BILL ANALYSIS Ó Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary Senator Kevin de León, Chair SB 498 (Lara) - Biomass: conversion technology. Amended: January 6, 2014 Policy Vote: EQ 5-1 Urgency: No Mandate: No Hearing Date: January 23, 2014 Consultant: Marie Liu SUSPENSE FILE. AS PROPOSED TO BE AMENDED. Bill Summary: SB 498 expands the definition of biomass conversion under the California Integrated Waste Management Act to include conversion technologies, which is defined as noncombustion thermal, chemical, or biological processes that convert biomass into marketable products. Fiscal Impact (as proposed to be amended): No state costs. Background: The California Integrated Waste Management Act requires that local agencies reduce the amount of waste sent to the landfill. One of the allowable diversions is for waste to be used for biomass conversion. Conversion technologies are generally processes that can covert organic materials (i.e. biomass) into usable forms of energy including heat, steam, and electricity. However, the existing statutory definition of biomass conversion only includes conversions that occur through controlled combustion. Other conversion technologies, such as gasification and pyrolysis, can convert biomass into usable forms of energy without combustion and thus are excluded from the existing biomass conversion definition. Proposed Law: This bill would expand the definition of biomass conversion to also include conversion technologies, which are defined as those methods that covert biomass into marketable products and fuels through noncombustion thermal, chemical, or biological processes. Related Legislation: SB 804 (Lara) also sought to revise the definition of "biomass conversion" among other provisions. SB 804 was vetoed by the Governor based on the definition of biomass conversion. SB 498 (Lara) Page 1 Staff Comments: As discussed in the Senate Environmental Quality Committee, the definition for a conversion technology in this bill is broad and inadvertently incorporates anaerobic digestion and composting into the definition of biomass conversion. Both anaerobic digestion and composting facilities are currently regulated by CalRecycle. However, because biomass conversion facilities are not within CalRecycle's jurisdiction, by incorporating anaerobic digestion and composting into the definition of biomass conversion, this bill would require CalRecycle to stop regulating most of these facilities. CalRecycle would incur one-time costs to revise their regulations to reflect these changes at an estimated cost of approximately $100,000. CalRecycle also believes that they would be required to go through the CEQA process in order to cease their regulations of anaerobic digestion and composting facilities. However, staff believes that this may be unnecessary as these regulatory changes would not be a discretionary action, but rather required by statute. According to the author, inclusion of anaerobic digestion and composting is inadvertent. The author has committed to working with CalRecycle over a more refined definition of biomass conversion and conversion technologies. Should the refined definition not include anaerobic digestion and composting, the costs associated with this bill would be removed. Proposed Author Amendments: Proposed author amendments would delete the definition of "conversion technology" and instead would expand the definition of "biomass conversion" to be the production of heat, fuels, or electricity from noncombustion thermal methods in addition to controlled combustion.