Bill Text: CA AB585 | 2023-2024 | Regular Session | Chaptered

California Assembly Bill 585

Bill Title: Climate change: infrastructure and clean energy projects: assessments.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 2-0)

Status: (Passed) 2023-10-07 - Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 336, Statutes of 2023. [AB585 Detail]

Download: California-2023-AB585-Chaptered.html

Assembly Bill No. 585

CHAPTER 336

An act to add Section 12096.3.7 to the Government Code, and to add Section 38592.1 to the Health and Safety Code, relating to greenhouse gases, and declaring the urgency thereof, to take effect immediately.

[ Approved by Governor October 07, 2023. Filed with Secretary of State October 07, 2023. ]

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST

AB 585, Robert Rivas. Climate change: infrastructure and clean energy projects: assessments.

The California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 designates the State Air Resources Board (state board) as the state agency responsible for monitoring and regulating sources emitting greenhouse gases. Existing law vests the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) with regulatory jurisdiction over public utilities, including electrical corporations, as provided. Existing law requires the PUC and the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission (Energy Commission) to undertake specified actions to advance the state’s clean energy and pollution reduction objectives.

Existing law requires various state entities responsible for the state’s energy, climate change, and air quality goals to produce various reports relating to those duties.

Existing law finds and declares that the California Council on Science and Technology (CCST) was organized as a nonprofit corporation at the request of the Legislature for the specific purpose of offering expert advice to the state government on public policy issues significantly related to science and technology.

Existing law creates the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development, known as “GO-Biz,” and requires GO-Biz to serve the Governor as the lead entity for economic strategy and the marketing of California on issues relating to business development, private sector investment, and economic growth. Existing law authorizes GO-Biz to undertake various activities relating to economic development, including the provision of prescribed information.

This bill would request the CCST, in its discretion, every 3 years, to assess the infrastructure project types, scale, and pace necessary to achieve the state’s energy, climate change, and air quality goals, as specified. The bill would also require GO-Biz, in consultation with the Energy Commission, the PUC, and the state board, to prepare an assessment of the barriers, challenges, and impediments limiting the deployment and development of clean energy projects, as specified. The bill would require GO-Biz to submit this assessment to the Legislature on or before January 1, 2026. The bill would also require the assessment to be considered and incorporated into the work carried out by the Infrastructure Strike Team convened by the Governor.

This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.

Vote: 2/3 Appropriation: NO Fiscal Committee: YES 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) President Joseph R. Biden and the 117th Congress enacted historic laws supporting infrastructure modernization, including by providing roughly $1.2 trillion through 2026 in the federal Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (Public Law 117-58), and $391 billion over 10 years for climate-related investments in the federal Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (Public Law 117-169).

(b) California has augmented these federal investments with over $52 billion in state funding for infrastructure and will invest more than $180 billion over the next 10 years, creating over 400,000 jobs.

(c) California has launched an all-of-government approach, working across agencies to deliver projects at the scale and pace necessary to maximize federal investment and deliver the benefits from these investments to all California communities.

(d) Identifying and addressing the barriers that are impeding the development and delivery of clean energy projects needed to achieve the state’s climate goals is a critical endeavor that will enable and accelerate California’s ability to capture the benefits from those clean energy projects that are supported by available federal funding and the state’s recent funding commitments.

SEC. 2.

Section 12096.3.7 is added to the Government Code, to read:

12096.3.7.

(a) (1) The office, in consultation with the State Air Resources Board, the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission, and the Public Utilities Commission, shall prepare an assessment of the barriers, challenges, and impediments limiting the deployment and development of clean energy projects that support the strategies identified in the scoping plan prepared pursuant to Section 38561 of the Health and Safety Code and that advance the goals established pursuant to Sections 38562.2, 39730.5, and 39730.6 of the Health and Safety Code. The office shall submit the assessment prepared pursuant to this section to the Legislature on or before January 1, 2026, in compliance with Section 9795.

(2) In preparing the assessment, the office shall include, but is not limited to including, the following information:

(A) At least three clean energy project types.

(B) Specific challenges impacting the different stages of clean energy project development.

(D) Recommended approaches, models, or strategies for addressing the identified barriers, challenges, and impediments to clean energy project delivery.

(3) The office shall consider the most current versions of all of the applicable reports and plans listed in subdivision (a) of Section 38592.1 of the Health and Safety Code in the preparation of the assessment.

(b) The assessment prepared pursuant to subdivision (a) shall be considered and incorporated into the work carried out by the Infrastructure Strike Team established by Executive Order No. N-8-23.

SEC. 3.

Section 38592.1 is added to the Health and Safety Code, to read:

38592.1.

(a) Every three years, the California Council on Science and Technology (CCST), in its mission to increase collaboration among agencies and scientists and convene stakeholders across institutions, is requested, at its discretion, to assess the infrastructure project types, scale, and pace necessary to achieve the state’s energy, climate change, and air quality goals, including, but not limited to, the goals established pursuant to Sections 38561.5, 38562.2, 38566, 39730.5, and 39730.6 of this code, and the goals established pursuant to Section 454.53 of the Public Utilities Code. In preparing the assessment, the materials CCST reviews shall include, but not be limited to, the most current versions of all of the following reports and plans:

(1) The integrated energy policy report prepared pursuant to Section 25302 of the Public Resources Code.

(2) The integrated resource plans filed pursuant to Section 454.52 of the Public Utilities Code.

(3) The joint reliability progress report issued pursuant to Section 454.53 of the Public Utilities Code.

(4) The report produced by the Independent System Operator on the 20-year transmission outlook.

(5) The reports prepared by the state board pursuant to Section 38561.8 and paragraph (1) of subdivision (d) of Section 44274.

(6) The scoping plan prepared pursuant to Section 38561.

(7) The report prepared by the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission pursuant to Section 25307 of the Public Resources Code.

(b) The list of infrastructure projects the CCST shall assess pursuant to subdivision (a) may include, but are not limited to, all of the following project types:

(1) Deployment of, or upgrades to, utility-scale and distributed renewable and carbon-free energy capacity, substations, transformers, transmission and distribution lines, and biomethane and renewable hydrogen production and distribution.

(2) Deployment of, or upgrades to, electric vehicle charging stations, hydrogen refueling stations, petroleum refinery conversions, sustainable aviation fuels, and other low-carbon and carbon-free transportation fuels projects.

(3) Deployment and retrofitting of buildings to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

(4) Deployment of, or upgrades to, industrial processes to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

(5) Projects for the reduction and mitigation of short-lived climate pollutants, including, but not limited to, methane, hydrofluorocarbon gases, and anthropogenic black carbon.

(6) Natural carbon sequestration and nature-based climate solutions.

(7) Carbon capture, utilization, and sequestration projects.

(8) Projects for the reduction and mitigation of criteria air pollutants.

(9) Any other project types necessary to achieve the state’s energy, climate change, and air quality goals, including, but not limited to, the goals established pursuant to Sections 38561.5, 38562.2, 38566, 39730.5, and 39730.6 of this code, and the goals established pursuant to Section 454.53 of the Public Utilities Code.

(c) CCST is requested, at its discretion, to commit to regular updates of the assessment and to rapidly incorporate new research into the assessment.

SEC. 4.

This act is an urgency statute necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health, or safety within the meaning of Article IV of the California Constitution and shall go into immediate effect. The facts constituting the necessity are:

In order to provide policymakers and the people of California with crucial information regarding progress toward meeting the state’s ambitious climate goals as soon as possible, it is necessary for this act to take effect immediately.