Bill Text: CA AB376 | 2009-2010 | Regular Session | Amended
Bill Title: Voluntary greenhouse gas emission offsets.
Sponsorship: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2010-02-02 - From committee: Filed with the Chief Clerk pursuant to Joint Rule 56. [AB376 Detail]
Download: California-2009-AB376-Amended.html
BILL NUMBER: AB 376 AMENDED
BILL TEXT
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY MAY 6, 2009
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY APRIL 13, 2009
INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Nava
FEBRUARY 23, 2009
An act to add Division 25.8 (commencing with Section 38900) to the
Health and Safety Code, relating to greenhouse gas emission offsets.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 376, as amended, Nava. Voluntary greenhouse gas emission
offsets.
Existing law creates a statewide greenhouse gas emission limit
equivalent to what the statewide greenhouse gas emissions level was
in 1990, to be achieved by 2020. The State Air Resources Board is the
state agency charged with monitoring and regulating sources of
greenhouse gases in order to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases.
This bill would require a person selling a voluntary offset, as
defined, in the state to clearly and conspicuously disclose specific
information in any marketing materials for the voluntary offset. The
bill, beginning January 1, 2011, would require an entity that sells a
voluntary offset in the state to ensure that each voluntary offset
sold has a unique serial number and is registered with and tracked by
a registry, as defined. The bill would require a registry to meet
certain documentation and tracking requirements. The bill, except as
specified, would prohibit a person from registering a voluntary
offset with more than one registry concurrently. The bill would
prohibit a person from selling, allocating, awarding, transferring,
or claiming a voluntary offset for retirement more than once. The
bill would authorize a person to resell a voluntary offset that has
been previously sold if all rights and benefits associated with the
voluntary offset are sold each time the offset is sold. The bill
would subject any person who violates those provisions to a civil
penalty of not more than $10,000 for each violation.
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. (a) The Legislature finds and declares all of the
following:
(1) Global warming poses a serious challenge to public health, the
environment, and the economy.
(2) With increasing concern regarding global warming, there has
been an increase in the advertising, sale, and transfer of greenhouse
gas emission reduction credits, offsets, and similar products
designed to allow individuals or entities, or both, to purchase
emission reduction credits in lieu of actually making those
reductions themselves.
(3) The market for the trading of voluntary greenhouse gas
emissions offsets exceeds three hundred fifty million dollars
($350,000,000) and represents a reduction of over 70,000,000 metric
tons of carbon dioxide equivalents annually.
(4) A significant amount of retail voluntary greenhouse gas
emissions offsets are purchased by California residents, businesses,
and government agencies.
(5) Some voluntary offsets sold to retail customers are certified
as being real, measurable, and verifiable. However, there are
numerous public and private entities that create and certify offset
projects, and these entities may apply different standards to
projects with inconsistent results, generating confusion at the
customer level.
(6) In addition, concerns have been raised about instances of
potential fraud or misrepresentation in the voluntary offset market,
which is difficult to address in the absence of clear standards for
retail offsets.
(7) The purchase and sale of voluntary offsets at the retail level
represents an important opportunity for all Californians to take
part in projects that immediately reduce California's greenhouse gas
emissions and bring important additional local benefits to California
communities.
(8) Consumers and other members of the public have few protections
or standardized methods by which to ensure that they are purchasing
or obtaining emission reduction credits that actually reduce
greenhouse gases, reduce global warming, and improve the environment.
(9) The voluntary offset market will continue to grow along with
the compliance market for a variety of reasons, including all of the
following:
(A) Voluntary project protocols take less time to adopt than
compliance protocols and could serve as a testing ground for
compliance grade offsets.
(B) Voluntary credits have a lower cost than compliance offsets
and offer consumers an alternative to compliance grade project
prices.
(C) Voluntary credits offer opportunities abroad and provide
access to a larger range of reductions and emission reduction
projects.
(b) It is the intent of the Legislature to create through this act
a process for ensuring that voluntary offsets sold at the retail
level in California meet clear and consistent disclosure and
registration standards.
(c) It is the further intent of the Legislature that the State
Air Resources Board develop another process, independent from that
created pursuant to this act, to regulate any market-based compliance
mechanisms adopted pursuant to the California Global Warming
Solutions Act of 2006 (Division 25.5 (commencing with Section 38500)
of the Health and Safety Code).
SEC. 2. Division 25.8 (commencing with Section 38900) is added to
the Health and Safety Code, to read:
DIVISION 25.8. Greenhouse Gas Emission Offset Sales
CHAPTER 1. GENERAL PROVISIONS
38900. As used in this division:
(a) "Certification body" means any organization that does all of
the following:
(1) Develops or adopts protocols for determining the eligibility
of projects to generate greenhouse gas emission reductions.
(2) Develops or adopts methodologies for the quantification of the
emission reductions created by offset projects.
(3) Sets up the verification procedures for the projects certified
by the verifying organization.
(b) "Greenhouse gas" includes carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous
oxide, hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons, and sulfur hexafluoride,
and any other gases designated by the state board or Legislature
that contribute to climate change.
(c) "Marketing materials" means promotional and informational
materials that include descriptions of the voluntary offsets and can
reasonably be determined to be intended to inform the consumer about
available products or influence a consumer's decision to purchase
specific products, that could include, but are not limited to,
promotional materials on the Internet, in brochures, and
advertisements.
(d) "Project" refers to a greenhouse gas reduction project that
reduces emissions of greenhouse gases or increases sequestration of
greenhouse gases in a manner that is real, permanent,
additional, measurable, and verifiable, and thereby creates a
voluntary offset that may be sold. Projects may include, but are not
limited to, forestry-based projects, methane capture and destruction
projects, fuel switching projects, and stationary combustion emission
reduction projects.
(e) "Registry" means an organization that does all of the
following:
(1) Registers projects that generate voluntary offsets and records
the type of voluntary actions generating the offset.
(2) Issues a unique serial number for each registered voluntary
offset.
(3) Tracks ownership, verifies authentic origination, and records
retirement of voluntary offsets.
(f) "Retirement" of a voluntary offset means to eliminate an
offset from a registry so that no one can use, claim, or report that
offset as an emission reduction.
(g) "State board" means the State Air Resources Board.
(h) "Voluntary offset" means any product sold in the state that
claims to be a "greenhouse gas emission offset," a "voluntary
emission reduction," a "retail offset," or any like term, which
connotes that the product represents or corresponds to a reduction,
not required by any law or regulation, in the amount of greenhouse
gases present in the atmosphere or that prevents the emission of
greenhouse gases into the atmosphere that would have otherwise been
emitted. Voluntary offsets for the purposes of this subdivision do
not include any greenhouse gas reduction measures, including
voluntary greenhouse gas emission reduction measures or market-based
compliance mechanisms, used to comply with greenhouse gas emission
limits established by any law or regulation, including, but not
limited to, limits established pursuant to the California Global
Warming Solutions Act of 2006 (Division 25.5 (commencing with Section
38500)), the California Environmental Quality Act (Division 13
(commencing with Section 21000) of the Public Resources Code), or
federal law or regulation.
38901. Beginning January 1, 2010, a person selling a voluntary
offset in the state shall clearly and conspicuously disclose in any
marketing materials for the voluntary offset all of the following:
(a) The geographic location of the project used to create the
voluntary offset, including, but not limited to, the country of
origin. If the project is located in the United States, the state or
states where the emission reduction or reductions took place shall be
disclosed.
(b) The date or range of dates that the emission reduction
represented by the voluntary offset occurred or will occur.
(c) A brief description of the project used to create the
voluntary offset.
(d) Limitations on the permanence of the emission reductions that
correspond to the voluntary offset, including the potential for
unexpected reversal of an emission reduction, and the basis of claims
of permanence.
(e)
(d) The name of the certification body or governmental
entity protocol under which the voluntary offset was verified.
If the voluntary offset is not verified using protocols
stipulated by a certification body or governmental entity, the seller
shall clearly and conspicuously disclose in the marketing materials
that the voluntary offset or voluntary offsets being sold are not
verified under protocols accepted by a governmental agency or
certification body.
(f)
(e) The name of the protocol under which the project's
emissions reductions were quantified. If the project's
emission reductions that produced the voluntary offset are not
quantified using protocols stipulated by a certification body or
governmental entity, the seller shall clearly and conspicuously
disclose in the marketing materials that the voluntary offset or
voluntary offsets being sold are not quantified under protocols
accepted by a governmental agency or certification body.
(g)
(f) The name of the registry where the voluntary offset
is registered.
(h)
(g) Information on any significant environmental or
public health impacts associated with the creation and maintenance of
the voluntary offset project, including, but not limited to, impacts
on species, habitat, ecosystems, land use, air quality, and water
supply and quality.
38902. (a) Beginning January 1, 2011, no protocol, certification
body, or registry may be used to support a voluntary offset marketing
claim unless it has first been validated by the state board, except
as provided in subdivision (b).
(b) At the election of the state board, a protocol, certification
body, or registry may be validated by the California Climate Action
Registry established pursuant to former Chapter 6 (commencing with
Section 42800) of Part 4 of Division 26, as effective on December 31,
2007.
38902. 38903. (a) Beginning January
1, 2011, a person who sells a voluntary offset in the state shall
ensure that each voluntary offset sold has a unique serial number and
is registered with and tracked by a registry.
(b) Every registry shall maintain documentation of the serial
number assigned to each of the voluntary offsets it registers.
(c) Every sale of a voluntary offset for the purposes of
retirement shall be reported to the registry tracking that offset's
serial number, and recorded to ensure that the offset has been
retired and cannot be sold again or be claimed to reduce the same
emissions more than once.
38903. 38904. (a) A person shall
not register a voluntary offset with more than one registry
concurrently unless the registrations are linked in a fashion that
prevents simultaneous purchases and retirements of that offset. A
registry may however transfer an offset to another registry.
(b) A person shall not sell, allocate, award, transfer, or claim a
voluntary offset for retirement more than once.
(c) A person may resell a voluntary offset that has been
previously sold if all rights and benefits associated with the
voluntary offset are sold each time the offset is sold.
38904. 38905. (a) A person shall
not sell, offer for sale, advertise, or label any product in
violation of this division.
(b) A person shall not willfully make a false statement or
representation, or knowingly fail to disclose a fact required to be
disclosed, or falsify or alter any document or form to misinform or
mislead the public.
38905. 38906. Nothing in this
division is intended to prevent consumers from using the Consumers
Legal Remedies Act (Title 1.5 (commencing with Section 1750) of Part
4 of Division 3 of the Civil Code) or any other law to take action
against producers or marketers of offsets, or from recovering
associated court costs and attorney's fees pursuant to Section 1021.5
of the Code of Civil Procedure or any other law.
38906. 38907. Nothing in this
division is intended to alter the implementation of the California
Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 (Division 25.5 (commencing with
Section 38500)) by the state board.
CHAPTER 2. ENFORCEMENT
38920. (a) Any person who violates any provision of this division
is liable for a civil penalty of not more than ten thousand dollars
($10,000) for each violation.
(b) The Attorney General, a district attorney, a city attorney, or
any other state or local enforcement agency may bring a civil action
to recover civil penalties authorized by subdivision (a).
