California Air Resources Board

Summary 

Enacts the Safe Drinking Water, Wildfire Prevention, Drought Preparation, Flood Protection, Extreme Heat Mitigation, and Workforce Development Bond Act of 2024, which, if approved by voters, would authorize the issuance of bonds in the amount of $15.995 billion to finance projects for safe drinking water, wildfire prevention, drought preparation, flood protection, extreme heat mitigation, clean energy, and workforce development programs. As related to CARB, the bond allocates $125 million to the State Board of Forestry and Fire Protection, who would consult with CARB and California Natural Resources Agency to fund projects that provide long-term capital infrastructure to convert forest and other vegetative waste removed for wildfire mitigation to uses that maximize reductions in the greenhouse gas emissions, provide local air quality benefits, and increase local community resilience against climate change impacts. This bill also allocates $500 million to the California Energy Commission, in coordination with CARB and the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development, for grants to assist in obtaining, or as a match fund for, federal grants related to regional hubs in the federal Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and the federal Inflation Reduction Act of 2022. Was not heard in the Senate Natural Resources and Water Committee. 

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Summary 

Would have required CARB by December 31, 2025, to include in the SB 901 (Dodd, 2018) report, a methodology to quantify GHG and short-lived climate pollutant emissions, including black carbon from wildfire, pile burning, and forest management activities and a list of the data needed to use the methodology. This bill also would have established a Forest Waste Biomass Utilization Program to be administered by the State Board of Forestry and Fire Protection’s Joint Institute for Wood Products Innovation, required the California Natural Resources Agency to facilitate the inclusion of recommendations for forest biomass waste utilization in relevant State climate adaptation plans, and required the California Energy Commission to report on innovative bioenergy technologies that utilize forest biomass waste. This bill was similar to AB 2878 (Aguiar-Curry, 2022).  Held on suspense in the Assembly Appropriations Committee. 

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Summary

Would have modified existing requirements governing published guidance the California Energy Commission must provide to help decarbonize buildings and add energy storage or electric vehicle charging capacity to buildings. Held on suspense in the Assembly Appropriations Committee.

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Summary

Would have required CARB, prior to December 31, 2024, to complete an assessment of renewable hydrogen production, distribution, transmission, as defined by CARB, and application within the State. Held on suspense in the Assembly Appropriations Committee.

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Summary

Would have required the California Energy Commission, Natural Resources Agency, and CARB to encourage the use of low-embodied carbon building materials and required a public agency to have a preference for those materials in its public projects, as defined and when feasible and cost effective. Held on suspense in the Assembly Appropriations Committee.

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Summary

Requires every retail supplier of electricity to annually report information concerning electricity supply used to serve load to the California Energy Commission (CEC), including the retail supplier’s sources of electricity and the emissions of greenhouse gases associated with those sources of electricity. The bill also requires the CEC to share the information reported by retail sellers with the California Public Utilities Commission, CARB, and the California Independent System Operator, to the extent needed, and to annually publish on its internet website an aggregated summary of the data reported by each retail supplier.

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Summary

Extends requirements on electric investor-owned utilities and community choice aggregators to procure energy from biomass generating electric facilities by five years and requires extension of existing contracts by five years.

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Summary

Requires CARB, in consultation with the California Energy Commission, the California Public Utilities Commission, and the California Workforce Development Board, to conduct an evaluation on hydrogen and post the evaluation on CARB’s website by June 1, 2024, including policy recommendations to accelerate the production and use of hydrogen, and specifically to accelerate the production and use of green hydrogen, in California.

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Summary

Among other things, establishes interim targets for the State’s 100 percent clean energy goal in 2045 and accelerates the date by which State agencies must achieve 100 percent clean energy use. This bill requires that CARB’s Scoping Plan workshops be held in non-attainment areas and requires the California Public Utilities Commission, the California Energy Commission, and CARB to create a joint report on electricity reliability.

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Summary

Authorizes the extension of operating the Diablo Canyon Nuclear power plant (DCPP) beyond the current expiration dates (2024 for Unit 1 and 2025 for Unit 2), to up to five additional years (no later than 2029 and 2030, respectively), under specified conditions. This bill also authorizes a loan of $1.4 billion from the State to Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E), the operator of DCPP, to facilitate the extension of the plant. This bill appropriates $600 million and requires future Legislative action for the remaining funding. This bill also provides expedited permitting to facilitate relicensing of DCPP, including:  limiting State agency review of applications related to the DCPP extension to 180 days, exempting DCPP from the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), and explicitly authorizing collections from electric ratepayers (both customers of PG&E and those of other electricity providers) for ongoing costs. The California Energy Commission, in consultation with CARB, must develop a Clean Energy Reliability Investment Plan, due to the Legislature by March 1, 2023, that supports programs and projects that accelerate the deployment of clean energy resources, support demand response, assist ratepayers, and increase energy reliability.

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