BILL NUMBER: AB 2563 AMENDED
BILL TEXT
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY JUNE 6, 2012
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY APRIL 30, 2012
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY MARCH 29, 2012
INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Smyth
FEBRUARY 24, 2012
An act to add Part 8 (commencing with Section 38600) to Division
25.5 of the Health and Safety Code, relating to climate change, and
declaring the urgency thereof, to take effect immediately.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 2563, as amended, Smyth. California Global Warming Solutions
Act of 2006: offsets.
The California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 requires the
State Air Resources Board to adopt regulations to require the
reporting and verification of emissions of greenhouse gases and to
monitor and enforce compliance with the reporting and verification
program, and requires the state board to adopt a statewide greenhouse
gas emissions limit equivalent to the statewide greenhouse gas
emissions level in 1990 to be achieved by 2020. The act requires the
state board to adopt rules and regulations in an open public process
to achieve the maximum technologically feasible and cost-effective
greenhouse gas emission reductions. The act authorizes the state
board to include the use of market-based compliance mechanisms.
This bill, if the state board uses its authority to include the
use of market-based compliance mechanisms, would require the state
board, on or before January 1, 2013, to adopt a specified process for
the review and consideration of new offset protocols and, commencing
in 2012 2013 and continuing annually
thereafter, use that process to review and consider new offset
protocols.
This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as
an urgency statute.
Vote: 2/3. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: no.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. The Legislature finds and declares all of the
following:
(a) 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 greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels
by 2020.
(b) On October 20, 2011, the State Air Resources Board adopted the
final cap-and-trade regulation pursuant to the act, to become
effective January 1, 2012, as required by that act, and also adopted
Resolution 11-32 to require that its executive officer develop
implementation documents laying out the process for the review and
consideration of new offset protocols.
(c) The cap-and-trade regulation is part of the state's global
warming scoping plan and is intended to provide covered entities
under the act the flexibility to seek out and implement the
lowest-cost options to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and will
provide an estimated 20 percent of the emission
emissions reductions required to achieve 1990 emission
levels by 2020, as required by the act.
(d) The cap-and-trade regulation allows offset credits to be used
as a means by which parties subject to the regulation can lower their
cost to comply with the regulation while still ensuring a reduction
of greenhouse gas emissions and caps the use of offset credits at no
more than 8 percent of a covered entity's compliance obligation.
(e) The State Air Resources Board has adopted four compliance
offset protocols for use in the United States that can be used to
certify high-quality offset credits that are additional, real,
measurable, and verifiable as required by the California Global
Warming Solutions Act of 2006 (Division 25.5 (commencing
with Section 38500) of the Health and Safety Code) :
Livestock Manure projects, Urban Forests projects, Ozone Depleting
Substances Destruction projects, and Forests projects.
(f) The four adopted protocols, as currently written, are not
expected to generate the volume of offset credits necessary to supply
the full amount of useable allowable
credits under the cap-and-trade regulation between 2013 and 2020.
More If approved by the State Air Resources
Board, additional protocols will need to be approved
to could increase the supply real,
measurable, additional, and verifiable of additional,
real, permanent, quantifiable, verifiable, and enforceable
offsets in additional categories of uncapped emissions, including,
for example, improved or maintained agriculture yields with less
greenhouse gas emissions, recycling, organic composting, landfill gas
reductions, and coal mine gas reductions, and
others for both Phases I and II reductions .
(g) To facilitate the future adoption of offset protocols that
achieve additional, real, measurable, and verifiable
quantifiable, verifiable, and enforceable carbon
dioxide reductions, as required by the California Global Warming
Solutions Act of 2006 (Division 25.5 (commencing with
Section 38500) of the Health and Safety Code) , and to
provide offset market greater clarity and
certainty for project developers and regulated entities,
the State Air Resources Board should adopt an offset protocol
review and approval process should be adopted by the State
Air Resources Board .
(h) While a state comprehensive offset protocol review process
would provide more certainty for carbon dioxide offset suppliers and
purchasers to invest in environmentally worthwhile projects that meet
certain criteria under the California Global Warming Solutions Act
of 2006 (Division 25.5 (commencing with Section 38500) of
the Health and Safety Code) , it is the intent of the
Legislature that only high-quality offset credits that represent
rigorously evaluated offset protocols and that meet the statutory
requirements of the California Global Warming Solutions Act
of 2006 (Division 25.5 (commencing with Section 38500) of the Health
and Safety Code) act be allowed for compliance
with the cap-and-trade regulation.
SEC. 2. Part 8 (commencing with Section 38600) is added to
Division 25.5 of the Health and Safety Code, to read:
PART 8. Certification of Compliance Offsets
38600. (a) On or before January 1, 2013, if the state board has
exercised its authority pursuant to subdivision (a) of Section 38570,
the state board shall, board, in
accordance with Section 38571, shall adopt a process for
the review and consideration of new offset protocols. The process
shall include, but not be limited to, all of the following:
(1) A schedule, to be posted online, on
the state board's Internet Web site, that depicts the timeline
for review and consideration of adoption of new
offset protocols submitted to by the
state board. This schedule shall be updated regularly and at
least annually.
(2) An online tracking system that will allow the public to track
the progress of new offset protocols submitted to
under review and consideration by the state board
for review and consideration .
(3) A point of contact at the state board for entities
that have submitted interested in the process of
review and consideration of new offset protocols to
by the state board for review and
consideration .
(4) An explanation of how the review and consideration process
will accommodate public review input
and comments on new offset protocols under consideration.
(5) An explanation of the criteria used for consideration of new
offset protocols, including, but not limited to, a description of the
standards for protocol approval, rejection, and delay. This
description also shall include, to the extent feasible, a description
of the social, environmental, and financial impacts analysis used in
making offset protocol decisions as well as a forecast
an estimate of potential supply and expected
development costs.
(b) Commencing in 2012, 2013, and
continuing annually thereafter, if the state board has exercised its
authority pursuant to subdivision (a) of Section 38570, the state
board shall use the process adopted pursuant to subdivision (a) to
review and consider new offset protocols.
SEC. 3. This act is an urgency statute necessary for the immediate
preservation of the public peace, health, or safety within the
meaning of Article IV of the Constitution and shall go into immediate
effect. The facts constituting the necessity are:
In order to obtain additional flexibility, certainty, and
accountability with regard to the implementation of compliance offset
protocols by the State Air Resources Board under the California
Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006, it is necessary for this act to
take effect immediately.