BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 1104
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Date of Hearing: January 16, 2014
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON NATURAL RESOURCES
Wesley Chesbro, Chair
AB 1104 (Salas) - As Amended: January 7, 2014
SUBJECT : California Environmental Quality Act: biogas
pipelines: exemption
SUMMARY : Expands an existing CEQA exemption applicable to
liquid pipelines to include pipelines used to transport dairy
biogas in four counties.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Requires lead agencies with the principal responsibility for
carrying out or approving a proposed project to prepare a
negative declaration, mitigated negative declaration, or
environmental impact report for this action, unless the
project is exempt from CEQA (CEQA includes various statutory
exemptions, as well as categorical exemptions in the CEQA
Guidelines).
2)Provides that CEQA does not apply to a pipeline project less
than one mile in length within a public street or highway or
any other public right-of-way for the installation of a new
pipeline or the maintenance, repair, restoration,
reconditioning, relocation, replacement, removal, or
demolition of an existing pipeline.
3)Provides that CEQA does not apply to a pipeline project less
than eight miles in length consisting of inspection,
maintenance, repair, restoration, reconditioning, relocation,
replacement, or removal of an existing intrastate liquid
pipeline subject to the Pipeline Safety Act (e.g. petroleum
pipelines), subject to specified conditions, including:
a) Construction and excavation activities are not
undertaken over more than one half mile at a time.
b) The section of pipeline is not less than eight miles
from any section that has received an exemption in the past
12 months.
c) Project activities are undertaken within an existing
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right-of-way and the right-of-way is restored to its
pre-project condition.
d) The diameter of the pipeline is not increased.
4)Requires the CEQA Guidelines to include a list of classes of
projects that have been determined by the Secretary of the
Natural Resources Agency to not to have a significant effect
on the environment and that shall be exempt from CEQA.
Included in this list of "categorical exemptions" are:
a) Repair and maintenance of existing public or private
facilities, involving negligible or no expansion of use,
including existing facilities of both investor and publicly
owned utilities used to provide electric power, natural
gas, sewerage, or other public utility services.
(Guidelines Section 15301)
b) Replacement or reconstruction of existing facilities on
the same site with the same purpose and capacity, including
existing utility systems and/or facilities involving
negligible or no expansion of capacity. (Guidelines
Section 15302)
THIS BILL expands the existing eight mile exemption for
petroleum pipelines to include a pipeline located in Fresno,
Kern, Kings, or Tulare County that is used to transport biogas
that is derived from anaerobic digestion of dairy animal waste
and meets compressed natural gas specifications adopted by the
Air Resources Board (ARB). The bill reenacts a prior statute,
SB 605 (Ashburn), Chapter 599, Statutes of 2009, which was
repealed by its own terms on January 1, 2013.
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown
COMMENTS :
1)Background. CEQA includes limited exemptions for relatively
small-scale pipeline maintenance and installation projects. A
general exemption is available for projects under one mile in
length, including new pipelines. A more specific exemption is
available for projects up to eight miles in length involving
maintenance and replacement, but not expansion, of existing
petroleum pipelines.
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Collection of biogas produced at dairy operations is an
emerging method that can reduce dairy emissions of methane,
one of the leading contributors to greenhouse gas emissions.
The biogas can be transported via pipelines to commercial
natural gas transmission pipelines.
The justification for this bill's four-county limit and
application based on source and composition of the gas is
unclear, however the bill does not represent a significant
expansion of the existing exemption for existing petroleum
pipelines and is consistent with SB 605, approved by this
committee in 2009.
2)Would this exemption be useful? The exemption enacted by SB
605 was in effect from 2010 through 2012, but the committee
has been unable to find any record of it being used. It may
be that the SB 605 exemption, and therefore the exemption
proposed by this bill, does not fit the circumstances of the
dairy digester projects. One reason is that the exemption
does not apply to construction of new pipelines, which may be
necessary to link dairy projects to the natural gas pipeline
system. Another reason is that the gas must meet ARB
specifications and at least some of the proposed dairy
digester projects contemplate delivering raw biogas in
low-pressure pipes to be conditioned prior to injection into
the natural gas pipeline system.
While an exemption that applied to new pipelines may be more
suitable for the dairy digester projects, it is likely to be
controversial. At the very least, it would invite
consideration of conditions that should apply to assure
eligible projects did not have a significant effect on the
environment. These may include limiting the length of the
project, limiting projects to developed rights of way, and
assuring construction impacts, such as traffic, are avoided or
mitigated. Likewise, an exemption that applied to
transportation of unconditioned gas in privately operated
pipes requires consideration of how to assure the integrity of
the pipes and their operation to avoid public safety hazards
and greenhouse gas emissions associated with leaks.
3)Sunset. The author and the committee may wish to consider
adding a January 1, 2018 sunset to this bill to allow the
Legislature to review the use of the exemption.
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REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
Agricultural Energy Consumers Association
California Bioenergy
Kern County Board of Supervisors
Opposition
None on file
Analysis Prepared by : Lawrence Lingbloom / NAT. RES. / (916)
319-2092