BILL ANALYSIS
AB 222
Page 1
Date of Hearing: April 27, 2009
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON UTILITIES AND COMMERCE
Felipe Fuentes, Chair
AB 222 (Adams) - As Amended: April 14, 2009
SUBJECT : Energy: biofuels
SUMMARY : Allows facilities that covert solid waste into energy
or chemicals to count as a renewable electricity generation
facility for the purpose of California's Renewable Portfolio
Standard (RPS) and for renewable grant programs administered by
the by the California Energy Commission (CEC). Allows local
governments to count solid waste that is converted into energy
toward their recycling diversion goals.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Requires retail sellers of electricity, except local publicly
owned electric utilities, to increase their existing level of
renewable resources by 1% of sales per year such that 20% of
their retail sales are procured from eligible renewable
resources by 2017.
2)Defines eligible renewable resources to include all generation
from an in-state renewable electricity generation facility
that uses biomass, solar thermal, photovoltaic, wind,
geothermal, fuel cells using renewable fuels, small
hydroelectric generation of 30 megawatts or less, digester
gas, municipal solid waste conversion, landfill gas, ocean
wave, ocean thermal, or tidal current, and any additions or
enhancements to the facility using that technology.
3)Requires cities, counties and regional agencies to divert at
least 50% of their solid waste from landfills.
4)Permits a city, county, or regional agency to count up to 10 %
of their 50 % mandated solid waste diversion from
transformation or biomass conversion under limited
circumstances.
5)Defines "transformation" as incineration, pyrolysis,
distillation, or biological conversion other than composting.
"Transformation" does not include composting, gasification, or
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biomass conversion.
6)Defines "gasification" as a technology that uses a
noncombustion thermal process to convert solid waste to a
clean burning fuel for the purpose of generating electricity,
and that, at minimum, meets all the following criteria:
a) The technology does not use air or oxygen in the
conversion process, except ambient air to maintain
temperature control.
b) The technology produces no discharges of air
contaminants or emissions, including greenhouse gases.
c) The technology produces no discharges to surface or
groundwaters of the state.
d) The technology produces no hazardous waste.
e) To the maximum extent feasible, the technology removes
all recyclable materials and marketable green waste
compostable materials from the solid waste stream prior to
the conversion process and the owner or operator of the
facility certifies that those materials will be recycled or
composted.
f) The facility where the technology is used is in
compliance with all applicable laws, regulations, and
ordinances.
g) The facility certifies to California Integrated Waste
Management Board (CIWMB) that any local agency sending
solid waste to the facility is in compliance with this
division and has reduced, recycled, or composted solid
waste to the maximum extent feasible, and CIWMB makes a
finding that the local agency has diverted at least 30
percent of all solid waste through source reduction,
recycling, and composting.
THIS BILL :
1)Allows conversion at a biorefinery to count toward a utility's
RPS obligation and to potentially participate in CEC grant
programs.
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2)Defines "biorefinery" to mean a facility that uses a
noncombustion thermal, chemical, biological or mechanical
conversion process to produce marketable produces, including
but not limited to renewable fuels, chemicals, and
electricity.
3)Repeals the definition of "gasification".
4)Adds "biorefinery" to the definition of a solid waste facility
in the CIWMA, and eliminates "gasification facility" from the
same definition. This allows biorefinery to count waste sent
to a biorefinery toward a local agencies diversion goals.
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown.
COMMENTS : According to the author, the purpose of this bill is
to encourage the production of low-cost biofuels and green power
from California's own sustainable resources, and thereby
contribute to economic stimulus, local job creation, national
security, energy independence and a cleaner environment. The
author believes these goals can be achieved by clarifying that
solid waste conversion facilities that convert municipal solid
waste into electricity count toward a utility's RPS and by
creating incentives for local governments to provide the
conversion facilities with the solid waste fuel stocks.
1) Background : The term "conversion technologies" refers to a
wide variety of different technologies that heat or "cook" solid
waste in order to reduce its volume, using the byproduct to
produce energy or other new products.
Conversion technologies include pyrolysis and gasification.
These technologies heat solid waste at extremely high
temperatures (over 1300F in gasification) to produce gas and
liquid residues that are typically burned to produce energy.
Biochemical conversion processes use acid or enzymatic processes
to split the chemical bonds of the feedstock (in this case solid
waste). Resulting sugars can be fermented to make ethanol for
fuel, and acids for industrial uses. All of these technologies
produce toxic air pollutants.
2) The Renewable Portfolio Standard : The RPS requires
investor-owned utilities and certain other retail sellers to
achieve a 20% renewable portfolio by 2010. The RPS defines
renewable resources to include, among other technologies, a
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municipal solid waste conversion facility that meets specific
environmental standards. These standards include requirements
that:
a) The technology does not use air or oxygen in the
conversion process,
b) The technology produces no discharge of air
contaminants,
c) The technology produces no discharges to surface or
ground water,
d) The technology produces no hazardous waste, and
e) To the extent feasible, the technology removes all
recyclable, materials from the solid waste.
This bill would change the term for a "municipal solid waste
conversion" to "biorefinery." It would also change the
definition so that instead of meeting the specific restriction
above, the biorefinery would be allowed to have discharges of
air contaminants, water, and hazardous waste provided the
facility was in full compliance with the standards set by the
California Air Resources Board (ARB), and the California Water
Resources Control Board (Water Board) that apply to any other
manufacturing processes.
This bill could also be read to allow a biorefinery that uses a
fuel stock other than solid waste to not have to comply with ARB
or Water Board regulations. The committee and the author may
wish to consider amending the bill to require that the
biorefinery meet or exceed standards set by ARB, WRCB, and the
local air quality districts irrespective of fuel source used.
4) Other renewable programs : The CEC oversees grant programs for
renewable research and development. These programs spend over
$135 million per year on renewable energy projects. The
legislative goals of Renewable R&D program are to increase the
amount of electricity generated from eligible renewable energy
resources per year.
This bill would allow biorefineries to participate in the grant
programs. However, the definition of biorefineries includes
facilities that "produce marketable products" and do not produce
electricity or a renewable fuel. Consequently, this bill could
allow grant funds that are intended to be spent on developing
sources of renewable electricity on projects that do not meet
that goal. The committee and the author may wish to consider
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amending the bill to provide that a biorefinery must produce
electricity or a renewable fuel .
5) Diversion credit for conversion technologies : This bill
removes "conversion technology" from the definition of
transformation. This change will result in the material
processed by conversion technology to "count" towards a
jurisdiction's 50% recycling rate. Opponents of this bill
believe that this change in statute could result in an actual
decrease in recycling in California since the conversion
technologies do not recycle material for reuse, but instead
consume them. They believe that most conversion technologies can
only operate using goods that are recyclable today as the fuel
source.
To ensure that the bill does not result in reducing recycling
rates in California the author and the committee may wish to
consider amending the bill to remove the provision allowing
solid waste consumed in a biorefinery to count toward a city's
diversion requirements, but still allow biorefineries to count
toward the RPS.
RELATED LEGISLATION
AB 64 (Krekorian/Bass) increase California's RPS to 33% by 2020
and changes the definition of eligible renewable resources to
allow solid waste conversion facilities to count toward the RPS
if they have no emissions of air pollutants or groundwater or
surface water discharges.
SB 14 (Simitian) increase California's RPS to 33% by 2020.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
Agricultural Council of California
Alternative Resources, Inc. (ARI)
BioEnergy Producers Association
Biomass Coordinating Council (BCC)
Blue Line Transfer, Inc.
Card Construction
Clean Cities Coalition
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Clements Environmental
Commercial Industrial Waste Applications, Inc.
County Sanitation Districts of Los Angeles
Desert Valley Disposal Services
Global Energy, Inc.
ICM, Inc.
Inland Empire Disposal Association (IEDA)
Innovative Logistics Solutions, Inc. (ILS)
Interstate Waste Technologies, Inc.
Los Angeles City Councilmember Greig Smith
Los Angeles County Solid Waste Management Committee
Los Angeles County Solid Waste Management Task Force
Marin Resource Recovery
Marin Sanitary Service
Mid State Solid Waste & Recycling
Miller De Wulf Corporation
North Valley Coalition of Concerned Citizens Inc.
Palm Springs Disposal Services
Pena's Disposal, Inc.
Rainbow Disposal Co., Inc.
Redwood City Planning Commission
San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors
Sempra Energy
Solid Waste Association of North America (SWANA)
Solid Waste Association of Orange County (SWAOC)
ThermoChem Recovery International, Inc. (TRI)
UCLA Recycling and Municipal Solid Waste Management Certificate
Training Program
Waste To Energy, LLC
Opposition
California Resource Recovery Association (CRRA)
Californians Against Waste
Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA)
Greenaction
Sierra Club California
Analysis Prepared by : Edward Randolph / U. & C. / (916)
319-2083