BILL ANALYSIS �
SB 1455
SENATE COMMITTEE ON ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY
Senator S. Joseph Simitian, Chairman
2011-2012 Regular Session
BILL NO: SB 1455
AUTHOR: Kehoe
AMENDED: April 9, 2012
FISCAL: Yes HEARING DATE: April 23, 2012
URGENCY: No CONSULTANT: Rebecca
Newhouse
SUBJECT : ALTERNATIVE FUELS
SUMMARY :
Existing law:
1) Under the California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006
(Health and Safety Code �38500 et seq.):
a) Requires the state Air Resources Board (ARB) to
adopt a statewide greenhouse gas emissions limit
equivalent to the statewide greenhouse gas emissions
levels in 1990 to be achieved by 2020.
b) Requires the ARB to adopt regulations to require
the reporting and verification of statewide greenhouse
gas emissions and to monitor and enforce compliance
with this program.
c) Authorizes the ARB to adopt a market-based
compliance mechanism to help achieve the necessary
reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.
d) Requires the ARB to monitor compliance with and
enforce any rule, regulation, order, emission
limitation, emissions reduction measure, or
market-based compliance mechanism adopted by the state
board, pursuant to specified provisions of existing
law.
1) Under the Alternative Fuels Law (�43865 et seq.),
requires the State Energy Resources Conservation and
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Development Commission (CEC), in partnership with the ARB,
and in consultation with specified state agencies, to
develop and adopt a state plan to increase the use of
alternative fuels on or before June 30, 2007.
2) Under the California Alternative and Renewable Fuel,
Vehicle Technology, Clean Air, and Carbon Reduction Act of
2007 (�43865 et seq.), authorizes the CEC to develop and
deploy alternative and renewable fuels and advanced
transportation technologies to help attain the state's
climate change policies and authorizes the ARB to develop
the Air Quality Improvement Program to support development
and deployment of zero emission and reduced emission light
duty vehicles and trucks.
This bill :
1)Requires that the CEC and the ARB implement the state
alternative transportation fuels goal of 26 percent by
2022. (Note: Senate Transportation Committee amendments
to be taken in Committee revise this provision (see Comment
#3)).
2)Requires that, beginning in 2013 and every two years
thereafter, the CEC report on the status and implementation
of reaching the goal in its Integrated Energy Policy Report
(IEPR).
3) Directs the CEC and the ARB by January 1, 2014, to:
a) Update the economic analysis used to develop and
review ARB's regulations to include a range of petroleum
fuel prices to more accurately assess the future costs
of petroleum-based fuels.
b) Evaluate how new and existing investment programs
could help to attain the state's alternative fuels goal
and include this evaluation in the IEPR.
c) Evaluate how federal fuel policies and existing state
policies will help attain the state alternative fuel
goal and include this evaluation in the IEPR.
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4)Requires that when developing new and amended regulations,
ARB include a finding on the effect of any proposed
regulations on the state alternative transportation fuels
goal.
5) Provides that it does not preempt the California Global
Warming Solutions Act (�38500 et seq.) and that its
implementation must be consistent with environmental,
public health, and sustainability considerations
articulated in existing state law, including that on a full
fuel-cycle assessment basis, its implementation not
adversely impact natural resources, especially state and
federal lands.
6)Instructs the CEC and the ARB, when implementing the goal,
to seek to create in-state jobs, decrease economic
vulnerability of Californians due to petroleum price
spikes, maximize alternative fuel use in areas with the
worst air quality, and increase access to alternative fuels
for all residents.
COMMENTS :
1) Purpose of Bill . According to the author, SB 1455 builds
upon the alternative fuels report mandated by AB 1007
(Pavley) Chapter 371, Statutes of 2005, which initiated the
development of an alternative fuels plan to be implemented
by the CEC and the ARB. The author notes that petroleum
price predictions used for the economic assessments in the
state alternative transportation fuel plan in 2007 were
significantly underestimated. According to the author, SB
1455 is needed to revisit the state alternative
transportation fuel plan and direct the appropriate state
agencies to update and contemporize the alternative fuels
plan by focusing on current and additional data including
state and federal transportation fuel policies and a
broader range of fuels prices. The author also notes that
the bill compliments executive branch actions by furthering
the development of strategies that will achieve our
transition away from an overdependence on petroleum and
ensures that alternative energy strategies are developed
that result in more jobs, clean fuels and greenhouse gas
emission reductions.
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2) Background . In 2003, the CEC and the ARB recommended in
their report to the Legislature, "Reducing California's
Petroleum Dependency," that the state adopt a goal of 20
percent nonpetroleum fuel use in the year 2020 and 30
percent in the year 2030.
With the aims of reducing the degradation of public health
and environmental quality from petroleum fuels, decreasing
California's susceptibility to fuel price volatility, and
reducing greenhouse gas emission from the transportation
sector, AB 1007 (Pavley) Chapter 371, Statutes of 2005,
directed the CEC, in partnership with CARB, to develop and
adopt a state plan that set an alternative transportation
fuels goal and outlined a strategy to meet those goals. In
2007, the CEC and the ARB published the State Alternative
Fuels Plan (Plan) and set alternative fuel use goals of
nine percent in 2012, 11 percent in 2017 and 26 percent by
the year 2022.
3) Codifying the Alternative Fuels Goal and Transportation and
Housing Committee amendments to be taken in Senate
Environmental Quality Committee . SB 1455 codifies the
alternative fuel use goal set in the 2007 Plan and requires
that the goal be implemented by the CEC and the ARB (see
note below). In 2007, alternative fuels accounted for less
than five percent of the transportations sector's
consumption. New evaluations, updated economic analyses,
additional reporting requirements and consideration of the
alternative transportation fuels goal when developing new
and amended regulations would all be required under SB 1455
and would presumably help the state increase the usage of
alternative transportation fuels.
NOTE: SB 1455 was approved by the Senate Transportation and
Housing Committee April 17, 2011 (5-3), with amendments to
be taken in the Senate Environmental Quality Committee.
Those amendments reinsert the language on page 2, line 2,
"it is the intent of the Legislature that", and strike the
word, "shall" on page 2, line 31. These changes replace
the mandate that the CEC and the ARB implement the
specified state alternative transportation fuel goal with
legislative intent.
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4) Support and Opposition :
Supporters note the adverse effects of overdependence on
petroleum and the need for increased alternative
transportation fuel usage to meet California's air
pollution reduction and greenhouse gas reduction goals.
They further add that it is important to codify targets
because it ensures a long-term and established commitment
to the clean transportation and alternative fuels industry
which will attract increased private investment and
business to California.
Opponents (to the version amended on April 9, 2012) state
that the 26 percent target is an arbitrary and infeasible
goal, which is unnecessary in light of California's many
adopted fuels policies. In codifying the target, opponents
believe that this bill fails to account for numerous
policies now in place, such as the Low Carbon Fuel Standard
and the "cap & trade for fuels" regulations that ARB
adopted as part of its implementation of AB 32. They
further note that the bill grants ARB and CEC open-ended
authority to achieve the alternative fuels target, which
opponents say would be very costly to implement.
5) Related Legislation .
AB 638 (Skinner) of 2011 establishes statewide targets for
reducing petroleum and increasing alternative fuels and
requires the ARB and the CEC to take specified steps to
attain the targets. AB 638 was held on the Assembly
Appropriations Committee Suspense file.
SOURCE : CalSTART, California Natural Gas Vehicle
Coalition
The following support and opposition are for
the April 9, 2012 version of SB 1455, and
Senate Transportation and Housing Committee
hearing, which will be amended (see comment #4)
in the Senate Environmental Quality Committee:
SUPPORT : Bay Bio, Better Place, BIOCOM, California
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Electric Vehicle Coalition, CALSTART, Clean
Energy, CODA Electric, Coulomb Technologies,
Dow Kokam, Electric Vehicles International,
Environmental Defense Fund, Mission
Motors Company, Motiv Power Systems, Propel
Fuels, Inc., Plug In America, Quallion LLC,
Quantum Technologies, San Diego Gas & Electric,
Sierra Club California, Southern California Gas
Company, Tesla Motors, Inc., U.S. Hybrid
Corporation, Waste Management, Zero
Motorcycles, Inc.
OPPOSITION : Antelope Valley Hispanic Chamber of Commerce,
Association of Global Automakers, Black
Business Association, California Association of
Black Pastors,
California Chamber of Commerce,
California Independent
Petroleum Association, California Manufacturers
and Technology Association, California Small
Business Alliance,
California Taxpayers Association, California
Hispanic
Chambers of Commerce, CambodianAmerican Chamber
of
Commerce, Carson Black Chamber of Commerce,
Coalition
of Energy Users, Greater Corona Hispanic
Chamber of Commerce, Independent Oil Producers
Agency, Kern County Black Chamber of Commerce,
Kern County Taxpayers Association, Long Beach
Black Chamber of Commerce,
Los Angeles Metropolitan Hispanic Chamber of
Commerce,
Moreno Valley Black Chamber of Commerce,
National
Federation of Independent Business/California,
Regional
Black Chamber of Commerce of San Fernando
Valley, Slavic American Chamber of Commerce,
Small Business
Action Committee, Solano County Black Chamber
of Commerce, South Bay Latino Chamber of
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Commerce,
Western States Petroleum Association