BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 1104
Page 1
Date of Hearing: January 23, 2014
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Mike Gatto, Chair
AB 1104 (Salas) - As Amended: January 16, 2014
Policy Committee: Natural
ResourcesVote:6-1
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
Yes Reimbursable: No
SUMMARY
This bill expands an existing California Environmental Quality
Act (CEQA) exemption for liquid pipelines to include pipelines
used to transport dairy biogas in Fresno, Kern, Kings, or Tulare
counties. This bill sunsets January 1, 2018.
FISCAL EFFECT
Negligible state costs.
COMMENTS
1)Rationale . According to the author, California has the United
States' largest dairy industry, which includes approximately
1,600 dairies that house about 1.8 million cows that produce
3.6 million dry tons of manure per year. The manure can be
processed by anaerobic digesters into biogas, which can be
converted into electricity or upgraded biomethane.
The author further states that expensive, uncertain and
complex interconnection and permitting obstacles, high
environmental compliance costs, lack of long-term economical
energy purchase agreements, and high financial risks and cost
have contributed to the lack of success. As a result,
commercialization of the dairy biogas industry has not
occurred and project development has stalled.
This bill addresses the time and cost associated with CEQA
compliance by exempting diary biogas piplelines in the four
county region.
AB 1104
Page 2
2) Background . CEQA requires the principal public agency with
responsibility for carrying out or approving a proposed
project-known as the lead agency- to prepare a negative
declaration, mitigated negative declaration, or environmental
impact report for the action, unless the project is exempt
from CEQA. Existing law exempts from CEQA a pipeline project
consisting of inspection, maintenance, repair, restoration,
reconditioning, relocation, replacement, or removal of an
existing intrastate liquid pipeline subject to the Pipeline
Safety Act, subject to specified conditions:
a) The project is less than eight miles in length.
b) Construction and excavation activities are not
undertaken over more than one half mile at a time.
c) The section of pipeline is not less than eight miles
from any section that has received an exemption in the past
12 months.
d) Project activities are undertaken within an existing
right-of-way and the right-of-way is restored to its
pre-project condition.
e) The diameter of the pipeline is not increased.
1)Prior CEQA Exemption. This bill reinstates an identical
exemption that was provided in SB 605 (Ashburn) Chapter 599,
Statues of 2009 that was in effect from 2010 to 2012. It is
unknown whether this exemption was ever used.
2)Related Legislation. In 2012, SB 1122 (Rubio) was signed into
law to encourage the development of dairy digesters by
providing much higher prices for electricity produced by dairy
biogas projects than prices historically paid to these
projects.
Analysis Prepared by : Jennifer Galehouse / APPR. / (916)
319-2081