BILL ANALYSIS
SENATE TRANSPORTATION & HOUSING COMMITTEE BILL NO: ab 2522
SENATOR ALAN LOWENTHAL, CHAIRMAN AUTHOR: arambula
VERSION: 5/23/08
Analysis by: Jennifer Gress FISCAL: yes
Hearing date: June 17, 2008
SUBJECT:
Motor vehicle registration fee surcharges: San Joaquin Valley
Air Pollution Control District
DESCRIPTION:
This bill allows the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control
District to increase the motor vehicle registration surcharges
to up to $30 per vehicle per year according to specified
conditions. The bill also permits the district to adopt rules
and regulations to reduce vehicle trips.
ANALYSIS:
The federal Clean Air Act, first established in 1963 but amended
several times since, requires the United States Environmental
Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) to establish National Ambient Air
Quality Standards (NAAQS) for six common air pollutants (also
known as criteria pollutants): particle pollution, ground-level
ozone, carbon monoxide, sulfur oxides, nitrogen oxides, and
lead. In 1988, California established its own air quality
standards when the Legislature passed the California Clear Air
Act.
Geographic areas that exceed a federal air quality standard for
a particular pollutant are called nonattainment areas. States
that contain areas designated as nonattainment must develop a
State Implementation Plan (SIP) to demonstrate how areas in the
state will attain the federal standard for that pollutant. A
state's SIP is a combination of state and local air quality
planning documents that identify the air pollution control
strategies or measures that state and local agencies will
implement under their respective authorities in order to attain
AB 2522 (ARAMBULA) Page 2
the federal standard.
The California Air Resources Board (ARB) has authority to
regulate emissions from mobile sources of pollution (e.g., cars,
trucks, ships, locomotives) and consumer products, whereas local
air pollution control and air quality management districts have
authority for stationary (e.g., factories, power plants) and
areawide (e.g., road dust, fires, gas stations) sources of air
pollution.
Existing law defines general parameters concerning the scope of
authority, duties, sources of funding, governance, and other
aspects related to the establishment and conduct of air
pollution control districts. The San Joaquin Valley Unified Air
Pollution Control District (district) consists of Fresno, Kings,
Madera, Merced, San Joaquin, Stanislaus, and Tulare counties,
and the portion of Kern County located within the San Joaquin
Valley Air Basin.
The district is required to adopt a surcharge on motor vehicle
registration fees for the purpose of implementing air quality
programs that reduce pollution associated with those vehicles.
While this provision of law does not specify an amount the
district is required to charge, existing law generally
authorizing air pollution control districts provides for a
surcharge of up to $6 per vehicle, provided certain conditions
are met. Two of these conditions are the passage of a
resolution demonstrating support for the fee increase and the
development of an expenditure plan for fee revenues.
In general, an air pollution control district, air quality
management district, or any other public agency may not require
any private entity to reduce shopping trips or require an
employer to implement an employee trip reduction program.
This bill :
Permits the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District
(district) to increase the surcharge on motor vehicle
registration fees to up to $30 per vehicle per year according
to the following conditions:
o The fee is used for the purposes of establishing and
implementing incentive-based programs to achieve surplus
emission reductions (i.e., reductions not otherwise
required by law or regulation for a particular source
AB 2522 (ARAMBULA) Page 3
category) to remediate air pollution harms created by
vehicles on which the fee is imposed.
o The district adopts the fee increase pursuant to a
resolution that includes an expenditure plan for the use of
the fee revenues.
o At least $10 million of the revenues are used to
mitigate the impacts of air pollution in disproportionately
impacted environmental justice communities. The district
is also required to convene an environmental justice
advisory committee.
Specifies that fees adopted under this authority are in
addition to any other fees imposed by the district and may be
charged in any or all fiscal years between 2009-10 and
2023-24, but provides that fees may not be assessed after
fiscal year 2012-13 if U.S. EPA approves the district's
request to reclassify its nonattainment status.
Fees adopted pursuant to this authority become effective after
ARB makes the following findings and submits a written copy of
these findings to the Secretary of State.
o The district has notified ARB that fees have been
adopted and has provided an estimate of the total funds
that will be provided annually by those fees.
o The district has undertaken all feasible measures to
reduce nonattainment air pollutants from sources within the
district's jurisdiction and regulatory control.
Requires ARB to assess, every two years, the district's
progress in achieving state and federal ambient air quality
standards using any fees imposed under this authority and
requires ARB to submit its assessments to the Legislature
within two weeks of their completion.
Permits the district to adopt rules and regulations to reduce
vehicle trips as a means to reduce air pollution from
vehicular sources.
COMMENTS:
1.Purpose . According to the author, poor air quality is a
significant threat to public health, the environment, and the
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economy of the San Joaquin Valley. By authorizing the
district to increase the surcharge on vehicles to $30 per
vehicle annually, this bill will generate funds for
incentive-based air quality improvement programs that will
help the San Joaquin Valley meet state and federal air quality
standards by the earliest practicable date.
The author states that the San Joaquin Valley suffers some of
the worst air quality in the world and vehicles account for 80
percent of the smog-forming oxides of nitrogen emitted in the
air basin. The San Joaquin Valley has the third highest fine
particulate matter levels in the U.S. and is home to four of
the five worst ozone-polluted cities in the U.S. One in three
families has a member with a respiratory ailment, and poor air
quality contributes to 460 deaths per year.
The adverse economic impacts of the San Joaquin Valley's air
quality is staggering, causing 192,000 missed school and
workdays annually while saddling taxpayers with $3.2 billion
per year in community health costs.
The challenges the region faces to meet state and federal
ambient air quality standards, the author asserts, require an
urgent and unified program that combines stricter clean air
rules and regulations, as well as ongoing funding sources to
clean up those sources that cannot be regulated effectively.
2.Fee authority = attainment date . This bill allows the
district to impose fees until 2023 unless U.S. EPA rejects the
district's request to reclassify its nonattainment status to
"extreme nonattainment," in which case any fees my not be
charged beyond the 2012-13 fiscal year. Nonattainment areas
are classified based on the severity of the air pollution
problem. In descending order in terms of magnitude of the
problem, the classifications are extreme, severe, serious,
moderate, and marginal. An extreme classification indicates
that the region is not able to identify the emission
reductions it needs by the attainment date. The San Joaquin
Valley Air Pollution Control District was not able to identify
all of its needed emission reductions and has thus requested
U.S. EPA to reclassify the district's nonattainment status for
ozone from serious to extreme.
The date by which a region is required to attain the federal
standard is determined by the severity of the problem, with
regions designated as extreme nonattainment provided more time
AB 2522 (ARAMBULA) Page 5
to meet the standard. If U.S. EPA approves the district's
request, it would have until 2023 to meet the standard. A
denial of the district's request would indicate that U.S. EPA
believes the district is able to achieve attainment under its
current regulatory authority and the district could then be
required to attain the standard as early as 2013. To date,
U.S. EPA has not ruled on the district's request.
3.Use of fees . The district estimates needing approximately $200
million in order to fund air pollution control programs that
would assist the district in making up the gap in emission
reductions it needs to attain the federal standard. The
district notes that fee revenues would be used to provide
incentive funding targeting mobile sources of pollution, which
account for 80 percent of the nitrogen oxides emissions in the
region. Programs funded with these fee revenues would focus
on modernizing the fleets of passenger vehicles and light- and
heavy-duty trucks.
4.Opposition . Many of the opponents object to what they believe
is not a fee but a tax and raising "taxes" without two-thirds
voter approval is unconstitutional. Additionally, these
opponents do not support increasing the cost of vehicle
ownership or of doing business in the San Joaquin Valley. Two
other issues concern the unfairness of charging Valley
residents for a pollution problem caused in some measure by
vehicles originating outside of the Valley and simply passing
through, as well as the vagueness of permitting the district
to adopt rules that reduce vehicle trips.
Assembly Votes:
Floor: 44-32
Appr: 12-5
L. Gov: 5-2
Trans: 8-2
POSITIONS: (Communicated to the Committee before noon on
Wednesday,
June 11, 2008)
SUPPORT: American Lung Association of California
Association of Irritated Residents
California Association of Wheat Growers
California Bean Shippers Association
California Cotton Ginners and Growers Association
California Grain & Feed Association
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California League of Conservation Voters
California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation
California Seed Association
California State Floral Association
California Warehouse Association
City of Coalinga
City of Huron
City of Orange Cove
City of Parlier
Coalition for Clean Air
Community Action to Fight Asthma
Natural Resources Defense Council
Pacific Egg and Poultry Association
Planning and Conservation League
San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District
Sierra Club California
Tri-Valley CAREs
Union of Concerned Scientists
Michael Rubio, Kern County Supervisor
OPPOSED: Automobile Club of Southern California
California Citrus Mutual
California State Automobile Association
California Motor Car Dealers Association
California New Car Dealers Association
Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association
Stop Hidden Taxes Coalition