BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 815
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Date of Hearing: April 13, 2015
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON NATURAL RESOURCES
Das Williams, Chair
AB 815
(Ridley-Thomas) - As Introduced February 26, 2015
SUBJECT: Oil spill prevention and response fees: collection
SUMMARY: Clarifies who owes and pays the oil spill prevention
fee (fee), excludes petroleum products derived from fee-paid
crude oil, and deletes unnecessary oil pipeline operator
registration requirements.
EXISTING LAW:
1)Pursuant to the Lempert-Keene-Seastrand Oil Spill Prevention
and Response Act, requires the Administrator of the Office of
Spill Prevention and Response to annually set the fee rate,
which is capped at $0.065 per barrel of crude oil or petroleum
product.
2)Requires refinery, marine terminal, and pipeline operators to
register with the Board of Equalization (BOE) and requires the
BOE to administer and collect the fee.
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3)Requires the fee to be imposed upon a person owning crude oil
or petroleum products at the time that the crude oil or
petroleum products are received at a marine terminal or
refinery by specified modes of delivery from within or outside
the state.
4)Prohibits the fee from being collected by a marine terminal
operator or refinery operator or imposed on the owner of crude
oil or petroleum products if the fee has been previously
collected or paid on the crude oil or petroleum products at
another marine terminal or refinery and, in that case,
requires a marine terminal operator, refinery operator, or
owner of crude oil or petroleum products to demonstrate that
the fee has already been paid.
THIS BILL:
1)Deletes the provision that allows the owner of the crude oil
or petroleum product to pay the fee to the BOE. The refinery
or marine terminal operator would still pay the fee.
2)Allows a marine terminal and refinery operator to presume that
the fee has been imposed on petroleum products derived from
fee-paid crude oil refined at a California refinery.
3)Clarifies that pipeline operators are not required to register
for and pay the fee, but are required to register for the Oil
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Spill Response Fee Program.
4)Adds a definition of "barrel" and deletes a definition of
"oil."
FISCAL EFFECT: Unknown
COMMENTS:
1)Clean up. SB 861 (Committee on Budget and Fiscal Review),
Chapter 35, Statutes of 2014, authorized the Oil Spill
Prevention and Administration Fund to be used for inland oil
spill response, eliminated the fee sunset, and expanded the
fee base to include all crude oil entering the state. Since
the passage of SB 861, the BOE has worked with the Department
of Fish and Wildlife and affected industries to implement the
expansion of the fee to include crude oil and petroleum
products received at a refinery in this state. Some of the
provisions of SB 861 have created confusion and fear of
overpayment by feepayers. AB 815 allows marine terminal and
refinery operators to presume that the fee has been imposed on
petroleum products derived from fee-paid crude oil refined in
California. In addition, this bill removes the registration
requirements on pipeline operators because they no longer pay
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the fee. According to BOE these changes are clarifying in
nature and will not impact fee revenues.
2)Prior legislation.
SB 861 authorized the Oil Spill Prevention and Administration
Fund to be used for inland oil response, eliminated the fee
sunset, and expanded the fee base to include all crude oil
entering the state.
AB 2678 (Ridley-Thomas) stated legislative intent that the BOE
only collect the fee on crude oil or petroleum products upon
first delivery to a refinery or marine terminal and not upon
subsequent movement of that same oil or products derived after
that first delivery. AB 2678 passed off the Senate floor, but
was never taken up for concurrence in the Assembly.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION:
Support
Board of Equalization (Sponsor)
California Chamber of Commerce
Western States Petroleum Association
AB 815
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Opposition
None on file
Analysis Prepared by:Michael Jarred / NAT. RES. / (916) 319-2092