CHAPTER
6. Lower Emissions Equipment at Seaports and Intermodal Yards Program
39900.
The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:(a) It is in the best interests of all Californians to find innovative and cost-effective ways to eliminate the localized impacts from emissions of toxic air contaminants, including diesel emissions and other criteria pollutants, as quickly as possible, while it is in the best interests of all global citizens to reduce the total volume of greenhouse gas emissions.
(b) The state has accelerated emission reductions in many manners that benefit both local and global emission goals, including through regulatory enactments and the use of strategic incentives.
(c) The state must maintain its aggressive long-term priority emission reductions goals for reducing greenhouse gases through the implementation of zero-emission technologies while also addressing the priority of reducing the public health and air quality impacts of toxic air contaminants and criteria pollutants during the intervening years leading up to and during the implementation of zero-emission technologies.
(d) In those instances where zero-emission technologies are not yet commercially available, required by law, or economically feasible, transitional technologies can provide an effective bridging technology that results in significant reductions in toxic air contaminants and criteria pollutants in the short term until zero-emission technologies are implemented.
(e) Impacted California communities benefit from the reduction of toxic air contaminants and criteria pollutants earlier and greater than otherwise required by law.
(f) The state benefits from the enactment of programs that encourage regulators and regulated industry to work cooperatively in the creation of programs that successfully result in the utilization and development of innovative new concepts to introduce zero-emission and lower emission equipment into seaport operations in California.
(g) It is in the best interests of the people of the State of California to achieve cumulative lower emission reduction outcomes at seaports and intermodal yards by application of innovative concepts in partnership with
industry in a manner that protects public health and the environment.
39901.
The Legislature further finds and declares that all emission reductions generated by this chapter that result in a cumulative reduction in diesel air toxic contaminants contribute to public health by reducing, for the life of the equipment being approved, the total amount of emissions in the state.39902.
It is the intent of the Legislature to do all of the following:(a) Facilitate an innovative program that produces early and extra reductions of local criteria and toxic air contaminant emissions and greenhouse gas emissions like an incentive program, but with little to no cost to the state or taxpayers.
(b) Maximize near-term local emission reductions of toxic air contaminants and criteria pollutants and to accelerate global reductions of greenhouse gas emissions resulting in reductions that are greater than those that would otherwise occur under current law.
(c) Ensure that the cumulative emission reductions from seaport and intermodal yard equipment pursuant to this chapter will result in emissions that are less than the cumulative outcome of acting pursuant to the current and expected regulatory baseline.
(d) Provide owners of cargo handling equipment at California seaports and intermodal yards certainty about the useful life of equipment purchased pursuant to programs implemented by the state board pursuant to this chapter to meet required environmental standards.
(e) Encourage, in California, the investment in, purchase of, and use of cargo handling equipment that meets the standards and definitions for zero emissions set forth in European Union (EU) Regulation No. 2019/1242.
39903.
As used in this chapter, the following definitions apply:(a) “Cargo handling equipment” means any off-road, self-propelled vehicle or equipment used at a port or intermodal railyard to lift or move container, bulk, or liquid cargo carried by ship, train, or another vehicle, or used to perform maintenance and repair activities that are routinely scheduled or that are due to predictable process upsets.
(1) Cargo handling equipment includes, but is not limited to, rubber-tired gantry cranes, yard trucks, top handlers, side handlers, reach stackers, forklifts, loaders, aerial lifts, excavators, and dozers. Cargo handling equipment
does not include any yard truck that is licensed as an on-road vehicle.
(2) For purposes of this chapter, cargo handling equipment does not mean any fully automated cargo handling equipment or infrastructure that is used to support fully automated cargo handling equipment, including equipment that is remotely operated and remotely monitored with or without the exercise of human intervention or control. This section does not limit the use of devices that support human-operated cargo handling equipment, including equipment to evaluate the utilization and environmental benefits of that human-operated equipment.
(b) (1) “Covered equipment” means any hydrogen-powered cargo handling equipment or off-road hybridized rubber-tired gantry cranes that significantly
reduce criteria pollutants, toxic air contaminants, and greenhouse gas emissions.
(2) “Covered equipment” includes any of the following:
(A) New equipment sold for operation at a seaport or intermodal yard.
(B) Retrofit or replacement of old engines powering equipment with new or retrofitted engines, motors, or drives for operation at a seaport or intermodal yard.
(C) Development and demonstration of advanced technologies for equipment for operation at a seaport or intermodal yard.
(c) “Regulatory baseline” means the state board’s 2022 Cargo
Handling Equipment Emission Inventory, and any subsequent updates to the inventory.
(c)
(d) “Repower” means to replace an existing engine with a newer engine or power source.
39904.
(a) The state board shall approve as covered equipment applicable cargo handling equipment that will reduce cumulative emissions at seaports and intermodal yards in the state.(b) Eligibility for covered equipment approvals shall be determined by the state board in accordance with this chapter.
(c) A covered equipment application shall be approved by the state board if the applicant demonstrates either of the following:
(1) The total surplus emissions from covered equipment are lower cumulative emissions than the emissions resulting from compliance
with the current applicable cargo handling equipment statute, regulation, or rule, as determined by the state board pursuant to the methodology established by this chapter.
(2) The covered equipment meets the standards and definitions for zero emissions set forth under European Union (EU) Regulation No. 2019/1242.
(d) An application for covered equipment shall not be deemed ineligible for approval solely on the basis that the subsequent purchase or funding for the acquisition of covered equipment may be purchased with the use of any state or federal grant funding, funded or used for credit under any state or federal emissions averaging, banking, or trading program, or used in any other voluntary emission reduction program.
(e) An application for covered equipment shall not be deemed ineligible for approval solely on the basis that the subsequent purchase of covered equipment is entered into pursuant to a corporate or a controlling board’s policy, plan, tenancy agreement, port lease, or any other contract.
(f) Eligible applicants may be any individual, company, or public agency that sells, resells, distributes, or manufactures cargo handling equipment for the purposes of operating at a seaport or intermodal yard in the state.
(g) A covered equipment application shall not be approved for the sale, manufacture, distribution, or retrofit of fully automated cargo handling equipment or infrastructure that is used to support fully automated cargo handling
equipment.
39905.
(a) The state board shall establish and certify the useful lifespan of each item of covered equipment.
(a)
(b) The state board shall certify cargo handling equipment as covered equipment under this chapter if the applicant seller, reseller, distributor, or manufacturer of the cargo
handling equipment demonstrates to the state board that the equipment satisfies all of the following:
(1) Demonstrates cumulative emission reductions of nitrogen oxides greater than the regulatory baseline over the useful life of the cargo handling equipment identified in an application.
(2) Demonstrates cumulative emission reductions of diesel particulate matter greater than the regulatory baseline over the useful life of the cargo handling equipment identified in an application.
(3) Demonstrates cumulative emission reductions of greenhouse gases greater than the regulatory baseline over the useful life of the cargo handling equipment identified in an application.
(4) Demonstrates immediate emission reductions of nitrogen oxides and diesel particulate matter upon initial use in operations that will be at least 10 percent greater than the regulatory baseline at the time of application.
(b)
(c) The applicant shall provide in an application all of the following:
(1) A methodology for evaluating cumulative emission reductions of nitrogen oxides emissions.
(2) A methodology for evaluating cumulative emission reductions of diesel particulate matter.
(3) A methodology for evaluating cumulative emission reductions of greenhouse gases.
(4)A methodology for determining the useful life for a piece of cargo handling equipment.
(5)
(4) A baseline emissions profile for regulated emission reductions of nitrogen oxides, diesel particulate matter, and greenhouse gases based on the application of both the current applicable statutes, regulations, and rules regarding cargo handling equipment regulation.
(c)
(d) An application shall be provided to the state board for approval pursuant to this section before December 31, 2025.
(d)
(e) Applicants shall submit all information required by the state board at the time of submission and upon subsequent request as necessary to process the application.
(e)
(f) The state board shall establish an application fee in a reasonable amount to cover
the administrative costs of processing applications. Application fees collected pursuant to this subdivision shall be deposited in the Air Pollution Control Fund and made available to the state board for those purposes upon appropriation by the Legislature.
39906.
(a) Except for rubber-tired gantry cranes, covered equipment that is purchased before January 1, 2027, shall not be required by any rule or regulation adopted by the state board to be retired, replaced, retrofitted, or repowered until the end of the useful life of the equipment as established by the state board for each piece of equipment certified pursuant to Section 39905.(b) The retirement, replacement, retrofit, or repower of covered equipment rubber-tired gantry cranes that are purchased before January 1, 2027, shall not be required by any rule or regulation adopted by the state board until the end of the useful life of the equipment as established by the state
board for the equipment certified pursuant to Section 39905 or January 1, 2045, whichever date is earlier.
39907.
(a) The state board shall, by January 1, 2027, and January 1, 2031, evaluate the impact of the provisions of this chapter on state and local clean air efforts to meet state and local clean air goals.(b) The state board shall hold at least one public workshop prior to the completion of the evaluations required pursuant to subdivision (a).
39908.
This chapter shall remain in effect only until January 1, 2032, and as of that date is repealed.