BILL ANALYSIS
AB 1300
Page 1
Date of Hearing: April 27, 2009
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON NATURAL RESOURCES
Nancy Skinner, Chair
AB 1300 (Fletcher) - As Amended: April 21, 2009
SUBJECT : Fire protection: vegetation management pilot program
SUMMARY : Requires the California Department of Forestry (CDF)
to establish a vegetation management pilot program to provide
incentives for fire prevention vegetation management projects in
selected communities.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Creates the California Forest Improvement Program (CFIP)
(Chapter 1181, Statutes of 1978), which authorizes CDF to
provide technical and financial assistance to small forest
landowners for a wide range of forest management activities,
including preparation of management plans, reforestation,
timber stand improvement, forest land conservation and fish
and wildlife habitat improvement. Landowners are required to
provide at least a 10% cost share for grants.
2)Proposition 40 (2002) makes eligible for grants nonprofit
organizations and public agencies that implement projects that
protect or enhance watershed values through the manipulation
of vegetation to reduce fuel loading and fire risk on
nonfederal lands in 15 Sierra Nevada counties.
THIS BILL :
1)Requires CDF to establish a vegetation management pilot
program (pilot program) to provide incentives for fire
prevention vegetation management projects in selected
communities by paying up to twenty dollars per ton for bone
dry vegetation. The fee must be paid pursuant to the
following considerations:
a) Fifteen dollars ($15) per bone dry ton for communities
that are located up to 20 miles away from a biomass energy
facility.
b) Eighteen dollars ($18) per bone dry ton for communities
that are located 20 to 30 miles away from a biomass energy
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facility.
c) Twenty dollars ($20) per bone dry ton for communities
that are located more than 30 miles away from a biomass
energy facility.
2)Provides that the goals of the vegetation management pilot
program are to: a) provide incentives for fire prevention in
and around communities by making the material removed during
vegetation management projects for fire prevention worth more
to biomass facilities, thereby offsetting more of the cost of
doing the work; and, b) to determine if a small incentive
payment on the final disposition of the vegetation materials
would statistically increase the amount of fire prevention
vegetation management work done.
3)Requires CDF, based upon available funding, to choose up to 10
communities for inclusion in the pilot program based on
specified criteria. Selected communities must work with a
biomass energy facility to dispose of the vegetation materials
collected, including transportation of the materials.
4)Requires CDF to seek non-General Fund funding for the pilot
program from new state, federal, or private funds dedicated to
fire prevention efforts, to the extent the funds are available
for those efforts.
5)Directs CDF to report to the Legislature, no later than six
months after the completion of the final project of the
program, regarding the effectiveness of the program and
whether its goals were met.
6)Sunsets the pilot program on January 1, 2013.
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown
COMMENTS : According to the author's office: despite existing
laws, programs and grants to reduce fuel loads in the
wildland-urban interface (WUI) "?more can be done to reduce the
threat and protect the environment by incentivizing the removal
of brush and so-called ladder fuels in the WUI. Existing
programs funded by the Sierra Nevada Conservancy, for example,
provide a financial incentive to remove this type of foliage;
however, there isn't a concerted effort or program dedicated to
this purpose. This program will enhance the commercial value
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for small timber, shrubbery or chaparral by subsidizing the
transportation of the brush to biomass facilities."
1)Background
The recent catastrophic fires in the state have highlighted the
significant increase in residential development in the WUI and
the association between climate change and more intense or
frequent fires. In response, the state has, among other things,
adopted building codes to lower the risk of fire ignition,
increased enforcement of defensible space requirements, and
funded fuel reduction efforts in at-risk communities. Since
2003, the state has awarded over $16 million in grants to Fire
Safe Councils, local governments, fire districts for various
fuels reduction and forest health projects. The federal
government has provided nearly $9 million in federal funds and
lowered local government match requirements to reduce hazardous
fuels in California. These efforts have resulted in the
treatment of thousands of acres annually on state and federal
lands in the WUI.
Despite these efforts, there is concern that fuels loads in the
WUI remain at unsafe levels and that existing programs or
regulatory exemptions do not provide sufficient economic
incentive to encourage more fuel reduction work.
2)Forest biomass as a renewable resource
According to a 2007 report on California biomass resources
sponsored by the California Energy Commission (CEC), biomass
from forests, on a "technically sustainable basis," is estimated
to amount to about 14 million bone-dry tons a year. The four
main categories of forestry biomass are logging slash, biomass
from forest thinning (stand improvement and fuels reductions
operations), mill residues, and shrub or chaparral. Thinning of
forest and shrub lands by mechanical means (other than by
prescribed fire) is often the preferred choice when the intent
is to reduce the threat of catastrophic wildfire near houses or
other vulnerable assets. According to the report, thinning is
likely to increase, particularly in WUI areas, due to new
federal legislation and increasing public concerns over the risk
from wildfire.
There are 33 biomass plants (fueled by forest, mill,
agriculture, and urban residues) spread across the state from
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Shasta County to the Coachella Valley. These plants, most under
contract with investor-owned utilities, are reportedly operating
at very low capacities. This bill requires CDF to provide an
incentive payment for vegetation removed during fire prevention
projects and accepted by a biomass energy facility though
nothing in the bill requires a facility to accept such
vegetation.
3)Pilot program or grant program?
This bill requires CDF to establish a vegetation management
pilot program that provides incentives for fuel reduction work
to determine if incentive payments would statistically increase
the amount of this work. However, by prescribing the amount to
be paid per ton of vegetative material, the bill appears to
answer its own hypothesis. Additionally, program participants
are basically self-selected (though applicants must meet
specified criteria) not chosen by random selection and
subsequent assignment to a control and study group. Clearly,
those motivated by incentive payments would logically conduct
fuel reduction work. Moreover, it is unclear who would actually
receive an incentive payment and whether such projects must
comply with all environmental and forest practices laws.
The author states that the intent of the bill is to simply
determine whether incentives increase fire prevention efforts.
But the question remains: compared to what? And if one assumes
that incentives increase fuel reduction work, what level of
subsidy would significantly motivate behavior beyond that which
would occur absent a subsidy? While the author probably is not
interested in pursuing a rigorous experimental design, CDF may
not be the appropriate entity to conduct such a pilot program.
Thus, the author and committee may wish to consider amending the
bill to authorize CDF to contract with the University of
California or CEC via the California Biomass Collaborative or
other appropriate research institution to design and carry out
the pilot program. Alternatively, the program's purpose, goals,
and structure could be revised to reflect what appears to be a
grant program.
4)Federal stimulus funding
Finally, the bill does not identify a funding source and further
restrict the source to new state, federal or private funds
dedicated to fire prevention efforts to the extend these funds
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are available. One possible source is the American Recovery and
Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009, which provides $500 million to
the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) for "Wildland Fire Management"
activities, $250 million of which must be spent for hazardous
fuels reduction, forest health protection, rehabilitation and
hazard mitigation activities on federal lands. The remaining
$250 million is allocated for similar activities, including
ecosystem improvement, on state and private lands. Of the total
amount, $50 million is available for "wood-to-energy" grants to
promote increased use of biomass from federal, state, and
private lands.
CDF has submitted a list of potentially eligible projects
totaling $176 million to the USFS. On this list is a "Biomass
Woods-to-Power-Plant Transportation Incentive" valued at $6
million.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
California Fire Safe Council
California Forestry Association
Personal Insurance Federation of Caifornia
Regional Council of Rural Counties
The Wilderness Society
Opposition
None on file
Analysis Prepared by : Dan Chia / NAT. RES. / (916) 319-2092