BILL ANALYSIS
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Christine Kehoe, Chair
96 (Ruskin)
Hearing Date: 06/29/2009 Amended: 06/15/2009
As proposed to be amended
Consultant: Brendan McCarthy Policy Vote: EQ, 6-1
AB 96 (Ruskin)
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BILL SUMMARY: AB 96, an urgency measure, would transfer $8
million from an administrative subaccount to the Petroleum
Underground Storage Tank Financing Account and appropriate those
funds for grants and loans to support compliance with an
existing regulatory requirement on gas station owners. This bill
would also extend the sunset of the grant and loan program from
2011 to 2016.
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Fiscal Impact (in thousands)
Major Provisions 2009-10 2010-11 2011-12 Fund
Additional grants and loans $8,000
Special *
Grant and loan program $8,500 per year from 2011 to 2016Special
*
extension
* Petroleum Underground Storage Tank Financing Account
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STAFF COMMENTS: This bill meets the criteria for referral to the
Suspense file.
Under current law, the California Air Resources Board is
required to adopt regulations for the control of gasoline vapor,
to achieve or maintain existing air quality standards (known as
Enhanced Vapor Recovery or "EVR"). For most areas of the state,
gas station owners are required to comply with the regulations
relating to EVR by April 2009. (In certain areas of the state,
where air quality standards are being met and/or where
population levels are low, compliance with the EVR requirements
has been delayed or the requirement has been eliminated.)
According to the California Air Pollution Control Officers
Association, approximately 3,500 gas stations have failed to
meet the regulatory deadline, but are still operating. The
typical cost for installing equipment required to meet the EVR
regulatory requirement is about $50,000 per gas station.
Under current law, the State Water Resources Control Board
AB 96 (Ruskin)
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(Water Board) provides grants and loans to replace, remove, or
upgrade underground storage tanks and related infrastructure
used to store gasoline and diesel fuel. In general, grants and
loans are limited to small businesses and the maximum loan
amount is capped at $750,000. In 2008-09, the Water Board
awarded about $7.2 million in grants and loans to gas station
operators for upgrading EVR systems to comply with the
regulation.
This bill would transfer $8 million from an administrative
subaccount to the Petroleum Storage Tank Financing Account and
appropriate those funds for grants and loans. The bill specifies
that the transferred funds would be available for grants and
loans in 2008-09 and 2009-10. According to the Water Board,
these funds should allow about 160 gas station owners to comply
with the regulation.
This bill deletes an existing requirement that grant or loan
recipients have owned the property prior to 1997 for which the
grant or loan is made.
This bill extends the sunset of the existing grant and loan
program from 2011 to 2016. The annual cost to provide grants and
loans is about $8.5 million and is funded from loan repayments.
If the program sunset were not extended, repayments of
outstanding loans would be deposited in the Underground Storage
Tank Cleanup Fund.
This bill is an urgency measure and makes an appropriation.
As proposed to be amended, the bill would extend the deadline
for applications for grant funds from April 1, 2009 to June 30,
2009. In other words, if a gas station owner applied for grant
funding before June 30, 2009, he or she would be eligible for
the funds appropriated in this bill, while an owner who applied
after June 30, 2009 would not be eligible for grant funding.
SB 155 (Cox), Chapter 702, Statutes of 2008 extended the
deadline for compliance with EVR regulations to April 2011 for
small gas stations meeting certain criteria in areas of the
state that are not classified as nonattainment zones for ozone.
SB 507 (Cox) would extend the deadline for compliance by
stations that do not meet the criteria of SB 155 until April
AB 96 (Ruskin)
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2010. SB 507 was held in the Senate Environmental Quality
Committee.