BILL ANALYSIS 1
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SENATE ENERGY, UTILITIES AND COMMUNICATIONS COMMITTEE
ALEX PADILLA, CHAIR
AB 222 - Adams/Ma Hearing Date:
July 7, 2009 A
As Amended: May 28, 2009 FISCAL B
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DESCRIPTION
Current law requires retail sellers of electricity to meet 20
percent of sales from eligible renewable resources by December
31, 2010. This is known as the Renewable Portfolio Standard
(RPS).
Current law defines renewable resources eligible under the RPS
as biomass, solar thermal, photovoltaic, wind, geothermal, fuel
cells using renewable fuels, small hydroelectric generation,
digester gas, municipal solid waste conversion, landfill gas,
ocean wave, ocean thermal, or tidal current.
This bill would count as eligible under the RPS a "biorefinery"
which includes the conversion of solid waste to gas by specified
noncombustion technologies as long as the biorefinery conforms
to existing air and water quality laws.
This bill makes other significant policy changes to the
Integrated Waste Manage Act relative to gasification,
transformation and waste diversion requirements.
BACKGROUND
Renewable Portfolio Standard - The RPS was adopted in 2002 with
a primary goal of reducing air emissions from electricity
generation to improve public health. To achieve that goal the
state's investor-owned (IOU) and publicly owned utilities (POU),
along with other retail electricity providers, are required to
procure 20 percent of electricity sales from specified renewable
resources. Since that time more than 900 megawatts of new
renewable generation has been brought on-line by the state's
IOUs. Nearly 6,700 MW of renewable generation has been
contracted to come online in the coming years.
Greenhouse Gas Reductions - In 2006 California adopted landmark
legislation which mandated that the state would reduce emissions
from greenhouse gases (GHG) to 1990 levels by 2020, a reduction
of approximately 30 percent. The main strategies for making
these reductions are outlined in the Scoping Plan of the
implementing agency, the California Air Resources Board (ARB),
adopted in December of 2008. The ARB's Scoping Plan expects
that the electric industry will contribute at least 40 percent
of the total GHG reductions by 2020 from direct mandatory
approaches including a 33 percent RPS.
Solid Waste Conversion - 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.
COMMENTS
1. Authors Intent - According to the author, the purpose of
this bill is to encourage the production of low-cost
biofuels and green power by converting municipal solid
waste into a fuel source that can be used to produce
renewable electricity. The author and supporters believe
these goals can be achieved by permitting solid waste
conversion facilities that convert municipal solid waste
into electricity to count toward a utility's RPS and by
creating incentives for local governments to fuel the
conversion facilities with solid waste fuel stocks.
The author has proposed to include a technology that is GHG
emitting. This is contrary to the intent of the RPS
program and the goals of the ARB in calling for a 33% RPS
mandate to reach the state's GHG reduction goals.
The author states that a primary goal of the bill is to
enable biorefineries "to be permitted under the same
provisions as are required for other manufacturing
facilities." Modifying the eligibility of solid waste
conversion under the RPS will not impact the permitting of
a biorefinery. The author may wish to consider further
researching the issue to determine what those manufacturing
barriers are.
2. Solid Waste Conversion Counts Under RPS - Current law
(Public Resources Code Section 25741(b)(3)), which the
author is proposing to repeal, defines solid waste
conversion using noncombustion technologies as an eligible
resource under the RPS program. The primary difference
between current law and the modified definition proposed in
this bill is that "discharges of air contaminants or
emissions, including greenhouse gases as defined in Section
38505 of the Health and Safety Code" are prohibited. To be
RPS eligible this bill merely requires that the solid waste
conversion facility be in compliance with ARB and local air
pollution district air quality mandates. The consequence
of this is that the author defines as RPS eligible a
process and technology that is directly contrary to the
goal of the RPS, and all other eligible technologies under
the RPS, thereby undermining the fundamental purpose of the
RPS - to reduce air emissions.
The sponsor reports that "independently-verified emissions
test result show that thermochemical conversion
technologies are able to meet existing local, state and
federal emissions limits." However, compliance with air
quality laws is not the issue presented by this bill. The
issue is whether an emissions producing technology should
be an eligible resource in the RPS program which is
intended to include technologies that are zero-emitting.
3. Implications for Integrated Waste Management Act - This
bill makes significant changes to waste diversion policy
which is not analyzed here. This bill has been also been
referred to the Senate Environmental Quality Committee
which will fully analyze those issues.
4. Double Referral - This bill has been double referred to
the Senate Committee on Environmental Quality. Due to time
constraints, if amendments are proposed in Committee these
amendments must be taken in the second Committee.
ASSEMBLY VOTES
Assembly Floor (54-13)
Assembly Appropriations Committee (14-1)
Assembly Utilities and Commerce Committee
(11-0)
POSITIONS
Sponsor:
BioEnergy Producers Association
Support:
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|adaptiveARC, Inc. |Long Beach Coalition for a Safe |
|BioEnergy Producers Association |Environment |
|Biomass Coordinating Council |Marin Sanitary Service |
|California Chamber of Commerce |Miller De Wulf Corporation |
|California Farm Bureau |North Valley Coalition |
|Federation |New Planet Energy, LLC |
|CA Manufacturers & Technology |Orange County Board of |
|Association |Supervisors |
|California State Association of |Pacific Gas and Electric |
|Counties |Company |
|City of Bell |Phoenix Biomass Energy, Inc. |
|City of Glendale |Redwood City Planning |
|City of Hawthorne |Remediation Earth, Inc. |
|City of Pico Rivera |Republic Services, Inc. |
|City of Vernon |San Bernardino County Board of |
|Clean Cities Coalition |Supervisors |
|Clements Environmental |San Luis Obispo County |
|Fulcrum BioEnergy, Inc. |Integrated Waste |
|Global Energy, Inc. | Management Authority |
|ICM, Inc. |Sempra Energy |
|INEOS Bio |Solid Waste Association of |
|International Union of |North America |
|Operating Engineers |Southern California Edison |
|Interstate Waste Technologies |Sustainable Conservation |
|LA County Board of Supervisors |Ternion Bio Industries |
|LA County Solid Waste |ThermoChem Recovery |
|Management |International, Inc. |
| Committee |Theroux Environmental |
| |Waste To Energy, LLC |
| |Yolo County Board of |
| |Supervisors |
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Oppose:
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|Alameda Co. Waste Management |Environment California |
|Authority & |Environmental Defense Fund |
| Recycling Board |Global Alliance for Incinerator |
|Breathe California |Alternatives |
|Californians Against Waste |Global Anti-Incinerator |
|CA League of Conservation |Alliance |
|Voters Council |GreenAction |
|CA Resource Recovery |Natural Resources Defense |
|Association |Council |
|Center for Biological Diversity |Planning and Conservation |
|Clean Water Action |League |
|Coalition for Clean Air |Sierra Club California |
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| | |
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Kellie Smith
AB 222 Analysis
Hearing Date: July 7, 2009