burning, landfill burial, and accumulation in forests, the state
benefits from reduced criteria air pollutants and greenhouse gas
emissions, landfill capacity use, forest and watershed improvement,
rural employment and economic development, and energy diversity and
security. These services have been provided without compensation in
the past, as the electricity market was able to fully underwrite the
cost.
(d) Numerous studies have shown a link between particulate matter
(PM) exposure and asthma morbidity outcomes in children, and between
exposure to ambient PM and increased heart and lung disease and death
and health effects on the central nervous system. The latest study
was provided by scientists at the California Environmental Protection
Agency's Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment. Diverting
wood material from open burning to biomass power production is an
essential PM reduction strategy for many air districts around the
state.
(d)
(e) The environmental services provided by biomass
power production are clearly valuable to society and therefore
provide the rationale for a state policy to pay for biomass power
generation commensurate with its provision of waste disposal
services.
(e) Protecting these existing resources will help the state meet
its goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, protect existing jobs,
and provide waste disposal benefits.
(f) Biomass power generation fits in the Cap and Trade Auction
Proceeds Investment Plan in the categories of forest and ecosystem
management, agricultural management, and waste diversion, and is
identified as a recommended investment.
SEC. 2. Section 16428.81 is added to the Government Code, to read:
16428.81. (a) There is hereby created the
Biomass State Cost Share Account within the Greenhouse Gas Reduction
Fund established pursuant to Section 16428.8. Moneys in the
amount of ____ dollars ($____) shall be transferred annually from the
fund to the account. Moneys in the account, upon appropriation,
shall be available for expenditure by the State Energy Resources
Conservation and Development Commission for the purposes of
maintaining the current level of biomass power generation in the
state and revitalizing currently idle facilities in strategically
located regions.
(b) The following amounts shall be transferred from the Greenhouse
Gas Reduction Fund to the Biomass State Cost Share Account:
(1) In the 2015-16 fiscal year, seventy-four million dollars
($74,000,000).
(2) In the 2016-17 fiscal year, one hundred eighteen million
dollars ($118,000,000).
(3) In the 2017-18, 2018-19, and 2019-20 fiscal years, one hundred
twenty million dollars ($120,000,000) in each of those fiscal years.
(c) The moneys in the Biomass State Cost Share Account, upon
appropriation by the Legislature, shall be available to the State
Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission for
expenditure for the purposes of maintaining the current level of
biomass power generation in the state and revitalizing currently idle
facilities in strategically located regions. Protecting these
existing resources will help the state meet its goals to reduce
greenhouse gas emissions, protect existing jobs, and provide waste
disposal benefits.
(d) To be eligible for funding from the Biomass State Cost Share
Account, a facility's solid fuel biomass electrical generation shall
satisfy all of the following requirements:
(1) The energy is generated on and after January 1, 2016.
(2) The energy is generated within the state and sold to customers
within the state.
(3) The energy is net-metered generation. "Net-metered generation"
for purposes of this section means energy that is sold to the grid
and is not used onsite for the facility's own electrical demand.
(e) A facility seeking funding from the Biomass State Cost Share
Account shall submit an application to the commission that
demonstrates that it is a solid fuel biomass facility and is
California Renewables Portfolio Standard (RPS) Program certified. An
applicant shall submit monthly invoices to the commission to document
eligible generation and the fuel used for that generation. The
commission shall review the submitted invoices and make monthly
incentive payments to each applicant based on the eligible generation
and the applicable production incentive rate.