BILL NUMBER: AB 1186 AMENDED
BILL TEXT
AMENDED IN SENATE JUNE 6, 2012
AMENDED IN SENATE MAY 22, 2012
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY MARCH 25, 2011
INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Skinner
FEBRUARY 18, 2011
An act to add Section 38578 to the Health and Safety Code,
relating to greenhouse gases.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 1186, as amended, Skinner. California Global Warming Solutions
Act of 2006: investor-owned utilities: school energy efficiency.
(1) The California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 designates
the State Air Resources Board as the state agency charged with
monitoring and regulating sources of emissions of greenhouse gases.
The state board is required to adopt a statewide greenhouse gas
emissions limit equivalent to the statewide greenhouse gas emissions
level in 1990, to be achieved by 2020, and to adopt rules and
regulations in an open public process to achieve the maximum,
technologically feasible, and cost-effective greenhouse gas emissions
reductions. The act authorizes the state board to include the use of
market-based compliance mechanisms. The act authorizes the state
board to adopt a schedule of fees to be paid by the sources of
greenhouse gas emissions regulated pursuant to the act, and requires
the revenues collected pursuant to that fee schedule be deposited
into the Air Pollution Control Fund and be available, upon
appropriation by the Legislature, for the purposes of carrying out
the act.
Under existing law, the Public Utilities Commission has regulatory
authority over public utilities. Existing law authorizes the
commission to fix just and reasonable rates and charges.
This bill would require an investor-owned utility that receives
proceeds from the monetization of greenhouse gas emissions allowances
that may be directly allocated to the investor-owned utility by the
state board pursuant to the act to submit to the commission an
expenditure plan for those proceeds. The bill would prohibit the
commission from approving that expenditure plan unless at least
an unspecified percentage 10% of those
proceeds is available for grants for certain
cost-effective school energy efficiency
improvements for public schools providing instruction
in kindergarten or grades 1 to 12, inclusive, in the
individual investor-owned utility's service area. The bill would
also require the plan to include measures to leverage other energy
efficiency funding sources that do not adversely affect the grant
program.
(2) Under existing law, a violation of the Public Utilities Act or
an order of the commission is a crime.
Because the provisions of this bill would require action by the
commission to implement its requirements, a violation of the
commission's orders would impose a state-mandated local program by
creating a new crime.
The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local
agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the
state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that
reimbursement.
This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this
act for a specified reason.
Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: yes.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. (a) Over 70 percent of the state's public school
classrooms are over 25 years old.
(b) Schools account for approximately 12 percent of all commercial
energy consumption, representing not only a significant cost to the
state's public schools, but also demonstrating that schools have a
sizeable greenhouse gas emissions footprint.
(c) Many school districts and local governments know there are
opportunities to reduce both the economic cost and carbon footprints
of schools by having more energy efficient buildings, operations, and
maintenance. These financial savings could provide schools with the
flexibility to pay for other upgrades that enhance the learning
environment.
(d) It is in the best interest of the state to quickly reduce
energy consumption from schools in a cost-effective manner.
(e) The California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 (Division
25.5 (commencing with Section 38500) of the Health and Safety Code)
requires the state to reduce carbon emissions to 1990 levels by 2020.
As part of the regulations designed to achieve this goal, the State
Air Resources Board has developed a carbon auction and trading
system. Under the regulation, the state's investor-owned utilities
will be given allowances for nearly 500 million tons of greenhouse
gas emissions, all of which must be auctioned. Revenues of those
auctioned allowances become revenues for the investor-owned
utilities.
(f) The Public Utilities Commission, which oversees the
investor-owned utilities, has an obligation to oversee the use of
these revenues.
(g) By directing that some of the investor-owned utilities'
auction revenues be used to fund energy efficiency measures in public
schools located in the investor-owned utility's service area,
ratepayers of the investor-owned utility will benefit from increased
budgetary flexibility, while also reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
SEC. 2. Section 38578 is added to the Health and Safety Code, to
read:
38578. (a) Any investor-owned utility that receives proceeds from
the monetization of greenhouse gas emissions allowances that may be
directly allocated to the investor-owned utility by the state board
pursuant to this part shall submit to the Public Utilities Commission
an expenditure plan for those proceeds.
(b) The Public Utilities Commission shall not approve any
expenditure plan submitted pursuant to subdivision (a) unless
at the plan includes both of the following:
(1) At least ___
10 percent of any proceeds received from the
monetization of those greenhouse gas emissions allowances that are
directly allocated to investor-owned utilities by the state board
pursuant to this part is available to fund the award of grants
for cost-effective school energy efficiency
improvements , for public schools providing
instruction in kindergarten or grades 1 to 12, inclusive,
including, but not limited to, advanced lighting controls, upgrades
to heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning systems, hot water, and
kitchen appliances, for schools in the individual investor-owned
utility's service area.
(2) Measures to leverage energy efficiency funding sources other
than that described in subdivision (a) that do not adversely affect
the grant program in paragraph (1).
SEC. 3. No reimbursement is required by this act pursuant to
Section 6 of Article XIII B of the California Constitution because
the only costs that may be incurred by a local agency or school
district will be incurred because this act creates a new crime or
infraction, eliminates a crime or infraction, or changes the penalty
for a crime or infraction, within the meaning of Section 17556 of the
Government Code, or changes the definition of a crime within the
meaning of Section 6 of Article XIII B of the California
Constitution.