BILL ANALYSIS �
SENATE TRANSPORTATION & HOUSING COMMITTEE BILL NO: SB 570
SENATOR MARK DESAULNIER, CHAIRMAN AUTHOR: Rubio
VERSION: 3/21/11
Analysis by: Jennifer Gress FISCAL: yes
Hearing date: April 12, 2011
SUBJECT:
San Joaquin Valley Unified Air Pollution Control District:
Lower-Emission School Bus Program
DESCRIPTION:
This bill repeals the requirement that the San Joaquin Valley
Unified Air Pollution Control District's administer a high
polluter vehicle replacement program and instead requires the
District to administer a voluntary program to replace
high-emitting school buses within their jurisdiction.
ANALYSIS:
San Joaquin Valley Unified Air Pollution Control District
The San Joaquin Valley Unified Air Pollution Control District is
a local air district responsible for achieving and maintaining
state and federal ambient air quality standards within its
jurisdiction. To achieve these standards, existing law broadly
authorizes air quality management districts and air pollution
control districts (air districts) to adopt and enforce rules and
regulations to reduce or mitigate emissions from stationary
sources (e.g., factories, power plants), indirect sources (e.g.,
commercial or residential development), and areawide sources of
air pollution (e.g., road dust, fires). The jurisdiction of the
San Joaquin Valley Unified Air Pollution Control District
encompasses eight counties in the San Joaquin Air Basin,
including San Joaquin, Stanislaus, Merced, Madera, Fresno,
Kings, Tulare, and a portion of Kern.
Lower-Emission School Bus Program
In 2000, the Legislature appropriated $50 million to the Air
Resources Board (ARB) to establish a lower-emission school bus
program to reduce school children's exposure to diesel
particulate matter emissions. ARB adopted guidelines for the
program that established criteria for the purchase of new school
buses and the retrofit of existing in-use school buses. In
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subsequent budget years, the Legislature appropriated additional
funding and ARB revised its guidelines as necessary.
In 2006, voters approved Proposition 1B, the the Highway Safety,
Traffic Reduction, Air Quality, and Port Security Bond Act of
2006, which, among other items, authorized $200 million for
replacing and retrofitting school buses. To implement this
provision of Proposition 1B, the Legislature passed and the
Governor signed SB 88 (Committee on Budget and Fiscal Review),
Chapter 181, Statues of 2007, which established specific
criteria for the replacement and retrofit of school buses,
including the following:
All school buses with a 1976 or earlier model year in
operation must be replaced.
Remaining funds shall be apportioned to local air districts
based on the number of school buses with 1977 to 1986 model
years that are in operation within each district.
Each air district shall determine the percentage of its
allocation to spend between the replacement of school buses
with 1977-1986 model years and the retrofit of schoolbuses of
any model year.
Of the funds spent by an air district for the replacement of
school buses, an air district must replace the oldest school
buses of model years 1977 to 1986 first. Of the funds spent by
an air district for the retrofit of school buses, an air
district must retrofit the most polluting school buses first.
In order to carry out the provisions of SB 88, ARB revised the
guidelines for the Lower-Emission School Bus Program in 2008.
These guidelines designate air districts as the implementing
agencies responsible for soliciting requests for funding from
school districts, executing funding agreements with successful
applicants, and ensuring that funding recipients comply with
program requirements. Each air district is the implementing
agency for areas within its jurisdiction, except the San Joaquin
Valley Unified Air Pollution Control District, which is also the
implementing agency for the following air districts outside its
jurisdiction: Amador, Antelope, Colusa, Feather River, Lake,
Lassen, Mendocino, Modoc, Mojave, San Luis Obispo, Santa
Barbara, Siskiyou, and Tehama.
Transportation Congestion Relief Program (TCRP) and the San
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Joaquin Valley's Vehicle Replacement Program
The Traffic Congestion Relief Act of 2000, established by AB
2928 (Torlakson) and SB 1662 (Burton), created the
Transportation Congestion Relief Program (TCRP) and committed
$6.4 billion to specific projects designated in law. One such
program was the San Joaquin Valley Emergency Clean Air
Attainment Program, which provided $25 million to the San
Joaquin Valley Unified Air Pollution Control District for
incentives to reduce emissions from heavy-duty diesel engines
operating within its jurisdiction. Eligible projects include
the retrofitting, repowering, or replacing of older heavy-duty
diesel vehicles or engines.
The vast majority of funds for this program have been expended.
What remains unspent is the interest that accrued over time.
This interest would have reverted to the California Department
of Transportation except that SB 23 (Cogdill), Chapter 634,
Statutes of 2007, authorized the San Joaquin Valley Unified Air
Pollution Control District to use it to administer a vehicle
replacement program that that bill established. Under that
program, a vehicle owner whose vehicle failed its smog check
inspection may replace his or her vehicle with a smog-compliant
vehicle that had been donated to the district for the purposes
of this program. The program sunsets on January 1, 2014.
This bill repeals the requirement that the San Joaquin Valley
Unified Air Pollution Control District implement a high polluter
vehicle replacement program and instead requires the air
district to administer a voluntary program to replace high
emitting school buses in the San Joaquin Valley. In doing so,
the bill requires the air district to follow ARB's guidelines
for the Lower-Emission School Bus Program and to give priority
to model year 1987 and older school buses.
COMMENTS:
1.Purpose . The author explains that school buses serve a vital
need in the state by transporting students to and from school.
School buses built prior to 1987, however, are one of the
highest emitting mobile sources of pollution. In the Central
Valley alone, the author notes that there are over 100 school
buses in operation that were manufactured prior to 1987 and
more than 25 percent of school age children in Kern County has
been diagnosed with asthma, a much higher percentage than most
counties in the state. Requiring the San Joaquin Valley
Unified Air Pollution Control District to administer a program
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to replace these pre-1987 school buses will help to reduce
school children's exposure to harmful pollutants and improve
air quality in communities throughout the Central Valley.
2.Status of the vehicle replacement program . According to the
San Joaquin Valley Unified Air Pollution Control District, in
order for the vehicle replacement program to be successful, it
needed a corporate entity, such as a vehicle manufacturer,
rental car company, or large fleet, to donate late model
vehicles to be traded. During the development of SB 23
(Cogdill), a number of such entities expressed interest in the
program. With the economic downturn, however, Senator
Cogdill's office and the air district were unable to find an
entity willing to donate vehicles. Without any donations, no
vehicles were replaced.
3.Amount of interest and number of buses to be replaced . There
is approximately $2.5 million in interest that would be
available to replace school buses. There are a total of 2,768
school buses in the San Joaquin Air Basin, 115 of which were
manufactured prior to 1987. Given the $140,000-per-bus cost
cap established in ARB's 2008 Lower-Emission School Bus
Program guidelines for bus replacements, the air district
could replace about 17 school buses.
4.Sunset date . This bill maintains the sunset date originally
established in SB 23 (Codgill), January 1, 2014, thereby
making the program operational for up to two years.
5.Amendments . The author or committee may wish to consider the
following amendments:
Allow for retrofits. The intent of the bill is to replace as
many pre-1987 buses as possible given the age and amount of
pollution these buses emit. Because the amount of money
available is small, it is likely that the air district would
expend the full $2.5 million on replacing this population of
buses. In the event this is not the case, however, the
committee may wish to give the air district authority to fund
retrofit projects. Retrofitting a bus is often a more
cost-effective way to reduce emissions than replacing it and
limited funds could go further.
Specifying which guidelines. Because ARB's guidelines have
evolved over time, the committee may wish to consider an
amendment to identify which guidelines the air district must
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follow when administering its program, specifying the 2008
guidelines to implement the school bus provisions of
Proposition 1B.
Reporting. The bill maintains the reporting requirement
established by SB 23 (Cogdill), but that report is due January
1, 2013, at the mid-point of the program. The committee may
wish to consider an amendment to require the air district to
report to the Legislature a second time when the program
sunsets on January 1, 2014.
6.Double-referral . This bill is double-referred to this
committee and the Committee on Environmental Quality. If this
committee passes the bill, it will then be referred to the
Environmental Quality Committee.
POSITIONS: (Communicated to the Committee before noon on
Wednesday,
April 6, 2011)
SUPPORT: Coalition for Clean Air
Kings County Unified School District
San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District
OPPOSED: None received.
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