BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 1104
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ASSEMBLY THIRD READING
AB 1104 (Salas)
As Amended January 27, 2014
Majority vote
NATURAL RESOURCES 6-1 APPROPRIATIONS 16-0
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|Ayes:|Chesbro, Bigelow, Garcia, |Ayes:|Gatto, Bigelow, Allen, |
| |Muratsuchi, Patterson, | |Bocanegra, Bradford, Ian |
| |Williams | |Calderon, Campos, Eggman, |
| | | |Gomez, Holden, Linder, |
| | | |Pan, Quirk, |
| | | |Ridley-Thomas, Wagner, |
| | | |Weber |
|-----+--------------------------+-----+--------------------------|
|Nays:|Stone | | |
| | | | |
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SUMMARY : Expands an existing California Environmental Quality Act
(CEQA) exemption applicable to liquid pipelines to include pipelines
used to transport dairy biogas in four counties. Specifically, this
bill expands the 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
section added by the bill would sunset January 1, 2018.
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.
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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
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)
FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Assembly Appropriations Committee,
negligible state costs.
COMMENTS : CEQA includes limited exemptions for relatively
small-scale pipeline maintenance and installation projects. A
general exemption is available for projects under one mile in
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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.
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.
This bill reenacts a prior statute, SB 605 (Ashburn), Chapter 599,
Statutes of 2009, which was repealed by its own terms on January 1,
2013. The exemption enacted by SB 605 was in effect from 2010
through 2012, but the Assembly Natural Resources 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.
Analysis Prepared by : Lawrence Lingbloom / NAT. RES. / (916)
319-2092
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FN: 0003000