BOARD MEETING DATE: June 2, 2006
AGENDA NO. 21

Legislative Committee

SYNOPSIS:

The Legislative Committee considered agenda items on legislation described below.  In addition, the Board will consider positions for the following legislation:

Bill/Title	Recommended Position
SB 1478 (Speier) Toxic Chemicals: Release Form	Support with Amendments
AB 2843 (Saldana) Air Pollution	Support with Amendments
SB 1522 (Aanestad) Diesel Fuel Tax Law: Emergency Services Providers	Support
AB 32 (Nunez/Pavley) California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006	Support with Amendments
SB 1705 (Ashburn) Energy: California Environmental Quality Act: Negative Declaration: Energy Infrastructure	Oppose
SB 1494 (McClintock) Top Priority: Transportation Projects	Oppose

RECOMMENDED ACTION

Receive and file this report and adopt positions on the bills specified in this letter.

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

Attendance [Attachment 1]

The Legislative Committee met on May 12, 2006.  Present was Committee Vice Chair Jane Carney.  Present, by videoconference, were Committee Chair Beatrice LaPisto-Kirtley and Committee Members Roy Wilson, Michael Antonovich and Jan Perry.

Paul Wuebben, Clean Fuels Officer, announced that there was a demonstration of high pressure direct injection (HPDI) technology in a heavy-duty truck engine application using liquefied natural gas outside in the AQMD parking lot and invited those interested to view it at the conclusion of this meeting.  

Recommended Positions on Bills [Attachment 2]

SB 1478 (Speier) Toxic Chemicals: Release Form

Jill Whynot, Planning and Rules Manager, reported that this bill is a mirror of the current federal toxics release inventory program, to which a large number of facilities annually report their toxic air emissions.  Currently, the federal program is out for public comment with significant relaxations, such as reporting threshold adjustment from 500 to 5,000 pounds per year, so that many facilities would not have to report any longer.  This bill would exempt facilities with less than 10 employees.  There are no direct impacts on AQMD; however, staff believes that this bill should only be enacted if the federal program is relaxed.  There should also be consideration to review the toxicity of the chemicals, rather than the quantity since toxicity can vary on a pound per pound basis.  The Legislative Committee recommended to SUPPORT WITH AMENDMENTS SB 1478.

AB 2843 (Saldana) Air Pollution

Mr. Wuebben reported that this bill would eliminate the termination date for applications of environmental justice criteria for funding in the current Carl Moyer Program.  Staff believes it is important to eliminate the sunset date.  In addition, staff recommends that this bill be amended to honor former Assembly Member, Marco Firebaugh, and request an amendment to the bill to be named the Marco Firebaugh Memorial Provision.  Jane Carney, Committee Vice Chair, asked how long the current funding for the Carl Moyer Program is available?  Staff replied that it was nine years.  The Legislative Committee recommended to SUPPORT WITH AMENDMENTS AB 2843.

SB 1522 (Aanestad) Diesel Fuel Tax Law: Emergency Services Providers

Mr. Wuebben said that this bill would extend a tax provision exempting local emergency service providers currently not included in the revenue and taxation codes by allowing their use of " dyed" diesel fuel.  Staff does not believe that there would be a substantial impact on revenues or any programs that would affect AQMD. 

Ms. Carney asked staff what is AQMD’s interest in this bill?  Mr. Wuebben replied that when changes are made to diesel fuel specifications which establish a different red dye criteria and triggers IRS and EPA red dye criteria, staff would want to be certain that low sulfur aspects of that fuel are addressed and that it is consistent with other processes.

Ms. LaPisto-Kirtley asked if this does anything to reduce pollution.  Mr. Wuebben replied in the negative, and said that it would exempt those emergency providers from paying the diesel tax.  The Legislative Committee recommended to SUPPORT SB 1522.

AB 32 (Nunez/Pavley) California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006

Ms. Whynot said that this bill would bring into law the Governor’s target to meet 1990 greenhouse gas emissions by 2020.  This bill would also restructure the responsibilities of state agencies.  CARB would be the agency to receive the mandatory emissions report, as well as the agency responsible for compliance of specific emission limits for facilities.  Staff believes that local districts have existing permitting and compliance programs in areas where CARB does not have the staff or the experience in this aspect.  

Dr. Wallerstein said that the California Air Pollution Control Officers Association (CAPCOA) has prepared a white paper with the assistance of AQMD staff, to further expand the points that Ms. Whynot raised.  He said that he and the other air pollution control officers are in agreement for the state to maintain the computer that has the total inventory numbers, or if they go to a cap and trade program to have the state issue the credits. Regarding the issue of permitting, staff believes that anything that industrial facilities do to reduce greenhouse gas emissions would cause a modification of their existing permits.  Thus, it would require that facilities go through two parallel permitting processes for a single action. 

Staff recommends supporting this bill with an amendment that local districts handle reports from facilities, and conduct the compliance and monitoring.  The Legislative Committee recommended to SUPPORT WITH AMENDMENTS AB 32.

SB 1705 (Ashburn) Energy: California Environmental Quality Act: Negative Declaration: Energy Infrastructure

Ms. Whynot said that this bill would require an expedited CEQA review for any project to upgrade, modify, or replace energy infrastructure along a corridor or utility right-of-way.  The only criteria is that the habitat would have to be restored. The bill has unknown impacts because it is vague and does not define how the review would be expedited or how the process would occur.  Staff said that there are other potential significant impacts besides habitat that are not addressed.  Also, there is a provision in existing law that certain projects can get expedited CEQA review if there is a request to the State Clearinghouse and they check with other agencies.  Staff believes that this is not a good idea because there could be significant potential impacts that would not be disclosed, reviewed, identified and mitigated. Staff is recommending a position of oppose.   The Legislative Committee recommended to OPPOSE SB 1705.

SB 1494 (McClintock) Top Priority: Transportation Projects

Ms. Whynot said that this bill is similar to SB 1705 and others that have come before this committee requesting expediting CEQA process for top priority statewide transportation projects.  These statewide projects are very large and for the same reasons as stated in SB 1705, staff is recommending to oppose this bill until we know that projects are getting adequate review to identify and mitigate any potentially significant impacts.  Dr. Wallerstein said that from AQMD’s perspective this includes the new railyards, rail lines, and the 710 freeway expansion.  The Legislative Committee recommended to OPPOSE SB 1494.

Sacramento Report/Update

Mr. Abarca said that Senator Polanco, AQMD legislative consultant, was unable to attend the meeting today because he is meeting with assembly members regarding AB 2015 which will come up before the Assembly Appropriations Committee on May 17. 

Chris Micheli, AQMD legislative consultant, provided an update on the passage of the infrastructure bond proposals which will be on the November ballot.  The transportation and air quality bond is valued at approximately $20 billion as follows:

• Mobility, transit, and congestion relief is in excess of $16 billion.

• Safety security, disaster preparedness is approximately $1.5 billion.

• Air quality bonds is approximately $1.2 billion.
  • Port air quality is approximately $1 billion.
  • School bus retrofit is approximately $200 million.

Mr. Micheli said that there will be follow-up measures that will provide direction on how the money will be spent. These are general obligation bonds.  In addition, he said that the Governor is expected to release the May budget revision soon, and it was his understanding that there would be an additional $5 billion in revenue, most of which will go to pay down this debt. 

Ms. Micheli reported that they are working on SJR 31 which will be heard in the Senate Transportation Committee. Oscar Abarca and Peter Greenwald will be testifying in support of the resolution.  

Allan Lind, AQMD legislative consultant, commented on the following bills on which AQMD has taken a position:

• AB 1231 (Horton) - the proponents have proposed amendments and have shared them with AQMD and CAPCOA; he believes that staff is near agreement.

• AB 1870 (Lieber) - is currently on the Assembly floor.

• AB 2647 (Oropeza) and SB 1368 continue to move. 

• SB 1 (Murray) - which ran into a stalemate towards the end of last year, has been reactivated to supplement what the Public Utilities Commission is doing.

• SB 1205 (Escutia) - should be heard in committee within the next several weeks.  Staff continues to work with the author regarding staff's recommended amendments.

• SB 1377 (Soto) - was retroactive to apply to the railroad MOU; however, this provision has been recently moved.

Update on AQMD’s Federal Legislative Agenda

Dr. Anupom Ganguli, Assistant Deputy Executive Officer/Public Advisor, provided an update on appropriation requests.  He reported that on May 3, the house committee marked up the FY 07 appropriations bill (this bill funds US EPA’s accounts).  It is confirmed that the subcommittee has approved $220 million in air quality grants, reversing the $35 million cut that was proposed by the President.  The Section 103/105 grants which AQMD receives through this process appear to be secured at this point.

The Diesel Emission Reduction Program funding has been reduced by the House to $25 million from its original proposal of $50 million.  There is a possibility that the senate may reverse that and put it back to $50 million. 

The health study on nanoparticles appears to be going well and staff is hopeful that it will go through the process and receive the granting which has been requested.

Regarding policy issues, Dr. Ganguli said that the MARPOL Annex VI treaty will be implemented and that staff is reviewing the implementing legislation and will provide comments.  AQMD consultants will be following up with letters to the house and the senators. 

Dr. Ganguli said that H.R. 5254 was introduced which is a scaled down version of an earlier legislation; however, it still creates a process which will circumvent the local permitting and compliance requirements for refineries by appointing a single federal official who will be responsible for the entire process at the discretion of the Governor.  At this time staff believes that there is a high chance that this may apply to AQMD.  Dr. Ganguli said that the Board has directed staff to oppose this in the past, and consistent with that policy directive, staff will oppose this legislation.  H.R. 5254 will go before the floor of the house soon, and staff is working with the consultants to ensure that AQMD's concerns are heard on this issue. 

Dr. Ganguli briefly mentioned state legislation SJR 31 (Lowenthal) that will urge the US EPA to adopt stricter standards for emissions from marine vessels and locomotives and staff believes it will assist AQMD at the federal level by having our delegates work with US EPA. 

Lynn Jacquez, AQMD Washington legislative consultant, said that one of the primary federal agenda items is to increase funding for the Diesel Emissions Reduction Program, and as Dr. Ganguli reported, although there is a reduction from the original proposal of $50 million, that last year the funding level for the program was $10 million.  She said that the $25 million that has been included in the full committee mark-up of the interior EPA bill is a $15 million increase over last year's funding.  She also said that there is more support for this program on the senate side, and there are budget constraints in the allocation that the particular subcommittee has received. 

Chris Strobel, AQMD Washington legislative consultant, reported that Senator Carper is drafting a new version of the Clean Air Planning Act which he introduced to congress last year.  In his original bill, he included a cap and trade program for mercury emissions which has been deleted from the new bill.  S. 2724 is expected to have ongoing debates for the remainder of this year because most environmental organizations view this bill as being a compromise between what had previously been a very strong position taken on the democratic side as opposed to the Clear Skies Initiative which the administration put on the table.

Public Comment

None.

Attachments (EXE 1mb)
1.   Attendance Roster
2.   Recommended Positions on Bills
3.   Sacramento Report/Update
4.   Federal Report/Update