REPORT:

California Air Resources Board Monthly Meeting

SYNOPSIS:

The California Air Resources Board met on September 23, 2010. The following is a summary of this meeting.

RECOMMENDED ACTION:

Receive and File.
 

Ronald O. Loveridge, Member
SCAQMD Governing Board

Background

The Air Resources Board’s (ARB or Board) September meeting was held in Sacramento. Key meeting items are summarized below.

1. Update on the San Joaquin Valley Agricultural Burning Rule
   
   ARB staff presented a brief update report on the San Joaquin Valley Unified Air Pollution Control District’s agricultural burning rule (Rule 4103) including a summary of the proceedings of an August legislative hearing on rule implementation. No action was required of the Board.

2. Adoption of Regional Greenhouse Gas Emission Reduction Targets for Automobiles and Light Trucks Pursuant to Senate Bill 375

   The Board adopted regional greenhouse gas (GHG) targets for the 18 municipal planning organizations (MPO) within California pursuant to requirements of Senate Bill 375 (Steinberg, 2008). SB 375 requires ARB to adopt the targets by September 30, 2010.
   
   The GHG emission targets apply to passenger vehicles and light duty trucks and are required by SB 375 to be incorporated into future regional transportation plans (RTP). The targets are expressed as percent reductions from 2005 per-capita emission levels. The Board adopted the following percent reductions in per-capita emissions as targets for 2020 and 2035 for the State’s four largest MPOs:

   • Bay Area Region 7 percent (2020) and 15 percent (2035)

   • Sacramento Area Region 7 percent (2020) and 16 percent (2035)

   • San Diego Region 7 percent (2020) and 13 percent (2035)

   • Southern California Region 8 percent (2020) and 13* percent (2035)

   *The 2035 Southern California regional target is conditioned on discussions between the Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG) and ARB regarding the 11 recommendations outlined by SCAG, and final approval by the ARB Board in February 2011.
   
   For the eight MPOs in the San Joaquin Valley, the Board adopted placeholder targets of a five percent reduction in per-capita emissions for 2020 and a 10 percent reduction in 2035. ARB staff will provide an informational update in 2012 to the Board to identify progress made by the Valley MPOs to improve data and models, consider new target recommendations from Valley MPOs and, if appropriate, discuss provisional targets for use in the MPO’s 2014 RTPs.
   

3. Adoption of the California Renewable Electricity Standard Regulation
   
   ARB adopted a Renewable Electricity Standard (RES) regulation that will require electric utilities to purchase 33% of electricity sold to customers in 2020 from renewable sources. The RES goal was included in the Global Warming Act of 2006 (AB 32) Scoping Plan adopted by the Board on December 11, 2008. The adopted regulation ramps up renewable targets from 20% starting in 2012 to the ultimate goal of 33% in 2020, and imposes these targets uniformly on private and public utilities alike in California. State and federal wholesale suppliers, such as the California Department of Water Resources, and small utilities selling less than 200,000 MWh of electricity to end-users annually are exempt from compliance with the targets and are required only to report annual sales data.

   Compliance with these targets will be enforced through requirements that utilities annually surrender renewable source electricity purchase certificates verified by the existing Western Renewable Energy Generation Information System. Affected utilities must submit a plan to ARB by July 2012 detailing how the progressive targets will be met.

   The design of this regulation was closely coordinated with the existing regulatory programs of the California Energy Commission and the California Public Utilities Commission, as future enforcement activities will be. This regulation will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 12 to 13 MMTCO₂e per year in 2020 and provide substantial criteria pollutant emission reduction co-benefits. The costs of this regulation to end-users are estimated to be about $0.01 per kWh. In approving the regulation, the Board also authorized changes in the staff proposal under a 15-day notice requirement to clarify issues of enforcement penalties, property rights exclusions, and annual compliance dates.

Attachment (DOC, 50k)

CARB September 23, 2010 Meeting Agenda