BOARD MEETING DATE: June 6, 2003
AGENDA NO. 29

Legislative Committee

SYNOPSIS:

The Legislative Committee considered agenda items including the following legislation for which the Board will consider approving a position:
AB 471 (Simitian) – Cruise Ship Emissions
SB 288 (Sher) – New Source Review Restoration Act of 2003
SB 709 (Flores) – San Joaquin Valley APCD Authority

RECOMMENDED ACTION:

Approve the positions recommended below.

Beatrice J.S. LaPisto-Kirtley, Chair,
Legislative Committee

Attendance

The Legislative Committee met on May 9, 2003. Present were Committee Vice-Chair Jane Carney and by videoconference Committee Chair Beatrice LaPisto-Kirtley and Committee Members Michael Antonovich and Roy Wilson. Committee member William Burke was unable to attend. [Attachment 1]

Washington Report/Update [Attachment 2]

Lynn Jacquez, AQMD Federal Legislative Representative, reported that the Senate has moved its Energy bill to floor debate. Language pertaining to tax incentives and the ethanol portion of the Renewable Fuels Standard are expected to be amended into the bill during floor debate. The House has already passed its Energy bill and will conference with the Senate Energy bill once it is approved.

A bipartisan letter is being prepared citing congressional concerns about how the Department of Energy might allocate funding for hydrogen projects. The letter will urge Secretary Abraham to consider funding for Southern California and the AQMD’s hydrogen programs.

Congresswoman Hilda Solis has received constituent complaints regarding AQMD monitoring devices located near gravel pits in her district. AQMD staff is working with Ms. Jacquez to address the concerns expressed by the Congresswoman.

Sacramento Update [Attachment 3]

Allan Lind, AQMD State Legislative Representative, provided an update on legislation of importance to the AQMD.

AB 1063 (Firebaugh), sponsored by the AQMD, addresses emissions from railroads and ports, as well as seeks authority for the AQMD to retrofit diesel engines operating in the South Coast Air Basin. AB 1063 was defeated in the Assembly Transportation Committee but reconsideration has been granted for a hearing at a later date. Some committee members conveyed their reservations about voting for proposed new fees when the State budget has not been reconciled. There was vigorous support for the bill from a cross section of organizations. The opposition -- the railroads, ports and the petroleum industry -- aligned to persuade the committee members that this is not the right time for a mitigation fee.

SB 981 (Soto), also sponsored by the AQMD, would provide a steady funding source for petroleum mitigation programs statewide through a fee on crude oil. The bill was heard in the Senate Revenue and Taxation Committee, but not voted on. The committee has determined that all fee measures will be held until the State budget process is complete. However, this does not ensure that once the State budget process is complete, fee bills will pass the committee.

Staff added that efforts will continue on AB 1063 and SB 981. Meetings are being planned with Legislators who have expressed concerns with the bills. Staff remains committed to conveying to the Legislature the importance and need for both bills if clean air is going to be accomplished.

The budget for CARB is currently being considered by the Legislature, including a proposal by the Legislative Analyst to further increase CARB’s dependence on fees from stationary sources. In March, the Governor signed ABX1 10 (Oropeza), which allows CARB to increase their existing emission based fee on stationary sources and include Consumer Products and Architectural Coatings. During the legislative process, the AQMD presented testimony regarding the consequences of the fee proposal to local air districts and air districts received commitments from CARB that the revenue would come from Consumer Products and Architectural Coatings and that stationary sources would only see an increase equivalent to the Consumer Price Index. However, the exact opposite has happened and CARB is now considering tripling their stationary source fees. Staff is very concerned that this will have a dramatic impact on businesses in the South Coast Air Basin. CARB has indicated that the time spent working on Consumer Products and Architectural Coatings does not merit a higher fee. In response, CAPCOA members have requested additional information from CARB to ensure that all time spent on these two source categories, including monitoring and analyses of the monitoring samples, is included. Additionally, refiners and power plants, through their trade associations, are pushing to have the threshold lowered from 250-ton sources to 100-ton sources to spread the fee to more businesses.

AB 1090 (Longville), that would amend existing law to allow the AQMD Board Member representing San Bernardino County to live outside of the AQMD’s jurisdiction, passed the Assembly Natural Resources committee with an amendment to sunset the bill’s provisions in 2007. Staff understands that AB 1090, sponsored by the County of San Bernardino, and supported by the Mojave Desert AQMD Board, is intended to allow the Supervisor from the high desert area that resides outside the South Coast AQMD to serve on the South Coast Board. The Legislative Committee discussed AB 1090 at their March meeting, but after discussion the Committee took no position, stating that the bill could set a precedent for other appointments to the Board.

Below is an update on other legislation the AQMD is following:

AB 471 (Simitian), which seeks to reduce emissions from cruise ships, passed the Assembly Environmental Safety and Toxic Materials Committee and has been referred to the Assembly Appropriations Committee.

AB 740 (Pavley), a bond measure for clean air, water and coastal protection, passed both the Assembly Natural Resources Committee and the Assembly Environmental Safety and Toxic Materials Committee. The bill is now awaiting hearing in the Assembly Appropriations Committee.

AB 998 (Lowenthal), which places a fee on perchloroethylene to fund a transition grant program for dry cleaners, passed the Assembly Natural Resources Committee and has been referred to the Assembly Appropriations Committee.

SB 288 (Sher), which would create the New Source Review Restoration Act of 2003, passed the Senate Environmental Quality Committee and is scheduled for hearing in the Senate Appropriations Committee on May 19.

SB 656 (Sher) would require CARB to identify all readily available, feasible and cost-effective measures that could be implemented to reduce Particulate Matter emissions from stationary sources and from mobile and stationary diesel engines. SB 656 passed the Senate Environmental Quality Committee and has been referred to the Senate Appropriations Committee.

SB 700 (Florez), which addresses the current agriculture exemption in the California Clean Air Act, passed the Senate Environmental Quality Committee and has been referred to the Senate Appropriations Committee.

Evaluation and Preliminary Concepts Regarding AQMD and State Legislative Authority

At the March Legislative Committee meeting, staff presented a number of preliminary concepts for consideration by the committee that could possibly expand AQMD’s existing authority to help reach attainment. These concepts stemmed from the Board retreat held in January. From the list of concepts, the Committee authorized staff to pursue one concept related to fees for cargo emissions, which was subsequently incorporated into AB 1063, and directed staff to provide additional information on the remaining concepts, specifically which concepts would have the highest emission reduction potential and the level of difficulty for each.

Staff provided Committee members with a table listing each concept, along with a preliminary indication of the emission potential and degree of implementation difficulty for each. At this stage in the legislative session, and with the continued efforts on AB 1063 and SB 981, staff recommends that the Committee receive and file this report and direct staff to bring this issue back to the Committee in September. The Legislative Committee unanimously approved revisiting this issue in September.

Draft Request for Proposals (RFPs) for Legislative Consulting Services in Sacramento, CA, and Washington, DC

The current contracts for legislative representation in Sacramento and Washington expire on December 31, 2003. Staff recommends the issuance of RFPs to solicit bids for representation in both Sacramento and Washington, with service to begin January 1, 2004. The Legislative Committee unanimously approved the release of RFPs for legislative representation in Sacramento and Washington. [Please see the June Governing Board agenda for information on this item.]

Recommended Positions on Legislation

Staff provided analyses and position recommendations on legislation. A brief description of each bill is provided
below. [Attachment 4]
 

Bill/Title	Recommended Position
AB 471 (Simitian) – Cruise Ship Emissions	SUPPORT
AB 788 (Chavez) – Consumer Products	No position recommendation
SB 288 (Sher) – New Source Review Restoration Act of 2003	SUPPORT IN CONCEPT; work with author
SB 352 (Escutia) – Sources of Pollution at Schools	Pulled from consideration
SB 709 (Florez) – San Joaquin Valley APCD Authority	Provide assistance to author

AB 471 (Simitian) would require cruise ships to use low sulfur diesel fuel, beginning January 1, 2005, while operating within 25 miles of the California coast, and after January 1, 2008, to connect to a shoreline power source while docked in California ports. Staff believes this a much-needed initiative that would reduce emissions from marine vessels and would result in substantial reductions of NOx, SOx, and Particulate Matter. The Legislative Committee adopted staff’s recommendation to Support AB 471.

AB 788 (Chavez) would extend the current prohibition on CARB to adopt regulations pertaining to disinfectants from October 1, 2003, until January 1, 2005. The sponsor is concerned that CARB may adopt regulations that reduce the volume of ethanol found in consumer level disinfectants and may lead to inferior products that may increase the risk of infection.

In order to attain either the federal or State clean air standards, more has to be done to reduce emissions from Consumer Products. Staff is concerned with the adverse precedent that AB 788 would continue to set for this source category when there is an appropriate regulatory process to control emissions from this source. Staff initially recommended an Oppose position on AB 788. However, staff believes CARB is neutral on AB 788 since the timeline of 2005 in the bill is consistent with CARB’s timeline to perform their regulatory review of this source category. At this time, staff recommends no position on AB 788, but seeks Board direction to meet with the author to share AQMD’s concerns. The Legislative Committee directed staff to meet with the author to discuss AQMD’s concerns with AB 788.

SB 288 (Sher) would place into state law the New Source Review (NSR) provisions of the federal Clean Air Act and U.S. EPA regulations as they existed on December 30, 2002. The bill also establishes requirements for citizen lawsuits to enforce an emission standard or limitation or to order CARB or an air district to perform an act under the NSR Act. The author’s intent is to ensure that NSR efforts in California are not weakened. Staff supports the intent of SB 288 but believes the current provisions would add confusion to the existing program and could cause implementation problems.

Specifically, the AQMD currently has approval of its NSR program even though the program contains some variations from the express words of U.S. EPA rules. Also, AQMD’s program exempts essential public services from offsets, but U.S. EPA has found that the District’s program is equivalent on an aggregate basis. Placing the previous federal regulation verbatim into California law would negate an equivalency the AQMD has been receiving from U.S. EPA. The author is open to modifying SB 288 to allow for air districts to have equivalency.

Additionally, staff has concerns with the provisions pertaining to citizen lawsuits against rule violators and against CARB and air districts under the NSR Act. The author is amenable to discussing this issue and has indicated that the intent of SB 288 was not to expand litigation. Staff recommends Support in Concept of SB 288 and seeks direction from the Board to work with the author to ensure the provisions are consistent with the intent of the bill and to also seek amendments regarding the provisions for citizen lawsuits. The Legislative Committee adopted staff’s recommendation to Support in Concept SB 288 and work with the author on amendments.

SB 352 (Escutia) would allow schools to use their modernization funding for the investigation and control of air quality problems that may result from a school residing near freeways or other significant air pollution sources. Schools would also be allowed to use their maintenance account funds to purchase and install air quality control systems and filters and provisions of the bill would dictate the distance a school may be located from a freeway or busy roadway.

Staff brought SB 352 to the committee for consideration in April. At that time the committee asked that staff bring back additional information on the potential unintended consequences of the bill and how that would affect actual siting of school facilities. Since that time staff has consulted with Senator Escutia’s staff and the concerns about the unintended consequences raised by the Committee. Amendments have been drafted by the author that may ease concerns surrounding the ability to site new facilities. The amendments change the distance from 1,000 feet to 500 feet and also change the definition of busy roadway in an urban area to be traffic in excess of 100,000 vehicles on an average day as opposed to 50,000 vehicles. These two amendments would increase the number of potential sites for school facilities.

Staff believes there are also provisions of SB 352 that need clarification. Specifically, the provisions for air quality analyses at proposed sites need to be outlined in more detail. At this time, staff recommends a Support position on SB 352 and direction from the Board to work with the author on amendments to include CalTrans and local transportation management agencies as entities to be consulted with when identifying potential sources of pollution.

Committee members raised questions regarding provisions in the bill pertaining to the number of vehicles traveling on freeways and busy roadways, limited space to build new schools, and use of modernization funds for air quality monitoring. Staff suggested deferring consideration of SB 352 to June, at which time staff will provide additional information on the impact of SB 352 in terms of potential exposure to students. The Legislative Committee unanimously agreed to delay consideration of SB 352 until June and directed staff to quantify the health impacts of the proposed amendments.

SB 709 (Florez) would give the San Joaquin Valley APCD certain authorities that are currently granted to the South Coast AQMD. From a staff perspective, such authority could be advantageous to existing AQMD efforts. For example, if San Joaquin Valley APCD adopted fleet rules consistent with AQMD’s fleet rules, there would then be a market, as well as political synergy to such actions. Secondly, the AQMD staff has the experience and knowledge base to assist with this effort. Staff is seeking Board direction to provide assistance to Senator Florez on SB 709 and also ensure that if legislation is enacted, that it does not inadvertently conflict with AQMD’s existing programs. The Legislative Committee adopted staff’s recommendation to provide assistance to the author and to ensure that the bill does not inadvertently restrict AQMD authority.

Other Business/Public Comment

John Billheimer, Enviro-Reality, stated that AB 788 is related to ethanol in consumer products. Bakeries, breweries, drink mix, and health foods all involve ethanol and all are under regulation of the AQMD. Rule 1103 and 1131 would have to be reviewed to see if AB 788 would present a conflict with those operations.

Attachments

1. Attendance Roster
2. 2003 Federal Legislative Status Report
3. 2003 State Legislative Status Report
4. Recommended Positions on Legislation

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