BILL NUMBER: SB 400 AMENDED
BILL TEXT
AMENDED IN SENATE MAY 21, 2009
AMENDED IN SENATE MAY 12, 2009
AMENDED IN SENATE APRIL 23, 2009
INTRODUCED BY Senator Corbett
FEBRUARY 26, 2009
An act to amend Section 8869.82 of the Government
26003 of the Public Resources Code, relating to
bonds energy .
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
SB 400, as amended, Corbett. Bonds.
Energy: California green vehicles.
The California Alternative Energy and Advanced Transportation
Financing Authority Act provides industries in the state with
alternative methods of financing in providing and promoting the
establishment of facilities needed for the development and
commercialization of advanced transportation technologies, and other
facilities. The act defines "advanced transportation technologies" to
include, among other things, electric vehicles and ultralow emission
vehicles.
This bill, instead, would define "advanced transportation
technologies" to include, among other things, "California green
vehicles," as defined.
Existing law establishes in state government the California Debt
Limit Allocation Committee, with duties that include annually
determining a state ceiling on the aggregate amount of private
activity bonds that can be issued, and allocating that amount among
state and local agencies. Existing law defines the term "state
ceiling" for those purposes with regard to an amount specified in
federal law.
This bill would revise the definition of "state ceiling" for these
purposes to also include certain amounts reserved to the state for
qualified energy conservation bonds and recovery zone economic
development bonds.
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. Section 26003 of the Public
Resources Code is amended to read:
26003. As used in this division, unless the context otherwise
requires:
(a) "Authority" means the California Alternative Energy and
Advanced Transportation Financing Authority established pursuant to
Section 26004, and any board, commission, department, or officer
succeeding to the functions of the authority, or to which the powers
conferred upon the authority by this division shall be given.
(b) "Cost" as applied to a project or portion thereof financed
under this division means all or part of the cost of construction and
acquisition of all lands, structures, real or personal property or
an interest therein, rights, rights-of-way, franchises, easements,
and interests acquired or used for a project; the cost of demolishing
or removing any buildings or structures on land so acquired,
including the cost of acquiring any lands to which those buildings or
structures may be moved; the cost of all machinery, equipment, and
furnishings, financing charges, interest prior to, during, and for a
period after, completion of construction as determined by the
authority; the cost of the purchase or sale of energy derived from an
alternative source pursuant to subdivision (g) of Section 26011;
provisions for working capital; reserves for principal and interest
and for extensions, enlargements, additions, replacements,
renovations, and improvements; the cost of architectural,
engineering, financial, accounting, auditing and legal services,
plans, specifications, estimates, administrative expenses, and other
expenses necessary or incident to determining the feasibility of
constructing any project or incident to the construction,
acquisition, or financing of a project.
(c) (1) "Alternative sources" means the application of
cogeneration technology, as defined in Section 25134; the
conservation of energy; or the use of solar, biomass, wind,
geothermal, hydroelectricity under 30 megawatts, or any other source
of energy, the efficient use of which will reduce the use of fossil
and nuclear fuels, and is intended primarily to offset part or all of
the customer's own electrical requirements.
(2) "Alternative sources" does not include a hydroelectric
facility that does not meet state laws pertaining to the control,
appropriation, use, and distribution of water, including, but not
limited to, the obtaining of applicable licenses and permits.
(d) "Advanced transportation technologies" means emerging
commercially competitive transportation-related technologies
identified by the authority as capable of creating long-term,
high value-added high-value-added jobs
for Californians while enhancing the state's commitment to energy
conservation, pollution reduction, and transportation efficiency.
Those technologies may include, but are not limited to, any of the
following:
(1) Intelligent vehicle highway systems.
(2) Advanced telecommunications for transportation.
(3) Command, control, and communications for public transit
vehicles and systems.
(4) Electric vehicles and ultralow-emission vehicles.
(4) California green vehicles.
(5) High-speed rail and magnetic levitation passenger systems.
(6) Fuel cells.
(e) A "California green vehicle" means a motor vehicle that meets
any of the following criteria:
(1) Meets or exceeds California's super ultralow emission vehicle
standard of exhaust emissions and the federal inherently low-emission
vehicle evaporative emission, as defined in Part 88 (commencing with
Section 88.101-94) of Title 40 of the Code of Federal Regulations.
(2) Is a plug-in hybrid motor vehicle propelled by an internal
combustion engine or heat engine using a combustible fuel, an
on-board rechargeable storage device, and a means of using an
off-board source of electricity.
(3) Meets or exceeds the California advanced technology partial
zero-emission vehicle standard for criteria pollutant emissions and
that is rated at 45 miles per gallon or greater according to the
federal highway fuel economy test procedure.
(4) Is a gas-electric hybrid vehicle that has a combined fuel
economy rating of 45 miles per gallon or greater according to the
federal highway fuel economy test procedure and meets California's
ultralow emission vehicle standard for exhaust emissions.
(e)
(f) "Financial assistance" includes, but is not limited
to, either, or any combination, of the following:
(1) Loans, loan loss reserves, interest rate reductions, proceeds
of bonds issued by the authority, insurance, guarantees or other
credit enhancements or liquidity facilities, contributions of money,
property, labor, or other items of value, or any combination thereof,
as determined by, and approved by the resolution of, the board.
(2) Any other type of assistance the authority determines is
appropriate.
(f)
(g) "Participating party" means either of the
following:
(1) A person or an entity or group of entities engaged in business
or operations in the state, whether organized for profit or not for
profit, that does either of the following:
(A) Applies for financial assistance from the authority for the
purpose of implementing a project in a manner prescribed by the
authority.
(B) Participates in the purchase or sale of energy derived from an
alternative source pursuant to subdivision (g) of Section 26011.
(2) A public agency or nonprofit corporation that does either of
the following:
(A) Applies for financial assistance from the authority for the
purpose of implementing a project in a manner prescribed by the
authority.
(B) Participates in the purchase or sale of energy derived from an
alternative source pursuant to subdivision (g) of Section 26011.
(g)
(h) "Project" means a land, building, improvement to
the land or building, rehabilitation, work, property, or structure,
real or personal, stationary or mobile, including, but not limited
to, machinery and equipment, whether or not in existence or under
construction, that utilizes, or is designed to utilize, an
alternative source, or that is utilized for the design, technology
transfer, manufacture, production, assembly, distribution, or service
of advanced transportation technologies, or an arrangement for the
purchase, including prepayment, or sale of energy derived from an
alternative source pursuant to subdivision (g) of Section 26011.
(h)
(i) "Public agency" means a federal or state agency,
department, board, authority, state or community college, university,
or commission, or a county, city and county, city, regional agency,
public district, school district, or other political entity.
(i)
(j) (1) "Renewable energy" means a device or technology
that conserves or produces heat, processes heat, space heating,
water heating, steam, space cooling, refrigeration, mechanical
energy, electricity, or energy in any form convertible to these uses,
that does not expend or use conventional energy fuels, and that uses
any of the following electrical generation technologies:
(A) Biomass.
(B) Solar thermal.
(C) Photovoltaic.
(D) Wind.
(E) Geothermal.
(2) For purposes of this subdivision, "conventional energy fuel"
means any fuel derived from petroleum deposits, including, but not
limited to, oil, heating oil, gasoline, fuel oil, or natural gas,
including liquefied natural gas, or nuclear fissionable materials.
(3) Notwithstanding paragraph (1), for purposes of this section,
"renewable energy" also means ultralow-emission equipment for energy
generation based on thermal energy systems such as natural gas
turbines and fuel cells.
(j)
(k) "Revenue" means all rents, receipts, purchase
payments, loan repayments, and all other income or receipts derived
by the authority from a project, or the sale, lease, or other
disposition of alternative source or advanced transportation
technology facilities, or the making of loans to finance alternative
source or advanced transportation technology facilities, and any
income or revenue derived from the investment of money in any fund or
account of the authority.
SECTION 1. Section 8869.82 of the Government
Code is amended to read:
8869.82. (a) As used in this chapter, unless the context
otherwise requires, the terms defined in this section shall have the
following meanings:
(1) "Committee" means the California Debt Limit Allocation
Committee established pursuant to Section 8869.83.
(2) "Fund" means the California Debt Limit Allocation Committee
Fund created pursuant to Section 8869.90.
(3) "Internal Revenue Code" means the Internal Revenue Code of
1986, as amended from time to time (26 U.S.C. Sec. 1 et seq.).
(4) "Issuer" means any local agency or state agency authorized by
the Constitution or laws of the state to issue private activity
bonds.
(5) "Local agency" means any political subdivision of the state
within the meaning of Section 103 of the Internal Revenue Code, (26
U.S.C. Sec. 103) or any entity that has the power to issue private
activity bonds on behalf of that political subdivision.
(6) "MBTCAC" means the California Tax Credit Allocation Committee
created by Section 50199.8 of the Health and Safety Code.
(7) "Private activity bond" means a part or all of any bond, or
other instrument, required to obtain a portion of the state's volume
cap pursuant to Section 146 of the Internal Revenue Code (26 U.S.C.
Sec. 146) in order to be tax exempt, including, generally, all of the
following, as those bonds are defined in the Internal Revenue Code:
(A) Exempt facility bonds, except bonds for airports, docks and
wharves, and certain solid waste facilities.
(B) Qualified mortgage bonds.
(C) Qualified small issue bonds.
(D) Qualified student loan bonds.
(E) Qualified redevelopment bonds.
(F) The nonqualified amount of an issue of governmental bonds
(including advance refunds) exceeding fifteen million dollars
($15,000,000), as provided in Section 141(b)(5) of the Internal
Revenue Code (26 U.S.C. Sec. 141(b)(5)).
(8) "Private activity bond limit" means any portion of the state
ceiling allocated or transferred to a state agency or local agency
pursuant to this chapter.
(9) "State" means the State of California.
(10) "State agency" means the state and all state entities,
including joint powers authorities of which the state or agency or
instrumentality thereof is a member, empowered to issue private
activity bonds, the interest on which is exempt from income tax under
Section 103(a) of the Internal Revenue Code (26 U.S.C. Sec. 103(a)),
including nonprofit corporations described in Section 150(d) (26
U.S.C. Sec. 150(d)) of the Internal Revenue Code authorized to issue
qualified scholarship funding bonds.
(11) "State ceiling" includes both of the following:
(A) The amount specified by Section 146(d) of the Internal Revenue
Code (26 U.S.C. Sec. 146(d)) for each calendar year commencing in
1986.
(B) The amount reserved to the state pursuant to Sections 1112 and
1401 of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (26
U.S.C. Secs. 54a and 1400U-2).
(b) Pursuant to Section 146(e) of the Internal Revenue Code (26
U.S.C. Sec. 146(e)), this chapter governs the allocation of the state
ceiling among the state agencies and local agencies in this state
having authority to issue private activity bonds.
(c) Any portion of the state ceiling allocated or transferred by
or under the authority of this chapter shall become the private
activity bond limit for the issuer of which that portion is allocated
or transferred for any private activity bonds issued by that issuer.