Amended in Assembly April 6, 2015

California Legislature—2015–16 Regular Session

Assembly Bill No. 655

Introduced by Assembly Member Quirk

February 24, 2015

An act to amend Section 19315 of begin insert , and to add Section 19300.1 to, end insert the Food and Agricultural Code, relating to begin delete inedible kitchen grease, end delete begin insert rendering, end insert and making an appropriation therefor.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL’S DIGEST

AB 655, as amended, Quirk. begin delete Inedible kitchen grease: transporters: additional fee. end delete begin insert Rendering: inedible kitchen grease: additional fee. end insert

Existing law begin insert regulates rendering, which is defined as the recycling, processing, and conversion of, among other things, inedible kitchen grease. Existing law end insert requires transporters of inedible kitchen grease to be registered and to pay a specified registration fee. Existing law begin insert , end insert operative until July 1, 2020, begin delete and repealed as of January 1, 2021, end delete authorizes the Department of Food and Agriculture to charge an additional fee not to exceed $300 per year per vehicle that is operated to transport kitchen grease for purposes of administering the provisions regulating these transporters. Existing law exempts from 75% of the additional fee a registered transporter who transports inedible kitchen grease for his or her own personal, noncommercial use as an alternative fuel, subject to specified requirements. Existing law requires fees collected pursuant to these provisions to be deposited into the Department of Food and Agriculture Fund and continuously appropriates the collected funds for the purposes described above.

This bill increase the additional fee to not to exceed $350 per year per vehicle that is operated to transport kitchen grease. By increasing this additional fee, which begin delete fee end delete is begin delete required to be collected and end delete deposited into a continuously appropriated fund, the bill would make an appropriation. The bill would also make related findings and declarations begin insert regarding the rendering industry and the process of rendering end insert .

Vote: majority. Appropriation: yes. Fiscal committee: yes. State-mandated local program: no.

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:

begin insert

begin insert SECTION 1. end insert   

end insert

begin insert Section 19300.1 is added to the end insert begin insert Food and
Agricultural Code end insert begin insert , to read: end insert

begin insert

begin insert 19300.1. end insert   

(a) The rendering industry is a critical health and
safety infrastructure for California. Rendering is an effective tool
to eliminate many human and animal disease pathogens, protect
our groundwater and air resources, and greatly reduce greenhouse
gas emissions compared to other alternative disposal options.

(b) Rendering is the process of recycling waste animal tissue
into stable, value-added materials. Each year rendering recycles
approximately 59 billion pounds of perishable material generated
by the meat and poultry processing, food processing, supermarket,
and restaurant industries. The rendering industry turns this
material into valuable ingredients such as biofuels, various soaps,
paints and varnishes, cosmetics, explosives, toothpaste,
pharmaceuticals, leather, textiles, and lubricants used daily in
most households.

end insert

begin delete

SECTION 1.  

The Legislature hereby finds and declares all of
the following:

(a) The rendering industry is a critical health and safety
infrastructure for California. Rendering is an effective tool to
eliminate many human and animal disease pathogens, protects our
groundwater and air resources, and greatly reduces greenhouse
gas emissions compared to other alternative disposal options.

(b) Rendering is the process of recycling waste animal tissue
into stable, value-added materials. Each year rendering recycles
approximately 59 billion pounds of perishable material generated
by the livestock and poultry meat and poultry processing, food
processing, supermarket, and restaurant industries. The rendering
industry turns this material into valuable ingredients such as
biofuels, various soaps, paints and varnishes, cosmetics, explosives,
toothpaste, pharmaceuticals, leather, textiles, and lubricants used
daily in most households.

end delete

SEC. 2.  

Section 19315 of the Food and Agricultural Code is
amended to read:

19315.  

(a) Except as provided in subdivision (b), in addition
to the registration fee required by Section 19312, the department
may charge a fee necessary to cover the costs of administering this
article. Any additional fee charged pursuant to this section shall
not exceed three hundred fifty dollars ($350) per year per vehicle
that is operated to transport kitchen grease, and shall not exceed
three thousand dollars ($3,000) per year per registered transporter.

(b) An individual registered pursuant to this article who
transports inedible kitchen grease for his or her own personal,
noncommercial use as an alternative fuel is exempt from 75 percent
of the fee charged pursuant to subdivision (a), and shall meet all
of the following requirements:

(1) The individual shall meet all other requirements of this
article.

(2) The individual shall not transport more than 55 gallons of
inedible kitchen grease per load for that purpose, and shall have
no more than 165 gallons of inedible kitchen grease in his or her
possession or control at any time.

(3) The individual shall not take any inedible kitchen grease
from a container owned by another registered transporter of
inedible kitchen grease or from an inedible kitchen grease provider
under contract with a registered transporter of inedible kitchen
grease or from a container owned by a renderer or collection center.

(4) The individual shall have a document in his or her possession
while transporting inedible kitchen grease signed by the responsible
party providing the inedible kitchen grease to the individual at the
source of the inedible kitchen grease that provides permission for
the inedible kitchen grease to be removed from that site.

(5) The individual shall specify where the inedible kitchen
grease is stored and processed as an alternative fuel, if that address
is different from the address included on the registration form for
that individual pursuant to Section 19312.

(6) The individual shall not sell, barter, or trade any inedible
kitchen grease.

(c) The secretary shall fix the annual fee established pursuant
to this section and may fix different fees for transporters of inedible
kitchen grease and collection centers, and for transporters of
interceptor grease. The secretary shall also fix the date the fee is
due and the method of collecting the fee. If an additional fee is
imposed on licensed renderers pursuant to subdivision (a) of
Section 19227 and an additional fee is imposed on registered
transporters pursuant to subdivision (a), only one additional fee
may be imposed on a person or firm that is both licensed as a
renderer pursuant to Article 6 (commencing with Section 19300)
and registered as a transporter of inedible kitchen grease pursuant
to this article, which fee shall be the higher of the two fees.

(d) If the fee established pursuant to this section is not paid
within one calendar month of the date it is due, a penalty shall be
imposed in the amount of 10 percent per annum on the amount of
the unpaid fee.

(e) For purposes of this section, “interceptor grease” means
inedible kitchen grease that is principally derived from food
preparation, processing, or waste, and that is removed from a grease
trap or grease interceptor.

(f) This section shall become inoperative on July 1, 2020, and,
as of January 1, 2021, is repealed, unless a later enacted statute,
which becomes effective on or before January 1, 2021, deletes or
extends the dates on which it becomes inoperative and is repealed.