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AB-2612 Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund: recycling: appropriation.(2019-2020)

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Date Published: 02/20/2020 09:00 PM
AB2612:v99#DOCUMENT


CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2019–2020 REGULAR SESSION

Assembly Bill
No. 2612

Introduced by Assembly Member Maienschein

February 20, 2020

An act to amend Section 39719 of the Health and Safety Code, relating to greenhouse gases, and making an appropriation therefor.


LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


AB 2612, as introduced, Maienschein. Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund: recycling: appropriation.
The California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 designates the State Air Resources Board as the state agency charged with monitoring and regulating sources of emissions of greenhouse gases. The act authorizes the state board to include use of market-based compliance mechanisms. Existing law requires all moneys, except for fines and penalties, collected by the state board as part of a market-based compliance mechanism to be deposited in the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund and to be available upon appropriation. Existing law continuously appropriates 35% of the annual proceeds of the fund for transit, affordable housing, and sustainable communities programs, 25% of the annual proceeds of the fund for certain components of a specified high-speed rail project, and 5% of the annual proceeds of the fund, up to the sum of $130,000,000 annually, until June 20, 2030, for transfer to the Safe and Affordable Drinking Water Fund.
This bill, beginning in the 2020–21 fiscal year, would continuously appropriate $100,000,000 from the fund annually to the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery for in-state organic waste recycling projects that reduce greenhouse gas emissions and achieve certain organic waste disposal goals, as specified. The bill, beginning in the 2020–21 fiscal year, would also continuously appropriate $100,000,000 from the fund annually to the department for in-state recycling projects that reduce greenhouse gas emissions and help achieve a specified state policy relating to solid waste, as specified.
Vote: 2/3   Appropriation: YES   Fiscal Committee: YES   Local Program: NO  

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:


SECTION 1.

 (a) The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:
(1) It is the policy goal of the state that not less than 75 percent of solid waste generated be source reduced, recycled, or composted by the year 2020. However, the state’s recycling rate has dropped from 50 percent in 2007 to 44 percent in 2017.
(2) Exacerbating this challenge, beginning in 2018, the China National Sword policy further restricted the export and sale of recycled commodities, setting much stricter standards on contamination and banning the sale of bales of mixed commodities, like mixed-paper and mixed-plastics commodities, resulting in a 2018 statewide recycling rate of 40 percent, a rate California has been far above since the year 2000.
(3) The state is facing a recycling crisis, with high rates of contamination of collected recycled materials. To regain any value from the millions of tons of collected materials, recycling facilities must expand and upgrade their operations, resulting in higher processing costs to recover a lower volume of clean material that ultimately has a lower resale value, despite meeting a higher standard. At the same time, recycling facilities spend more moneys to receive lower revenue for recyclable commodities, and more material is being landfilled instead of recycled. This is directly related to the closure of nearly 1,000 recycling centers in the state since 2013, with more closures expected.
(4) Organic waste is the state’s largest source of methane and black carbon emissions, which are two of the most damaging climate pollutants and also harm respiratory and cardiovascular health.
(5) Recycling organic waste is a priority for the state, which led the state to establish aggressive targets to reduce organic waste disposal in landfills and methane emissions produced from organic waste. However, California lacks sufficient infrastructure to meet those targets. The Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery (CalRecycle) estimates that the total cost to implement the statewide organic waste regulations established pursuant to Chapter 395 of the Statutes of 2016 is approximately $40 billion.
(6) These recent developments clearly demonstrate an immense gap between private sector investment and our significant need for in-state infrastructure to collect, transfer, process, clean, and sell both recyclable commodities and materials that are now considered organic waste. Tens of billions of dollars are needed to place our state on a trajectory to meet our aggressive, but critically needed, climate, environmental, quality of life, and health and safety goals.
(7) Many new proven technologies can address these major challenges, and the Legislative Analyst’s Office has consistently reported, most recently in 2016, that funding for recycling and organic waste management is the most cost-effective method for reducing greenhouse gas emissions—as low as $4 per ton of greenhouse gas emissions reduced—while having the co-benefits of reducing other air pollutants and short lived climate pollutants, creating green jobs, and causing other improvements.
(8) Developing local infrastructure and domestic markets for recycled materials benefits the environment and the state’s economy and is critical due to the loss of access to foreign markets. Successfully achieving California’s ambitious recycling and climate change goals requires partnerships and commitments from the state, local governments, the waste and recycling industry, and recycling and organic waste project developers. This bill provides critically needed seed funding to offset economic forces that create strong headwinds against such partnerships and commitments.
(b) It is the intent of the Legislature that this bill do all of the following:
(1) Improve California’s statewide recycling infrastructure to achieve the state’s greenhouse gas emission and solid and organic waste reduction goals established by Chapter 395 of the Statutes of 2016, Chapter 727 of the Statutes of 2014, and Chapter 476 of the Statutes of 2011.
(2) Improve existing, and create new, solid and organic waste recycling infrastructure to enable the state to better and more effectively manage, reuse, and recycle its waste stream in state and to create additional jobs in the solid waste, recycling, and manufacturing sectors.
(3) Assist local governments in implementing their solid and organic waste programs to achieve the state’s greenhouse gas emission and solid and organic waste reduction goals.

SEC. 2.

 Section 39719 of the Health and Safety Code is amended to read:

39719.
 (a) The Legislature shall appropriate the annual proceeds of the fund for the purpose of reducing greenhouse gas emissions in this state in accordance with the requirements of Section 39712.
(b) To carry out a portion of the requirements of subdivision (a), the annual proceeds of the fund are continuously appropriated for the following:
(1) Beginning in the 2015–16 fiscal year, and notwithstanding Section 13340 of the Government Code, 35 percent of the annual proceeds of the fund are continuously appropriated, without regard to fiscal years, for transit, affordable housing, and sustainable communities programs as follows:
(A) Ten percent of the annual proceeds of the fund is hereby continuously appropriated to the Transportation Agency for the Transit and Intercity Rail Capital Program created by Part 2 (commencing with Section 75220) of Division 44 of the Public Resources Code.
(B) Five percent of the annual proceeds of the fund is hereby continuously appropriated to the Low Carbon Transit Operations Program created by Part 3 (commencing with Section 75230) of Division 44 of the Public Resources Code. Moneys shall be allocated by the Controller, according to requirements of the program, and pursuant to the distribution formula in subdivision (b) or (c) of Section 99312 of, and Sections 99313 and 99314 of, the Public Utilities Code.
(C) Twenty percent of the annual proceeds of the fund is hereby continuously appropriated to the Strategic Growth Council for the Affordable Housing and Sustainable Communities Program created by Part 1 (commencing with Section 75200) of Division 44 of the Public Resources Code. Of the amount appropriated in this subparagraph, no less than 10 percent of the annual proceeds of the fund shall be expended for affordable housing, consistent with the provisions of that program.
(2) Beginning in the 2015–16 fiscal year, notwithstanding Section 13340 of the Government Code, 25 percent of the annual proceeds of the fund is hereby continuously appropriated to the High-Speed Rail Authority for the following components of the initial operating segment and Phase I Blended System as described in the 2012 business plan adopted pursuant to Section 185033 of the Public Utilities Code:
(A) Acquisition and construction costs of the project.
(B) Environmental review and design costs of the project.
(C) Other capital costs of the project.
(D) Repayment of any loans made to the authority to fund the project.
(3) (A) Beginning in the 2020–21 fiscal year, and until June 30, 2030, 5 percent of the annual proceeds of the fund, up to the sum of one hundred thirty million dollars ($130,000,000), is hereby annually transferred to the Safe and Affordable Drinking Water Fund established pursuant to Section 116766 for the purposes of Chapter 4.6 (commencing with Section 116765) of Part 12 of Division 104.
(B) Moneys transferred under this paragraph shall be used for the purpose of facilitating the achievement of reductions of greenhouse gas emissions in this state in accordance with the requirements of Section 39712 or to improve climate change adaptation and resiliency of disadvantaged communities or low-income households or communities, consistent with Division 25.5 (commencing with Section 38500). For purposes of the moneys transferred under this paragraph, a state agency may also comply with the requirements of paragraphs (2) and (3) of subdivision (a) of Section 16428.9 of the Government Code by describing how each proposed expenditure will improve climate change adaptation and resiliency of disadvantaged communities or low-income households or communities.
(4) (A) Beginning in the 2020–21 fiscal year, notwithstanding Section 13340 of the Government Code, one hundred million dollars ($100,000,000) is hereby continuously appropriated from the fund, without regard to fiscal years, to the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery for in-state organic waste recycling projects that reduce greenhouse gas emissions and achieve the organic waste disposal goals established in Section 39730.6.
(B) Fifty percent of the funds appropriated pursuant to this paragraph shall be used to provide financial assistance for in-state organic waste processing and recycling activities, which may include, but are not limited to, the construction of new, or the modification or expansion of existing, facilities and to support the in-state processing, reuse, and recycling of organic waste, including, through the production or application of compost, the production of soil amendments, in-vessel digestion, food waste prevention, and edible food recovery.
(C) Fifty percent of the funds appropriated pursuant to this paragraph shall be allocated by the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery to local agencies as grants for activities directly related to organic waste management and implementation of Chapter 13.1 (commencing with Section 42652) of Part 3 of Division 30 of the Public Resources Code.
(5) (A) Beginning in the 2020–21 fiscal year, notwithstanding Section 13340 of the Government Code, one hundred million dollars ($100,000,000) is hereby continuously appropriated from the fund, without regard to fiscal years, to the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery for in-state recycling projects that reduce greenhouse gas emissions and help achieve the state’s policy goal that not less than 75 percent of solid waste generated be source reduced, recycled, or composted by the year 2020, and annually thereafter, pursuant to Section 41780.01 of the Public Resources Code.
(B) Projects eligible for financial assistance pursuant to this paragraph include, but are not limited to, recycling market development projects, development of recycling infrastructure to improve the recovery and quality of recyclable products, construction of new, or the modification or expansion of existing, facilities that process recycled feedstock that is intended to be reused in the production of another product or that use recycled feedstock to produce another product, and the procurement and installation of equipment or development and implementation of new processes to improve the quality of material collected in curbside or neighborhood recycling programs.
(C) Of the funds appropriated pursuant to this paragraph, ten million dollars ($10,000,000) shall be made available as grants to cities and counties for beverage container recycling and litter cleanup activities.
(c) In determining the amount of annual proceeds of the fund for purposes of the calculation in subdivision (b), the funds subject to Section 39719.1 shall not be included.
(d) For purposes of this section, both of the following definitions apply:
(1) “Financial assistance” includes, but is not limited to, grants, incentive payments, low-interest loans, loan loss reserves, interest rate reductions, loan guarantees, or other credit enhancements.
(2) “Local agency” means a city, county, city and county, district, or other local governmental agency that provides solid waste handling services.