Bill Text: CA AB2242 | 2013-2014 | Regular Session | Amended
Bill Title: Air Quality Improvement Program.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2014-04-28 - In committee: Set, first hearing. Hearing canceled at the request of author. [AB2242 Detail]
Download: California-2013-AB2242-Amended.html
BILL NUMBER: AB 2242 AMENDED
BILL TEXT
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY MARCH 28, 2014
INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Perea
FEBRUARY 21, 2014
An act to amend Section 40612 44274
of the Health and Safety Code, relating to air pollution.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 2242, as amended, Perea. San Joaquin Valley Clean Air
Attainment Air Quality Improvement Program.
Existing law establishes the Air Quality Improvement Program that
is administered by the State Air Resources Board for the purpose of
funding air quality improvement projects. Existing law requires the
primary purpose of the program to be the funding of projects to
reduce criteria air pollutants, and to improve air quality, and to
fund research to determine and improve the air quality impacts of
alternative transportation fuels and vehicles, vessels, and equipment
technologies.
This bill additionally would require the program to be focused
where the greatest air quality impacts can be identified.
Existing law establishes the San Joaquin Valley Clean Air
Attainment Program for the purpose of the San Joaquin Valley
achieving state and federal ambient air quality standards by the
earliest practicable date. The program authorizes, in order to
provide funding for air pollution control programs, the air pollution
control district for that area to increase specified motor vehicle
fees and adopt rules and regulations to reduce vehicle trips in order
to reduce air pollution from vehicular sources.
This bill would make a technical, nonsubstantive change to these
provisions.
Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: no
yes . State-mandated local program: no.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. Section 44274 of the Health
and Safety Code is amended to read:
44274. (a) The Air Quality Improvement Program is hereby created.
The program shall be administered by the state board, in
consultation with the districts. The state board shall develop
guidelines to implement the program. Prior to the adoption of the
guidelines, the state board shall hold at least one public hearing.
In addition, the state board shall hold at least three public
workshops with at least one workshop in northern California, one in
the central valley, and one in southern California. The purpose of
the program shall be to fund, upon appropriation by the Legislature,
air quality improvement projects relating to fuel and vehicle
technologies. The primary purpose of the program shall be to fund
projects to reduce criteria air pollutants, and to
improve air quality, and provide funding for
and to fund research to determine and improve the air
quality impacts of alternative transportation fuels and vehicles,
vessels, and equipment technologies. The program shall be
focused where the greatest air quality impacts can be identified.
(b) The state board shall provide preference in awarding funding
to those projects with higher benefit-cost scores that maximize the
purposes and goals of the Air Quality Improvement Program. The state
board also may give additional preference based on the following
criteria, as applicable, in funding awards to projects:
(1) Proposed or potential reduction of criteria or toxic air
pollutants.
(2) Contribution to regional air quality improvement.
(3) Ability to promote the use of clean alternative fuels and
vehicle technologies as determined by the state board, in
coordination with the commission.
(4) Ability to achieve climate change benefits in addition to
criteria pollutant or air toxic emissions reductions.
(5) Ability to support market transformation of California's
vehicle or equipment fleet to utilize low carbon or zero-emission
technologies.
(6) Ability to leverage private capital investments.
(c) The program shall be limited to competitive grants, revolving
loans, loan guarantees, loans, and other appropriate funding measures
that further the purposes of the program. Projects to be funded
shall include only the following:
(1) Onroad and off-road equipment projects that are cost
effective.
(2) Projects that provide mitigation for off-road gasoline exhaust
and evaporative emissions.
(3) Projects that provide research to determine the air quality
impacts of alternative fuels and projects that study the life-cycle
impacts of alternative fuels and conventional fuels, the emissions of
biofuel and advanced reformulated gasoline blends, and air pollution
improvements and control technologies for use with alternative fuels
and vehicles.
(4) Projects that augment the University of California's
agricultural experiment station and cooperative extension programs
for research to increase sustainable biofuels production and improve
the collection of biomass feedstock.
(5) Incentives for small off-road equipment replacement to
encourage consumers to replace internal combustion engine lawn and
garden equipment.
(6) Incentives for medium- and heavy-duty vehicles and equipment
mitigation, including all of the following:
(A) Lower emission schoolbus programs.
(B) Electric, hybrid, and plug-in hybrid onroad and off-road
medium- and heavy-duty equipment.
(C) Regional air quality improvement and attainment programs
implemented by the state or districts in the most impacted regions of
the state.
(7) Workforce training initiatives related to advanced energy
technology designed to reduce air pollution, including
state-of-the-art equipment and goods, and new processes and systems.
Workforce training initiatives funded shall be broad-based
partnerships that leverage other public and private job training
programs and resources. These partnerships may include, though are
not limited to, employers, labor unions, labor-management
partnerships, community organizations, workforce investment boards,
postsecondary education providers including community colleges, and
economic development agencies.
(8) Incentives to identify and reduce emissions from high-emitting
light-duty vehicles.
(d) (1) Beginning January 1, 2011, the state board shall submit to
the Legislature a biennial report to evaluate the implementation of
the Air Quality Improvement Program established pursuant to this
chapter.
(2) The report shall include all of the following:
(A) A list of projects funded by the Air Quality Improvement
Account.
(B) The expected benefits of the projects in promoting clean,
alternative fuels and vehicle technologies.
(C) Improvement in air quality and public health, greenhouse gas
emissions reductions, and the progress made toward achieving these
benefits.
(D) The impact of the projects in making progress toward
attainment of state and federal air quality standards.
(E) Recommendations for future actions.
(3) The state board may include the information required to be
reported pursuant to paragraph (1) in an existing report to the
Legislature as the state board deems appropriate.
SECTION 1. Section 40612 of the Health and
Safety Code is amended to read:
40612. (a) To provide funding for air pollution control programs
needed to achieve and maintain state and federal air quality, the
district may do both of the following:
(1) Notwithstanding the limits on the amount of the motor vehicle
fee specified in Sections 44223 and 44225, increase the fee
established pursuant to these sections to up to, but not exceeding,
thirty dollars ($30) per motor vehicle per year for the purposes of
establishing and implementing incentive-based programs to achieve
surplus emissions reductions that the district determines are needed
to remediate air pollution harms created by motor vehicles on which
the fee is imposed and that are intended to achieve and maintain
state and federal ambient air quality standards required by the
federal Clean Air Act (42 U.S.C. Sec. 7401 et seq.). Except for the
amount of the fee, any increase shall be subject to Chapter 7
(commencing with Section 44220) of Part 5, including, but not limited
to, the adoption of a resolution providing for both the fee increase
and a corresponding program for expenditure of the moneys raised by
the increased fees for the reduction of mobile source emissions.
(2) Notwithstanding Section 40717.9, adopt rules and regulations
to reduce vehicle trips in order to reduce air pollution from
vehicular sources.
(b) Fees adopted pursuant to this section are in addition to any
other fees imposed by the district, and may be charged in any of
fiscal years 2009-10 to 2023-24, inclusive. Fees may be assessed
after the 2012-13 fiscal year only if the United States Environmental
Protection Agency approves the district's proposed reclassification
of its nonattainment status for ozone from severe to extreme. The
fees adopted pursuant to this section are for the district portion of
the total amount needed to achieve and maintain state and federal
ambient air quality standards. At least ten million dollars
($10,000,000) shall be used to mitigate the impacts of air pollution
on public health and the environment in disproportionately impacted
environmental justice communities in the San Joaquin Valley. The
district board shall convene an environmental justice advisory
committee, selected from a list given to the board by environmental
justice groups from the San Joaquin Valley, to recommend the
neighborhoods in the district that constitute environmental justice
communities, and how to expend funds within these communities.
(c) (1) The fees adopted pursuant to this section shall become
effective after the state board makes both of the following findings:
(A) The district has undertaken all feasible measures to reduce
nonattainment air pollutants from sources within the district's
jurisdiction and regulatory control.
(B) The district has notified the state board that fees have been
adopted pursuant to this section and provided the state board with an
estimate of the total funds that will be provided annually by each
of those fees.
(2) The state board shall file a written copy of its findings made
pursuant to this subdivision with the Secretary of State within two
days of its determination.
(3) The fees adopted pursuant to this section shall be collected
nine months after the requirements of paragraph (2) are met.
