CHAPTER
6. Lower Emissions Transition 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 air toxic 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
emissions reductions in many manners that benefit both local and global emissions goals, including through regulatory enactments and the use of strategic incentives.
(c) The state must maintain its aggressive long-term priority emissions reductions goals for reducing greenhouse gases through the implementation of zero-emissions technologies while also addressing the priority of reducing the public health and air quality impacts of air toxic toxic air contaminants and criteria
pollutants during the intervening years leading up to and during the implementation of zero-emissions 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 air toxic toxic air contaminants and criteria pollutants in the short term until zero-emissions technologies
are implemented.
(e) Impacted California communities benefit from the reduction of air toxic 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-emissions and lower emissions equipment into seaport operations in California.
(g) It is in the best interests of the people of the State of California to ensure that the state board establishes an expedited process to administer a program that will achieve cumulative lower emission reduction outcomes by application of innovative concepts in partnership with industry in a manner that protects public health and the environment.
39901.
It is the intent of the Legislature:(a) To facilitate an innovative program that produces early and extra reductions of local criteria and toxic air contaminant emissions and greenhouse gas emissions.
(b) To create outcomes that maximize near-term local emissions 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) To ensure that the cumulative emissions reductions from those
participating in programs implemented by the state board pursuant to this chapter will result in emissions that are less than the cumulative outcome of acting pursuant to the expected regulatory baseline.
(d) To provide owners of cargo handling equipment at California seaports 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) To provide emissions reductions and public health benefits to impacted California communities during the pendency of transition from conventionally fueled and operated cargo handling equipment at seaports to zero-emissions operations. The latest scoping plan update by the state board has identified this transition period as
anticipated to last through 2037.
(f) That all emission reductions generated by this chapter shall contribute to public health by reducing, for the life of the equipment being approved in a project, the total amount of emissions in the state.
39902.
This chapter shall be known, and may be cited, as the Lower Emissions Transition Program.39903.
As used in this chapter, the following definitions apply:(a) “Cargo handling equipment” or “covered equipment” means any off-road, self-propelled vehicle or equipment used at a port or intermodal rail yard 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. 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.
(b) “Lower emission equipment” means any nondiesel or hybridized diesel equipment that incorporates other technologies that significantly reduce criteria pollutants, toxic air contaminants, or greenhouse gas emissions, utilizes zero-emission technologies, or enables technologies that provide a pathway to zero-emissions operation.
(c) “Repower” means to replace an existing engine with a newer engine or power source.
(d) “Zero-emission equipment” means any equipment that produces no emissions of criteria pollutants, toxic air contaminants, and greenhouse gases when stationary or operating.
39904.
(a) There is hereby created the Lower Emissions Transition Program.(b) The program shall be administered by the state board in accordance with this chapter.
(c) The program shall approve projects that reduce cumulative
emissions from applicable cargo handling equipment sources at seaports in the state during the transition period to zero-emission cargo handling equipment requirements.
(d) Eligibility for project approvals shall be determined by the state board in accordance with this chapter.
39905.
(a) A project shall not be approved pursuant to this chapter after the compliance date required by any applicable statute, regulation, or rule that otherwise requires the change in equipment to a zero-emission standard.(b) The quantity of surplus emissions reductions that demonstrate lower cumulative emissions under a project than from compliance with the applicable zero-emission equipment statute, regulation, or rule shall be evaluated by the state board pursuant to the methodology established by the state board as required by this chapter.
39905.1.
(a) Eligible projects include, but are not limited to, any of the following:(1) Purchase of new lower emission or zero-emission covered equipment in operation at a seaport.
(2) Emission-reducing retrofit of covered equipment, or replacement of old engines powering covered equipment with newer lower emission or zero-emission engines, motors, or drives.
(3) Development and demonstration of lower emission and zero-emission retrofit technologies, repower options, and advanced technologies for covered equipment.
(b) A project shall not be deemed ineligible for approval solely on the basis that lower emission or zero-emission equipment is 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 participates in any other voluntary emission reduction program.
(c) A project shall not be deemed ineligible for approval solely on the basis that the purchase of lower emission or zero-emission equipment is entered into pursuant to a corporate or a controlling board’s policy, plan, tenancy agreement, port lease, or any other contract, so long as the project is approvable pursuant to Section
39905.
(d) Eligible applicants may be any individual, company, or public agency that owns one or more pieces of cargo handling equipment that operate at a seaport in the state and that is not out of compliance with existing state board regulations that cover cargo handling equipment.
39905.2.
(a) The state board shall establish guidelines for determining eligibility for projects under this chapter.(b) The guidelines shall include all of the following:
(1) A methodology for evaluating cumulative emissions reductions of nitrous oxides emissions.
(2) A methodology for evaluating cumulative emissions reductions of diesel particulate matter.
(3) A methodology for evaluating cumulative emissions reductions of greenhouse gasses.
(4) A methodology for determining the useful life for a piece of cargo handling equipment.
(5) A methodology for evaluating the cumulative emission reductions specified in paragraphs (1) to (3), inclusive, for the repower of cargo handling equipment purchased pursuant to an approved project under this chapter.
(6) A baseline emissions profile for regulated emissions reductions of nitrous 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 and the future compliance date for zero-emission cargo handling equipment applicable as established pursuant to subdivision (a) of Section 39905 or, if that date is not yet adopted, the 2037
target date for zero-emission cargo handling equipment established in the scoping plan adopted by the state board pursuant to the California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 (Division 25.5 (commencing with Section 38500)) or that date as amended and updated by the state board pursuant to applicable law.
(c) The establishment of guidelines by this section is not subject to the rulemaking requirements of the Administrative Procedure Act (Chapter 3.5 (commencing with Section 11340) of Part 1 of Division 3 of Title 2 of the Government Code).
39905.3.
(a) Projects shall be approved by the state board if they meet all of the following:(1) Demonstrate cumulative emissions reductions of nitrous oxides greater than the regulatory baseline over the useful life of the cargo handling equipment identified in a project application.
(2) Demonstrate cumulative emissions reductions of diesel particulate matter greater than the regulatory baseline over the useful life of the cargo handling equipment identified in a project application.
(3) Demonstrate cumulative emissions reductions of greenhouse gases
greater than the regulatory baseline over the useful life of the cargo handling equipment identified in a project application. At the discretion of the state board, cumulative emissions reductions of greenhouse gases pursuant to this section may be required to include a
commitment of payment to purchase greenhouse gas offsets of at least 10 percent greater than the regulatory baseline over the useful life of the cargo handling equipment in the time, place, and manner established by the state board. If required by the state board, the full value of this amount shall be paid or bonded as a condition of approval at the discretion of the state board.
(4) An application was provided to the state board for a project approval under this section prior to January 1, 2030.
(b) The state board shall not approve a project that fails to demonstrate emissions reductions of nitrous oxides and diesel particulate matter that are at least 10 percent greater than the regulatory baseline at the time of project
application.
(c) The state board shall maintain discretion to approve the repower of cargo handling equipment purchased pursuant to an approved project under this chapter based on the evaluation methodology specified in paragraph (5) of subdivision (b) of Section 39905.2.
(d) Project 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) The state board shall establish an application fee limited to an amount that will partially offset the administrative costs of processing project 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.
39905.4.
The (a) Except for rubber-tired gantry cranes, the retirement, replacement, retrofit, or repower of cargo handling equipment purchased pursuant to an approved project under this chapter 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 each piece of equipment pursuant to Section 39905.2 or January 1, 2045,
2037, whichever date is earlier.(b) The retirement, replacement, retrofit, or repower of rubber-tired gantry cranes purchased pursuant to an approved project under this chapter 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 pursuant to Section 39905.2 or January 1, 2045, whichever date is earlier.
39905.5.
(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).
39905.6.
This chapter shall remain in effect only until January 1, 2032, and as of that date is repealed.