BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 1074
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Date of Hearing: April 13, 2015
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON TRANSPORTATION
Jim Frazier, Chair
AB 1074
(Cristina Garcia) - As Amended March 26, 2015
SUBJECT: Alternative fuels: infrastructure
SUMMARY: Directs the State Energy Resources Conservation and
Development Commission (Commission) to develop an alternative
refueling infrastructure plan, as part of a broader assessment,
that identifies the number of alternative fueling stations that
will be needed to fulfill the state's clean transportation
goals. Specifically, this bill:
1)Declares that it is the policy of the state and intent of the
Legislature to accelerate the adoption of alternatively fueled
vehicles by increasing alternative fueling options needed to
facilitate electric, hydrogen, and natural gas vehicles along
passenger and goods movement corridors.
2)Specifies that "alternative fuel" includes biodiesel,
bio-alcohol (methanol, ethanol, and butenal), chemically
stored electricity (battery and fuel cells), hydrogen,
compressed fossil or non-fossil natural gas, liquefied fossil
or non-fossil natural gas, vegetable oil, propane, and other
biomass sources.
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3)Defines "alternative refueling infrastructure" as equipment
that is available to the public and used to charge or store
and dispense alternative fuel to vehicles in accordance with
industry codes and standards.
4)Requires the Commission to conduct an assessment and develop
an integrated strategy to maximize the benefits and scope of
alternative refueling infrastructure to help the state achieve
climate change, air quality, and economic goals.
5)Requires the Commission to develop a refueling infrastructure
plan that identifies the number and types of stations and
geographical areas where additional stations will be needed.
EXISTING LAW:
1)Requires the Commission to prepare a biennial integrated
energy policy report containing an overview of major energy
trends and issues facing the state.
2)Requires the Commission to make recommendations to improve the
efficiency of transportation energy use, reduce dependence on
petroleum fuels, decrease environmental impacts from
transportation energy use, and contribute to reducing
congestion, promoting economic development, and enhancing
energy diversity and security.
FISCAL EFFECT: Unknown
COMMENTS: Despite making significant strides in reducing
greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, substantial efforts still need
to take place in order for the state to achieve the emissions
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reduction goals set forth in AB 32 (Nunez), Chapter 488,
Statutes of 2006, and Governor Schwarzenegger's Executive Order
S-3-05. Given that the transportation sector in California is
responsible for nearly 40% of GHG emissions, it stands to reason
that reducing emissions in this sector is paramount to achieving
the state's climate change goals.
To help reduce transportation's impact on air quality,
California has committed to transitioning its vehicle fleet from
predominantly fossil fueled vehicles to zero- and near-zero
emission vehicles. Many of the efforts to accomplish this
transition involve advancing clean fuel and vehicle technologies
and incentivizing their purchase and use. Equally important to
the deployment of these vehicles is supplying the fueling
infrastructure needed to support the fleet.
According to the author, the existing refueling infrastructure
for alternatively fueled vehicles is insufficient to support the
widespread adoption in California. The author believes that to
achieve widespread, rapid adoption, the state needs to be
"saturated" with fueling stations; particularly in disadvantaged
communities as well as along key transportation corridors. The
author believes that providing more alternative fueling
opportunities will decrease range anxiety and drive consumer
choice toward increased purchase and use of alternatively fueled
vehicles. The author asserts that existing alternative fueling
planning efforts have merely identified estimated numbers of
alternative fueling stations that are needed to support and
encourage adoption but that California would be better served if
the locations of alternative fueling stations, along with the
numbers and types that are needed, are identified.
To accomplish this, the author has introduced AB 1074 which
would require the Commission to conduct an assessment and
develop an integrated strategy to achieve build-out of
alternative refueling infrastructure in California. The
assessment prepared by the Commission would include a plan to
identify both the number and types of fueling stations that are
needed to accelerate the adoption of alternatively fueled
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vehicles and to identify geographical areas where the stations
should be located.
There have been a number of efforts undertaken by both state and
local entities as well as by private businesses and stakeholder
groups over the last decade or so with regard to establishing
alternative fueling technologies and expanding alternative
fueling infrastructure. In fact, Governor Brown issued an
Executive Order B-16-2012 in March 2012 that directed state
governments to help accelerate the market for zero-emission
vehicles and established a milestone of placing 1.5 million
zero-emission vehicles on the California roads by 2025.
To achieve the target set forth in the Executive Order, the
Governor's office worked with state agencies, businesses and
other stakeholder groups to produce the Zero Emission Vehicle
Action Plan of 2013 (ZEV Action Plan). The ZEV Action Plan
spoke to achieving four main goals including: 1) completing
needed infrastructure planning; 2) expanding consumer awareness
and demand; 3) transforming fleets; and 4) growing jobs and
investment in the private sector.
According to the Governor's office, several objectives in the
plan have already been completed and a summit is planned for May
of this year to bring together key industry, nonprofit, and
local and state government leaders to evaluate progress towards
achieving remaining goals. These, as well as numerous other
efforts aimed at increasing demand and use of alternatively
fueled vehicles, have resulted in the development of numerous
planning and program documents and data that would be useful to
the Commission in developing the integrated strategy and
planning documents called for in this bill. While AB 1074 could
be construed as yet another effort designed to explore fueling
infrastructure needs, it can also be regarded as an opportunity
for the Commission to conduct a comprehensive review of existing
information and compile new, relevant data into a unified,
comprehensive infrastructure planning document can be used by
public and private entities to achieve a fully integrated
alternative fueling infrastructure plan.
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Writing in support of the bill, the Southern California Gas
Company (SoCalGas) points out that convenient access to
alternative fuel stations remains a barrier to accelerated
adoption of clean vehicles. They note that in order to assist
with the transition to clean vehicles, California needs a
focused roadmap that strategically identifies where alternative
fueling stations should to be located. They contend that before
alternatively fueled cars and trucks, including heavy-duty
trucks, are sold or leased, consumers and businesses must have
confidence that these vehicles can refuel near their homes, jobs
or in other locations that allow them to access key destinations
throughout California and that developing a comprehensive
infrastructure plan would make this happen.
Suggested amendments:
1)Given that there is a great deal of information already
available in related documents, requiring the Commission to
recreating it would be duplicative. Therefore, the committee
recommends that the bill be amended to explicitly authorize
the Commission to, where applicable, utilize existing data and
information to prepare the documents required by the bill.
2)To ensure that information is gathered and presented in a
timely fashion, the committee recommends that the bill be
amended to include a specific date by which the Commission
must complete the required studies and provide them to the
Legislature. In an effort to provide the Commission adequate
time to prepare the information but not so long as to allow
the information to become "stale," the Committee recommends
the bill require that the information required by the bill be
provided to the Legislature on or before January 1, 2017.
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3)Additionally, the terms used to describe electricity as a form
of "alternative fuel" are non-standard. To ensure uniformity,
the Committee recommends that the terms "chemically stored"
and "(batteries and fuel cells)" used to describe electricity
be deleted.
Previous legislation: AB 1257 (Bocanegra) Chapter 749, Statutes
of 2013, enacted the Natural Gas Act that required the
Commission, every four years, to prepare and submit to the
Legislature a report containing specified information
identifying strategies to maximize the benefits obtained from
natural gas as an energy source.
AB 8 (Perea), Chapter 401, Statutes of 2013, among other things,
extended until January 1, 2024, extra fees on vehicle
registrations, boat registrations, and tire sales in order to
fund programs that support the production, distribution, and
sale of alternative fuels and vehicle technologies, as well as
air emissions reduction efforts.
Executive Order B-16-2012, signed by Governor Brown on March 23,
2012, set a long-term target of reaching 1.5 million zero
emission vehicles on California's roadways by 2025 and also set
a longer term target of reducing transportation-related
greenhouse gas emission by 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050.
Executive Order S-3-05, signed by Governor Schwarzenegger on
June 1, 2005, established GHG reduction targets that called for
reducing GHG emissions to 80% below 1990 levels in California by
2050.
AB 32 (Nunez), Chapter 488, Statutes of 2006, required the Air
Resources Board to develop a plan of how to reduce emissions to
1990 levels by the year 2020.
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REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION:
Support
Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce
Southern California Gas Company
Southwest California Legislative Counsel
Opposition
None on file
Analysis Prepared by:Victoria Alvarez / TRANS. / (916) 319-2093
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