BILL ANALYSIS Ó
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | SB 16|
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THIRD READING
Bill No: SB 16
Author: Rubio (D)
Amended: 4/12/11
Vote: 27 - Urgency
SENATE NATURAL RES. AND WATER COMMITTEE : 6-1, 3/22/11
AYES: Pavley, Evans, Kehoe, Padilla, Simitian, Wolk
NOES: La Malfa
NO VOTE RECORDED: Cannella, Fuller
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE : 5-3, 4/11/11
AYES: Kehoe, Alquist, Pavley, Price, Steinberg
NOES: Walters, Emmerson, Runner
NO VOTE RECORDED: Lieu
SUBJECT : Renewable energy: Department of Fish and
Game: expedited permitting
SOURCE : Author
DIGEST : This bill shortens some existing timelines for
the review of California Endangered Species Act (CESA)
permit applications by the Department of Fish and Game
(DFG), and extends an existing application fee of $75,000
to all energy projects proposed in order to meet the
state's Renewables Portfolio Standard (RPS).
ANALYSIS : Under current law, thermal power plants with a
capacity over 50 megawatts are licensed by the Energy
Commission.
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Under the CESA, 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 DFG is required to review
project applications for incidental take permits. The DFG
spends about $4 million per year reviewing incidental take
permit applications. The DFG generally does not charge fees
for this review. Under current regulation, the DFG is
required to complete an initial review of an incidental
take permit application for completeness within 30 days.
Depending on whether the DFG is designated a "lead agency"
or a "responsible agency" under the California
Environmental Quality Act, the DFG must act to approve or
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 Renewables Portfolio
Standard.
This bill:
1. Imposes a requirement that the DFG, within 10 days, to
notify applicants when an application for an incidental
take permit is complete.
2. Imposes a requirement that DFG approve or reject an
incidental take application within 90 days after the
application is complete, if the permit involves only the
state endangered species act.
3. Imposes a requirement that DFG approve or reject an
incidental take application within 150 days after the
application is complete where the permit involves
species listed pursuant to both the state and federal
endangered species act. This provision would mirror
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the same applicable timeline that is in federal
regulations ,as is the case in federal regulations.
4. Extends the $75,000 application fee to all renewable
energy projects eligible under the state's RPS. For
complex applications, the DFG is authorized to charge up
to an additional $75,000 (based on the DFG's actual
costs). For applications that require the DFG only to
determine whether an existing federal incidental take
permit is consistent with the CESA, the DFG is
authorized to charge a fee equal to the DFG'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, and is currently under review, by January 30,
2012.
5. For projects that are eligible for a consistency
determination pursuant to Section 2080.1 of the Fish and
Game Code, the fee would not be $75,000 but instead
would be the DFG's actual costs of reviewing the
application, an amount that would be considerably lower.
6. The DFG would be required to produce a full accounting
of its expenditures of fee revenues for all of the
factors listed in the bill.
Background
The DFG has the responsibility to administer the CESA,
among other duties. This law authorizes, in specified
circumstances, DFG to issue "incidental take" permits to
enable a development project to harm one or more protected
species or their habitat. In the absence of such a permit,
CESA prohibits the take of any endangered or threatened
species. DFG may issue an incidental take permit
authorizing the take of endangered or threatened species if
certain conditions are met, including that the take is
incidental to an otherwise lawful activity, and the impacts
of the authorized take are minimized and fully mitigated.
CESA requires applicants to ensure adequate funding to
implement mitigation and monitoring measures.
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Last year, in SB 34 8X (Padilla), Chapter 9, Statutes of
2009-10, Eighth Extraordinary Session, the Legislature
passed and Governor Schwarzenegger signed into law several
amendments to CESA that were intended to expedite the
regulatory approval of solar thermal and photovoltaic
energy projects in parts of the southern California desert
within the Desert Renewable Energy Conservation Program
(DRECP) planning area. The DRECP effort will identify the
best sites for renewable projects and the best lands that
should be reserved for mitigation. Among other provisions,
that new statute provides for the in lieu payment of funds
that would allow DFG to purchase mitigation lands in
advance for eligible renewable energy projects in the
desert that were to receive funds from the federal
government's stimulus (ARRA) funds. That new law also
created a $75,000 fee that developers would pay to DFG to
cover its costs in reviewing the endangered species
implications of these projects.
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: Yes
Local: No
According to the Senate Appropriations Committee:
Fiscal Impact (in thousands)
Major Provisions 2010-11 2011-12 2012-13 Fund
Staff costs to meet Unknown costs, covered by
new revenues Special*
shorter review deadlines
Fee revenues Up to ($7,500) per year
Special*
* Fish and Game Preservation Fund.
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT : According to the author:
"SB 16 is needed because there is currently no timeframe
under which DFG must adhere to in the review of
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incidental take permits for siting renewable energy
permits already approved by the county. Applicants
often wait long periods of time and the project is
delayed.
"Kern County has approved and moved into the
construction phase over 1000 megawatts of wind and solar
energy projects. The average timeline for DFG to issue
incidental take permits was six months. The processing
times varied greatly and there is no specific timeframe
under which applicants can rely.
"It is anticipated that DFG will be inundated with more
than 300 applicants for renewable energy projects this
year because of the increasing interest in renewable
energy projects and because of the investment and tax
provisions contained in state and federal law. SB 16 is
essential to ensuing these projects are approved in a
reasonable frame."
CTW:kc 4/12/11 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: NONE RECEIVED
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