BILL ANALYSIS Ó
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Christine Kehoe, Chair
SB 16 (Rubio)
Hearing Date: 04/11/2011 Amended: 03/29/2011
Consultant: Brendan McCarthy Policy Vote: NR&W 6-1
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BILL SUMMARY: SB 16, an urgency measure, shortens some existing
timelines for the review of Endangered Species Act permit
applications by the Department of Fish and Game. The bill
extends an existing application fee of $75,000 to all energy
projects proposed in order to meet the state's Renewable
Portfolio Standard.
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Fiscal Impact (in thousands)
Major Provisions 2011-12 2012-13 2013-14 Fund
Staff costs to meet shorter Unknown costs, covered by new
revenues Special *
review deadlines
Fee revenues Up to ($7,500) per year Special
*
* Fish and Game Preservation Fund.
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STAFF COMMENTS:
Under current law, thermal power plants with a capacity over 50
megawatts are licensed by the Energy Commission.
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 project applications for incidental
take permits. The Department spends about $4 million per year
reviewing incidental take permit applications. The Department
generally does not charge fees for this review. Under current
regulation, the Department is required to complete an initial
review of an incidental take permit application for completeness
within 30 days.
Depending on whether the Department is designated a "lead
agency" or a "responsible agency" under the California
Environmental Quality Act, the Department must act to approve or
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deny and incidental take permit within 90 days (with the
potential for a 60 day extension) or 120 days (with a potential
60 day extension).
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. SB x2 (Simitian) increases the Renewable Portfolio
requirement to 33 percent of total electricity demand by 2020.
That bill has been enrolled and is awaiting action by the
Governor.
SB x8 34 (Padilla, Chapter 9, Statutes of the 2009-10, 8th
Extraordinary Session) made several changes to the process for
permitting certain solar thermal energy projects that are
eligible for funding under the American Recovery and
Reinvestment Act (ARRA) and would be located in the Colorado and
Mojave desert regions of the state. SB x8 34 requires project
applicants to pay a fee of $75,000 to the Department of Fish and
Game for review of incidental take permit applications.
This bill revises the deadlines for the review of incidental
take permits by the Department of Fish and Game. Specifically,
the bill requires the Department to notify applicants within 10
days of determining that an application is complete. The bill
requires the Department to approve or reject an incidental take
permit within 90 days after the application is complete, if the
permit involves only the California Endangered Species Act. If
an application involves both state law and the federal
Endangered Species Act, the Department must approve or deny the
application within 150 days.
The bill extends the $75,000 application fee to all renewable
energy projects eligible under the state's Renewable Portfolio
Standard. For complex applications, the Department is authorized
to charge up to an additional $75,000 (based on the Department's
actual costs). For applications that require the Department only
to determine whether an existing federal incidental take permit
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is consistent with the California Endangered Species Act, the
Department is authorized to charge a fee equal to the
Department's actual costs of making the consistence
determination (which is likely to be significantly less than
$75,000). The fee would be imposed on all new projects when they
are submitted, or for applications that have already been
submitted, by January 30, 2012.
The bill also requires the Department to report to the
Legislature on the implementation of the bill's requirements.
This bill is an urgency measure.
Given the shorter timelines under the bill, the Department will
likely face increased staff costs to review incidental take
permit applications. Any additional costs should be covered by
the increased fee revenues under the bill.
The Department indicates that about 100 proposed projects may
meet the criteria for paying new fees under the bill. Thus the
bill would result in projected revenues of about $7.5 million to
the Department in the next year or two. Over time, the amount of
revenue may decline somewhat, as the number of new renewable
energy projects declines as the state gets closer to meeting its
renewable energy goals.
Staff notes that while the bill provides additional financial
resources to the Department for permit review, the current state
hiring freeze may limit the Department's ability to assign
additional personnel to permit review activities. This may
impede the Department's ability to meet the accelerated
timelines in the bill.
Staff recommends the bill be amended to clarify that the
retroactive fee requirement applies only to applications
currently under review.
AB x1 13 (M. Perez) also addresses permitting of renewable
energy projects and contains similar fee provisions. That bill
is in the Natural Resources & Water Committee.
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