BILL NUMBER: SB 471	INTRODUCED
	BILL TEXT


INTRODUCED BY   Senator Pavley

                        FEBRUARY 26, 2015

   An act to add Section 75214.5 to the Public Resources Code, and to
amend Sections 10537 and 10538 of, and to add Section 79746.5 to,
the Water Code, relating to water.


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   SB 471, as introduced, Pavley. Water, energy, and reduction of
greenhouse gas emissions: planning.
   (1) Existing law requires all moneys, except for fines and
penalties, collected by the State Air Resources Board from the
auction or sale of allowances as part of a market-based compliance
mechanism relative to reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, to be
deposited in the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund. Existing law
continuously appropriates specified portions of the annual proceeds
in the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund to various programs including
20% for the Affordable Housing and Sustainable Communities Program,
administered by the Strategic Growth Council. Existing law specifies
the objectives for the program and identifies categories of projects
eligible for funding under this program.
   This bill would require the council, in implementing these
provisions, to give special consideration to awarding funds to
eligible projects that, in addition to existing objectives and goals,
would also result in reduced energy use by a water supplier, an end
user of water, or both.
   (2) The Integrated Regional Water Management Planning Act
authorizes a regional water management group to prepare an integrated
regional water management plan, in accordance with certain
procedures, for the implementation or operation of specified
qualified projects or programs pertaining to water supply, water
quality, or related matters. The act defines "regional projects or
programs" as projects or programs identified in an integrated
regional water management plan that accomplish specified
water-related goals, including an increase in water supplies through
the use of certain means.
   This bill would specifically include projects or programs that
reduce energy used to acquire, transport, treat, or distribute water
as a regional project or program.
   (3) Existing law, the Water Quality, Supply, and Infrastructure
Improvement Act of 2014, approved by the voters as Proposition 1 at
the November 4, 2014, statewide general election, authorizes the
issuance of general obligation bonds in the amount of $7,545,000,000
to finance a water quality, supply, and infrastructure improvement
program. The bond act provides that the sum of $810,000,000 is to be
available, upon appropriation by the Legislature, for expenditures
on, and competitive grants and loans to, projects that are included
in and implemented in, an adopted integrated regional water
management plan and respond to climate change and contribute to
regional water security. The bond act authorizes the use of
$100,000,000 of those funds for direct expenditures, and for grants
and loans, for certain water conservation and water-use efficiency
plans, projects, and programs.
   This bill, in implementing the direct expenditures, grants, and
loans for these water conservation and water-use efficiency plans,
projects, and programs, would require special consideration be given
to expenditures, grants, and loans that would result in reduced
energy use by the water supplier, end user of the water, or both.
   (4) The bill would make legislative findings and declarations, and
a statement of legislative intent, with regard to the nexus between
water and energy and water and reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.

   (5) The bill would also state the intent of the Legislature to
enact legislation to require the Energy Resources Conservation and
Development Commission to update and further refine its 2007 study of
water-related energy use in California, without imposing any new
emissions regulations on affected entities.
   Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: no.


THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

  SECTION 1.  (a)  The Legislature finds and declares all of the
following:
   (1) Water and energy resources are inextricably connected. This
relationship is known as the water-energy nexus.
   (A) Transportation and treatment of water, treatment and disposal
of wastewater, and the energy used to heat and consume water account
for nearly 20 percent of the total electricity and 30 percent of
nonpowerplant-related natural gas consumed in California.
   (B) Similarly, water is used to turn turbines for hydropower, to
produce steam for thermoelectric power, and to cool equipment by
absorbing the waste heat produced by power generation.
   (C) Consequently, saving water saves energy, and vice versa.
   (2) Because of the water-energy nexus, there is also a
water-greenhouse gas nexus.
   (A) Production of energy often results in production of greenhouse
gases.
   (B) Consequently, saving water saves energy and, by extension,
reduces greenhouse gas emissions.
   (3) Planning for water use is often conducted without
consideration of energy use or greenhouse gas emissions. Similarly,
planning for energy and reduction of greenhouse gas emissions is
often conducted without consideration of water resources.
   (b) It is the intent of the Legislature, in enacting this act, to:

   (1) Provide the best available data on the water-energy nexus so
that it may be included in the scoping plan update prepared pursuant
to the California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 (Ch. 488,
Stats. 2006).
   (2) More closely integrate the planning for water, energy, and
greenhouse gas emissions.
   (3) Enable opportunities for innovative projects and programs that
reduce the greenhouse gas intensity of our water system and the
water intensity of our energy system to access eligible funds,
including moneys from the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, the Water
Quality, Supply, and Infrastructure Improvement Act of 2014
(Proposition 1), the Electric Program Investment Charge Fund, and
investor-owned utility ratepayer dollars.
   (c) It is further the intent of the Legislature to enact
legislation to require the Energy Resources Conservation and
Development Commission to update and further refine its 2007 study of
water-related energy use in California, including source-specific
data, which would be anonymized to the extent necessary to protect
business confidential information or security sensitive information,
and without imposing any new emissions regulations on the entities
with which these water-related energy use emissions are associated.
  SEC. 2.  Section 75214.5 is added to the Public Resources Code, to
read:
   75214.5.  In implementing the program, the council shall give
special consideration to awarding funds to eligible projects that, in
addition to achieving the objectives identified in Section 75210 and
supporting the goals identified in Section 75214, would also result
in reduced energy use by a water supplier, an end user of water, or
both.
  SEC. 3.  Section 10537 of the Water Code is amended to read:
   10537.  "Regional projects or programs" means projects or programs
identified in an integrated regional water management plan that
accomplish any of the following:
   (a) Reduce water demand through agricultural and urban water use
efficiency.
   (b) Increase water supplies for any beneficial use through the use
of any of the following, or other, means:
   (1) Groundwater storage and conjunctive water management.
   (2) Desalination.
   (3) Precipitation enhancement.
   (4) Water recycling.
   (5) Regional and local surface storage.
   (6) Water-use efficiency.
   (7) Stormwater management.
   (c) Improve operational efficiency and water supply reliability,
including conveyance facilities, system reoperation, and water
transfers.
   (d) Improve water quality, including drinking water treatment and
distribution, groundwater and aquifer remediation, matching water
quality to water use, wastewater treatment, water pollution
prevention, and management of urban and agricultural runoff.
   (e) Improve resource stewardship, including agricultural lands
stewardship, ecosystem restoration, flood plain management, recharge
area protection, urban land use management, groundwater management,
water-dependent recreation, fishery restoration, including fish
passage improvement, and watershed management.
   (f) Improve flood management through structural and nonstructural
means, or by any other means. 
   (g) Reduce energy used to acquire, transport, treat, or distribute
water. 
  SEC. 4.  Section 10538 of the Water Code is amended to read:
   10538.  "Regional reports or studies" means reports or studies
relating to any of the matters described in subdivisions (a) to
 (f)   (g)  , inclusive, of Section 10537,
that are identified in an integrated regional water management plan.
  SEC. 5.  Section 79746.5 is added to the Water Code, to read:
   79746.5.  In implementing Section 79746, special consideration
shall be given to expenditures, grants, and loans that, in addition
to the purposes of Section 79746, would also result in reduced energy
use by the water supplier, end user of the water, or both.