BILL NUMBER: AB 655 AMENDED
BILL TEXT
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY APRIL 6, 2015
INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Quirk
FEBRUARY 24, 2015
An act to amend Section 19315 of , and to add Section 19300.1
to, the Food and Agricultural Code, relating to
inedible kitchen grease, rendering, and making
an appropriation therefor.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 655, as amended, Quirk. Inedible kitchen grease:
transporters: additional fee. Rendering: inedible
kitchen grease: additional fee.
Existing law regulates rendering, which is defined as the
recycling, processing, and conversion of, among other things,
inedible kitchen grease. Existing law requires transporters of
inedible kitchen grease to be registered and to pay a specified
registration fee. Existing law , operative until July 1,
2020, and repealed as of January 1, 2021,
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 fee is
required to be collected and deposited into a
continuously appropriated fund, the bill would make an appropriation.
The bill would also make related findings and declarations
regarding the rendering industry and the process of rendering .
Vote: majority. Appropriation: yes. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: no.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. Section 19300.1 is added to the
Food and Agricultural Code , to read:
19300.1. (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.
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.
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.