BILL ANALYSIS AB 222 Page 1 ASSEMBLY THIRD READING AB 222 (Adams) As Amended May 28, 2009 Majority vote UTILITIES AND COMMERCE 11-0 APPROPRIATIONS 14-1 ----------------------------------------------------------------- |Ayes:|Fuentes, Duvall, Tom |Ayes:|De Leon, Nielsen, | | |Berryhill, Blakeslee, | |Ammiano, | | |Carter, Fuller, Furutani, | |Charles Calderon, Davis, | | |Huffman, Smyth, Swanson, | |Duvall, Fuentes, Hall, | | |Torrico | |Harkey, John A. Perez, | | | | |Price, Solorio, Audra | | | | |Strickland, Torlakson | | | | | | |-----+--------------------------+-----+--------------------------| | | |Nays:|Skinner | | | | | | ----------------------------------------------------------------- SUMMARY : Allows facilities that convert solid waste into energy or chemicals to count as a renewable electricity generation facility for the purpose of California's Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS). It also allows local governments to count solid waste that is converted into electricity or chemicals toward their recycling diversion goals. Specifically, this bill : 1)Defines "biorefinery" and requires such facilities to meet or exceed all local and state air and water quality standards, as well as other specified environmental protection criteria. 2)Includes use of conversion of municipal solid waste (MSW) at a biorefinery to electricity or certain other useful products among the criteria that qualifies a facility for purposes of the RPS. 3)Prohibits a local government from including solid waste diverted to a biorefinery towards its compliance with the state requirement to divert 50% of solid waste from landfill or transformation. 4)Allows a local jurisdiction to include solid waste diverted to a biorefinery towards meeting a requirement to divert more than 50% of solid waste from landfill or transformation. AB 222 Page 2 5)Repeals the definition of "solid waste conversion" and specifies that a gasification facility is not a biorefinery. 6)Allows conversion at a biorefinery to count toward a utility's RPS obligation and to potentially participate in CEC grant programs. 7)Deletes the definition "gasification" from the Integrated Waste Management Act. EXISTING LAW : 1)Requires retail sellers of electricity, except local publicly owned electric utilities, to increase their existing level of renewable resources by 1% of sales per year such that 20% of their retail sales are procured from eligible renewable resources by 2017. 2)Defines eligible renewable resources to include all generation from an in-state renewable electricity generation facility that uses biomass, solar thermal, photovoltaic, wind, geothermal, fuel cells using renewable fuels, small hydroelectric generation of 30 megawatts or less, digester gas, municipal solid waste conversion, landfill gas, ocean wave, ocean thermal, or tidal current, and any additions or enhancements to the facility using that technology. 3)Requires cities, counties, and regional agencies to divert at least 50% of their solid waste from landfills. Permits a city, county, or regional agency to count up to 10% of their 50% mandated solid waste diversion from transformation or biomass conversion under limited circumstances. 4)Defines "gasification" as a technology that uses a noncombustion thermal process to convert solid waste to a clean burning fuel for the purpose of generating electricity and meets specified criteria. FISCAL EFFECT : Negligible costs, if any. COMMENTS : According to the author, the purpose of this bill is to encourage the production of low-cost biofuels and green power from California's from converting municipal solid waste into a AB 222 Page 3 fuel source that can be used to produce renewable electricity. The author and supporters believe these goals can be achieved by clarifying that solid waste conversion facilities that convert municipal solid waste into electricity count toward a utility's RPS and by creating incentives for local governments to provide the conversion facilities with the solid waste fuel stocks. The term "conversion technologies" refers to a wide variety of different technologies that heat or "cook" solid waste in order to reduce its volume, using the byproduct to produce energy or other new products. Conversion technologies include pyrolysis and gasification. These technologies heat solid waste at extremely high temperatures (over 1300F in gasification) to produce gas and liquid residues that are typically burned to produce energy. Biochemical conversion processes use acid or enzymatic processes to split the chemical bonds of the feedstock (in this case solid waste). Resulting sugars can be fermented to make ethanol for fuel, and acids for industrial uses. All of these technologies produce toxic air pollutants. RPS requires investor-owned utilities and certain other retail sellers to achieve a 20% renewable portfolio by 2010. RPS defines renewable resources to include, among other technologies, a MSW conversion facility that meets specific environmental standards. These standards are more rigid than standards for other industrial processes. No MSW conversion facility can meet all of these standards; consequently, current law, in effect, prohibits MSW conversion facilities from qualifying for purposes of meeting the state renewable energy goals. This bill would change the requirements for MSW conversion to count toward the RPS so that instead of meeting the specific restriction above, the biorefinery would be allowed to have discharges of air contaminants, water, and hazardous waste provided the facility was in full compliance with the standards set by the California Air Resources Board (ARB), and the California Water Resources Control Board (Water Board) that apply to any other manufacturing processes. This bill also allows a local government to count conversion of MSW at a biorefinery as part of its diversion of solid waste, AB 222 Page 4 should a local government be required to divert more than 50% of its solid waste. In doing so, the bill allows a process that does not count toward a local government's MSW diversion requirement today to potentially count toward MSW diversion in the future, albeit to a limit extent. Opponents, including several environmental and environmental justice organizations, argue that this bill could result in the release of toxic air emissions that result from the "cooking" of waste. Solid waste conversion relies on feed stock that is as varied as the contents of the solid waste stream. The quality of emissions resulting from such solid waste conversion, opponents claim, is therefore unpredictable and will most certainly include high levels of pollutants, regardless of the bill's language to the contrary. Opponents also argue that this bill provides local government with a perverse incentive to send their solid waste to biorefineries rather than increasing their rate of recycling or composting or reducing the volume of their waste stream. Such an incentive contradicts well-established state waste management goals Analysis Prepared by : Edward Randolph / U. & C. / (916) 319-2083 FN: 0001013