BILL ANALYSIS
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Christine Kehoe, Chair
1012 (V.M. Perez)
Hearing Date: 08/27/2010 Amended: 08/20/2010
Consultant: Brendan McCarthy Policy Vote: NR&W 5-2
AB 1012 (V.M. Perez), Page 2
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BILL SUMMARY: AB 1012 requires the Department of Fish and Game
to collect a $75,000 fee from certain renewable energy project
applicants to pay for the Department's costs to review and issue
California Endangered Species Act permits.
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Fiscal Impact (in thousands)
Major Provisions 2010-11 2011-12 2012-13 Fund
Fee revenues About ($2,250) per year Special
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* Fish and Game Preservation Fund.
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STAFF COMMENTS:
Under the California Endangered Species Act, certain species are
listed as endangered, threatened, or candidates for protected
under the law. The "take" of those listed species is prohibited
without an incidental take permit, which typically includes
stringent mitigation requirements. The Department of Fish and
Game is required to review applications for incidental take
permits. The Department spends about $4 million per year
reviewing incidental take permit applications. The Department
does not charge any fees for this review.
Current law requires the state's investor owned electricity
utilities and load serving entities to increase their
procurement of renewable energy by one percent per year, such
that twenty percent of their total electricity load comes from
renewable resources by December 31, 2010. This requirement is
referred to as the Renewable Portfolio Standard. All three of
the state's investor owned utilities are behind in their
procurement of renewable resources, in part because of a lack of
transmission infrastructure from areas with potential renewable
resources.
AB 1012 requires the Department to collect a permit application
fee for review of incidental take permits for proposed renewable
energy projects, as defined under the Renewable Portfolio
Standard. The application fee is set at $75,000, with the
AB 1012 (V.M. Perez), Page 2
Department authorized to collect up to an additional $75,000 to
fully cover the Department's costs. If the proposed project is
subject to permit review by the California Energy Commission,
the permit fees are to be used by the Department to pay for the
Department's costs to participate in that process.
The bill directs the Department to review the fees and the
Department's costs to review project applications and recommend
to the Legislature any necessary changes to the fee amount to
ensure that the Department's costs are fully covered by the fee.
According to the Department, the average cost to review an
incidental take permit application for a renewable energy
project is about $75,000. The Department indicates that it
anticipates about 30 of these project applications per year over
the next five years. This anticipated workload would generate
about $2.25 million per year, with the potential for additional
revenue if the Department determines that individual projects
require additional fees (up to $75,000), as authorized under the
bill.
SB x8 34 (Padilla, Chapter 9, Statutes of the 2009-10 8th
Extraordinary Session) made several changes to the process for
permitting certain solar energy projects that are eligible for
funding under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and
would be located in the Colorado and Mojave desert regions of
the state. One of the provisions of SB x8 34 requires project
applicants to pay a fee of $75,000 to the Department for review
of incidental take permit applications.