BILL NUMBER: AB 628 INTRODUCED
BILL TEXT
INTRODUCED BY Assembly Members Gorell and Hall
FEBRUARY 20, 2013
An act to add Section 63045.1 to the Government Code, and to amend
Section 21180 of, and to add Chapter 13 (commencing with Section
25990) to Division 15 of, the Public Resources Code, relating to
energy.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 628, as introduced, Gorell. Energy management plans for harbor
and port districts.
(1) Existing law requires the California Infrastructure
Development Bank, following consultation with appropriate state and
local agencies, to establish criteria, priorities, and guidelines for
the selection of projects to receive assistance from the bank,
including those based on, among other things, the State Environmental
Goals and Policy Report, or its successor, relating to
implementation of state environmental goals and policies. Existing
law further requires that projects that receive assistance from the
bank, among other things, facilitate effective and efficient use of
existing and future public resources so as to promote both economic
development and conservation of natural resources.
This bill would require the bank to fund projects to finance
projects to promote economic development in harbor and port districts
that are developed pursuant to energy management plan.
(2) Existing law requires the State Energy Resources Conservation
and Development Commission to adopt energy conservation standards to
reduce the wasteful, uneconomic, inefficient, or unnecessary
consumption of energy, and to implement various programs to provide
financial assistance to specified entities for energy efficient
improvements.
This bill would require a harbor or port district, as defined, in
collaboration with an electrical corporation, gas corporation, or
publicly owned electric utility, as defined, serving the district, to
prepare an energy management plan for the district that is intended
to reduce air emissions and promote economic development through the
addition of new businesses and the retention of existing businesses
in the district, in accordance with specified requirements.
(3) The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) requires a
lead agency, as defined, to prepare, or cause to be prepared, and
certify the completion of, an environmental impact report (EIR) on a
project that it proposes to carry out or approve that may have a
significant effect on the environment or to adopt a negative
declaration if it finds that the project will not have that effect.
CEQA establishes procedures for creating the administrative record
judicial review procedure for any action or proceeding brought to
challenge the lead agency's decision to certify the EIR or to grant
project approvals.
Existing law, the Jobs and Economic Improvement Through
Environmental Leadership Act of 2011, until January 1, 2015,
establishes specified judicial review procedures for the judicial
review of the EIR and approvals granted for a leadership project
related to the development of a residential, retail, commercial,
sports, cultural, entertainment or recreational use project, or clean
renewable energy or clean energy manufacturing project. The act
authorizes the Governor to certify a leadership project for
streamlining pursuant to the act if certain conditions are met.
This bill would include a project to develop or implement an
energy management plan developed pursuant to provisions of the bill
among those types of projects covered by the Jobs and Economic
Improvement Through Environmental Leadership Act of 2011. Because the
lead agency would be required to use alternative procedures for
creating the administrative record for projects to implement an
energy management plan, the bill would impose a state-mandated local
program.
The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local
agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the
state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that
reimbursement.
This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this
act for a specified reason.
Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: yes.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. Section 63045.1 is added to the Government Code, to
read:
63045.1. Projects to promote economic development in harbor and
port districts implemented pursuant to an energy management plan
developed in accordance with Chapter 13 (commencing with Section
25990) of Division 15 of the Public Resources Code shall be eligible
for funding under this article. The bank shall consider appropriate
action to remove unnecessary barriers for the financing of those
projects.
SEC. 2. Section 21180 of the Public Resources Code is amended to
read:
21180. For the purposes of this chapter, the following terms
shall have the following meanings:
(a) "Applicant" means a public or private entity or its
affiliates, or a person or entity that undertakes a public works
project, that proposes a project and its successors, heirs, and
assignees.
(b) "Environmental leadership development project," "leadership
project," or "project" means a project as described in Section 21065
that is one the following:
(1) A residential, retail, commercial, sports, cultural,
entertainment, or recreational use project that is certified as LEED
silver or better by the United States Green Building Council and,
where applicable, that achieves a 10-percent greater standard for
transportation efficiency than for comparable projects. These
projects must be located on an infill site. For a project that is
within a metropolitan planning organization for which a sustainable
communities strategy or alternative planning strategy is in effect,
the infill project shall be consistent with the general use
designation, density, building intensity, and applicable policies
specified for the project area in either a sustainable communities
strategy or an alternative planning strategy, for which the State Air
Resources Board, pursuant to subparagraph (H) of paragraph (2) of
subdivision (b) of Section 65080 of the Government Code, has accepted
a metropolitan planning organization's determination that the
sustainable communities strategy or the alternative planning strategy
would, if implemented, achieve the greenhouse gas emission reduction
targets.
(2) A clean renewable energy project that generates electricity
exclusively through wind or solar, but not including waste
incineration or conversion.
(3) A clean energy manufacturing project that manufactures
products, equipment, or components used for renewable energy
generation, energy efficiency, or for the production of clean
alternative fuel vehicles.
(4) A project to develop or implement an energy management plan
developed pursuant to Chapter 13 (commencing with Section 25990) of
Division 15.
(c) "Transportation efficiency" means the number of vehicle trips
by employees, visitors, or customers of the residential, retail,
commercial, sports, cultural, entertainment, or recreational use
project divided by the total number of employees, visitors, and
customers.
SEC. 3. Chapter 13 (commencing with Section 25990) is added to
Division 15 of the Public Resources Code, to read:
CHAPTER 13. ENERGY MANAGEMENT PLANS FOR HARBOR AND PORT
DISTRICTS
25990. The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:
(a) The state should promote the efficient use of low-cost,
low-emissions energy sources in the operations of its ports and
harbors.
(b) There is an opportunity in port and harbor district
operations, including the movement of commercial goods, to reduce
vehicular emissions of greenhouse gases and criteria pollutants.
(c) The state should encourage the development of new businesses
and the retention of existing businesses within port and harbor
district boundaries.
(d) Energy utility customers located within the state's port and
harbor districts can benefit from the addition of new businesses and
the retention of existing businesses through increased energy cost
certainty.
(e) Businesses located within the state's port and harbor
districts could benefit through greater stability and certainty in
the cost of energy services.
(f) Investor-owned and publicly owned utilities are in an optimal
position, and should be encouraged to engage in joint projects with
port and harbor districts to provide and administer energy-related
service alternatives and programs that can promote economic
development and retention in those districts.
25991. (a) For purposes of this chapter, the term "district"
shall mean a harbor or port district formed pursuant to Division 8
(commencing with Section 5000) of the Harbors and Navigation Code. A
district may prepare one or more energy management plans, developed
jointly with an electric corporation, as defined in subdivision (a)
of Section 218 of the Public Utilities Code, a gas corporation, as
defined in Section 222 of the Public Utilities Code, or a public
utility, as defined in subdivision (a) of Section 216 of the Public
Utilities Code, that produces, generates, or supplies electricity to
the public and that serves the district in order to reduce air
emissions, promote economic development, and encourage the
development of new businesses and retain existing businesses in that
district.
(b) If a district prepares an energy management plan pursuant to
this chapter, it shall include, at a minimum, all of the following:
(1) An electric or natural gas load forecast, developed in
coordination with the serving electrical corporation, gas
corporation, or local publicly owned electric utility, and that
reflects anticipated load growth within the district.
(2) An assessment of the role that distributed generation,
combined with accurately priced utility services, could play in
providing greater rate stability and energy cost certainty to aid in
economic development, and proposed actions with respect to that role.
This assessment shall be developed jointly with the serving
electrical corporation, gas corporation, or local publicly owned
electric utility.
(3) A list of recommendations, developed jointly with the serving
electrical corporation, gas corporation, or local publicly owned
electric utility, for the enhanced use of cost-effective energy
efficiency and demand-side management in existing buildings and the
inclusion of energy efficiency measures as part of the development of
new buildings.
(4) A plan to reduce air emissions for vehicle use within district
boundaries, including vehicles used for movement of commercial
products. Proposed actions, developed jointly with the serving
electrical corporation, gas corporation, or local publicly owned
electric utility, may include replacement of vehicles with lower
emitting alternatives and development of infrastructure, in
appropriate areas, to aid in the refueling of alternative fuel
vehicles, and may provide for utility ownership or operation of those
facilities to provide services within the district.
(5) Other proposed actions and associated utility services that
may be implemented in connection with the jointly developed energy
management plan.
(6) Proposed methods to fund the activities included in the plan,
including funding through utility ratepayer-funded programs and
financing through the California Infrastructure and Economic
Developmental Bank established pursuant to Chapter 3 (commencing with
Section 63050) of Division 1 of Title 6.7 of the Government Code,
the California Alternative Energy and Advanced Transportation
Financing Authority Act (Division 16 (commencing with Section
26000)), or other appropriate sources.
(c) If a district has jointly developed with an electric or gas
corporation one or more plan elements under a plan prepared pursuant
to subdivision (b) that involves special programs to be offered in
the district and administered by the electric or gas corporation to
facilitate emissions reductions, increase energy efficiency, or
promote economic development, including, but not limited to, the use
of biogas for direct injection into common carrier pipelines,
economic development rates, distributed generation, energy storage,
and alternative fuel vehicle infrastructure, the Public Utilities
Commission shall provide expedited review of the proposed jointly
developed elements of the plan. The Public Utilities Commission shall
encourage electric or gas corporations to participate jointly with
local agencies in developing, implementing, and administering viable
energy management plans for districts, and shall not limit the role
of the electric or gas corporation that was cooperatively developed
in the energy management plan. The governing boards of local publicly
owned utilities and rural electric cooperatives shall encourage
joint participation with local agencies and gas corporations in
developing, implementing, and administering viable energy management
plans for districts.
(d) If an energy management plan is prepared pursuant to this
chapter, it shall also address the development of projects that
provide greater certainty of energy costs over a period of up to 15
years for businesses developing in the district and shall consider
applying to the California Infrastructure and Economic Development
Bank for financial support of these projects.
SEC. 4. No reimbursement is required by this act pursuant to
Section 6 of Article XIII B of the California Constitution because a
local agency or school district has the authority to levy service
charges, fees, or assessments sufficient to pay for the program or
level of service mandated by this act, within the meaning of Section
17556 of the Government Code.