BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    �




                   Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
                            Senator Kevin de Le�n, Chair


          SB 498 (Lara) - Biomass: conversion technology.
          
          Amended: January 6, 2014        Policy Vote: EQ 5-1
          Urgency: No                     Mandate: No
          Hearing Date: January 23, 2014                    Consultant:  
          Marie Liu     
          
          SUSPENSE FILE. AS PROPOSED TO BE AMENDED.
          
          
          Bill Summary: SB 498 expands the definition of biomass  
          conversion under the California Integrated Waste Management Act  
          to include conversion technologies, which is defined as  
          noncombustion thermal, chemical, or biological processes that  
          convert biomass into marketable products.

          Fiscal Impact (as proposed to be amended): No state costs.

          Background: The California Integrated Waste Management Act  
          requires that local agencies reduce the amount of waste sent to  
          the landfill. One of the allowable diversions is for waste to be  
          used for biomass conversion. Conversion technologies are  
          generally processes that can covert organic materials (i.e.  
          biomass) into usable forms of energy including heat, steam, and  
          electricity. However, the existing statutory definition of  
          biomass conversion only includes conversions that occur through  
          controlled combustion. Other conversion technologies, such as  
          gasification and pyrolysis, can convert biomass into usable  
          forms of energy without combustion and thus are excluded from  
          the existing biomass conversion definition. 

          Proposed Law: This bill would expand the definition of biomass  
          conversion to also include conversion technologies, which are  
          defined as those methods that covert biomass into marketable  
          products and fuels through noncombustion thermal, chemical, or  
          biological processes. 

          Related Legislation: SB 804 (Lara) also sought to revise the  
          definition of "biomass conversion" among other provisions. SB  
          804 was vetoed by the Governor based on the definition of  
          biomass conversion.
          








          SB 498 (Lara)
          Page 1


          Staff Comments: As discussed in the Senate Environmental Quality  
          Committee, the definition for a conversion technology in this  
          bill is broad and inadvertently incorporates anaerobic digestion  
          and composting into the definition of biomass conversion. Both  
          anaerobic digestion and composting facilities are currently  
          regulated by CalRecycle. However, because biomass conversion  
          facilities are not within CalRecycle's jurisdiction, by  
          incorporating anaerobic digestion and composting into the  
          definition of biomass conversion, this bill would require  
          CalRecycle to stop regulating most of these facilities.  
          CalRecycle would incur one-time costs to revise their  
          regulations to reflect these changes at an estimated cost of  
          approximately $100,000.

          CalRecycle also believes that they would be required to go  
          through the CEQA process in order to cease their regulations of  
          anaerobic digestion and composting facilities. However, staff  
          believes that this may be unnecessary as these regulatory  
          changes would not be a discretionary action, but rather required  
          by statute.

          According to the author, inclusion of anaerobic digestion and  
          composting is inadvertent. The author has committed to working  
          with CalRecycle over a more refined definition of biomass  
          conversion and conversion technologies. Should the refined  
          definition not include anaerobic digestion and composting, the  
          costs associated with this bill would be removed.

          Proposed Author Amendments: Proposed author amendments would  
          delete the definition of "conversion technology" and instead  
          would expand the definition of "biomass conversion" to be the  
          production of heat, fuels, or electricity from noncombustion  
          thermal methods in addition to controlled combustion.