California's Key Environmental Laws

Greenhouse gas emissions, climate change and going green have been on the minds of policymakers and consumers more recently. Setting aside the science debate, the state of California's regulatory environment, when it comes to going green, has been swiftly changing to reflect these attitudes toward the environment.

Unless you're a policymaker, lobbyist, or just follow California's environmental legislation closely, you probably are unaware of some of the more meaningful pieces of legislation that has been passed in the last few years.

These bills, some of them landmark and some of them triggers for other key pieces of legislation or initiatives, have helped pave the way for the state to be a leader in the nation in terms of environmental policy. Some say these same stringent regulations are what future federal legislation or other states' legislation may be modeled after. And ignoring the "leader" title, understanding these laws and how they eventually hold implications at the consumer level, is important as they are quietly changing the building, business, and utility landscapes.

Assembly Bill 32 (2006): Also referred to as the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006, the law charged the California Air Resources Board with the responsibility of enacting various regulations and rules that would help the state reduce its greenhouse gas emissions. The net effect will be a reduction of the state's greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020.

The significance of the law's passage to the state for industry and the trickle-down effect to the consumer cannot be overstated.

When signed by the Governor, the bill set into motion various actions by the California Air Resources Board, including the creation of a massive document outlining how the state will reach its 1990 level goal (this report is referred to as the AB 32 Scoping Plan), the state's own cap-and-trade program, and diesel emissions regulations (for trucks). While the scoping plan is complete, the various other programs are in various stages of implementation or rollout, and it remains to be seen to what extent the state is on track to meet the goals of AB 32.

To find out more about various programs being enacted, studied or in the public review phase under AB 32, go to the California Air Resources Board's web site at www.arb.ca.gov.

Lobbying groups and industry organizations have watched the bill closely as the impact to business is seemingly more direct. Obviously, as with many pieces of legislation, the bill has not been watched as closely at the voter level. However, businesses say the increased costs on them for implementing AB 32, will undoubtedly be shifted to the consumer (in the way of electricity costs or the cost of consumer goods if it costs more to move goods from the ports of entry to distribution centers and stores). Cost, not surprisingly, is a constantly moving target in the discussion and arguments over this law.

Senate Bill 375 (2008): Another reason AB 32 is so significant to the state, is that it set off sister pieces of legislation to further aid the state in meeting its 1990 goals. SB 375 is one of those bills, and at the time of its passage, it was hailed as a landmark piece of legislation.

Why so important? The key in this bill is its linkage of greenhouse gas emissions to local land-use planning. Essentially, SB 375 calls for regional planning agencies to take responsibility of their regions in terms of their emissions. That is, in planning out the development of communities, this bill asks local planners to develop with higher densities in mind (read: taller buildings, less sprawl), where possible. Essentially, it will call for greater urban development, more transit-oriented development (projects planned around transit stations), and building up instead of across.

That is the net goal.

The intricacies of this bill require metropolitan planning organizations to create strategies (called sustainable community strategies) that will outline how they will plan for development in the future, while also meeting their emissions reductions targets.

Suggested greenhouse gas emission reduction targets were made by a committee. Those suggestions will now move on to the California Air Resources Board for consideration and finally adoption. It's another long, drawn-out process, but in the end, could stand to change the makeup of local communities in the future.

The bill was hailed for finally requiring greater communication and joint planning amongst local transportation and planning organizations. Additionally, the bill includes incentives for higher density projects (often referred to as carrots) in the way of transportation funding. However, the law was criticized for not allocating additional funding to cities for implementation and garnered complaints that the carrot-and-stick approach leaves little benefit to rural cities and/or communities that don't have sophisticated transportation networks already in place (e.g. rail or bus rapid transit routes).

Assembly Bill 811 (2008): This is perhaps one of the few energy pieces of legislation directly geared toward homeowners and others at the consumer level. In order to reduce emissions and create greater dependency on renewable sources of energy, it takes money to install solar paneling or build windmills (not to mention time and money to go through the permitting process).

The purpose of AB 811 was to provide a funding mechanism to homeowners interested in making energy efficiency improvements to their homes or businesses. The city of Palm Desert was the first to create such a financing mechanism, but other cities and regional organizations are beginning to follow suit.

However, these funding mechanisms do not necessarily mean free money. Essentially, the law gives cities the authority to create assessment districts. Within these districts homeowners or building owners will have the opportunity to pull lower interest rate loans to install improvements.

Some say AB 811 is a key in the overhaul of "greening" the existing built landscape. As the state moves in the direction of regulating how new buildings and homes are built (with energy efficiency in mind, obviously), there has been greater pushback from many asking what responsibility existing property owners have in helping the state meet its greener goals. And many say that responsibility is falling too heavily on the shoulders of owners and developers of new projects.

It will be an ongoing discussion and issue the state will eventually have to address with greater force. For now, AB 811 is one of the more direct pieces of legislation hitting the issue on the head.

Senate Bill 1078 (2002): It's likely you've never heard of the California Renewables Portfolio Standard - unless you have been following the issue closely. This was signed into law under Gov. Davis in 2002, and it established the Renewables Portfolio Standard.

The law creates a very ambitious renewable energy standard for the state's public utilities companies. It requires utilities to increase the amount of renewable energy in their portfolio beginning with 1 percent and eventually increasing it to 20 percent by 2017.

This obviously set off a firestorm of huge renewable energy projects throughout the state with utilities such as Southern California Edison and San Diego Gas & Electric agreeing to buy the power from those energy projects to place under their "portfolio" to meet the state's new standards under the law.

The irony is that despite the surge in interest to develop solar photovoltaic energy farms or wind farms, the permitting process is lengthy, costly and there are no project guarantees. This is something many close to the process say will undoubtedly need to be worked out through the revamping of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), and that may be rather far off.

Senate Bill 107 (2006): This is a sister bill to SB 1078, the Renewables Portfolio Standard. This new law just set into place an even more ambitious target for the RPS, requiring that the public utilities meet the 20 percent renewable energy goal by 2010 instead of 2017.

To find out where the state is at on meeting this goal, go to www.cpuc.ca.gov. According to a fourth-quarter 2009 report from the California Public Utilities Commission, the utilities are estimated to reach the 20 percent goal between 2013 and 2014.

Aside from difficulty in getting projects approved for development, there has also been discussion about the issues and challenges associated with transmission lines. The lines are the key ingredients to passing on the energy produced from solar panels or wind turbines to the grid and then on to the consumer.

However, in the areas where there are large swaths of land to actually develop huge energy projects, there is usually no transmission line infrastructure to support those energy farms. The answer is simple enough that cities or counties just build more transmission lines, but they are costly and must go through the normal approval process, which usually garners negative public support (because the lines or unsightly or residents may not want that kind of development near them).

Senate Bill 1 (2006): In many ways, Senate Bill 1, which came before AB 811, also bridged the way in terms of providing financial incentives specifically for solar projects. The legislation allowed the California Public Utilities Commission to establish the California Solar Initiative, a $2.17 billion program.

The money allocated to this program is to be spread across a 10-year period, or through 2016. The initiative is broken down into four components: research and development, affordable single-family solar, affordable multifamily solar and a solar water heating pilot program (for San Diego only though).

The legislation helped pave the way for the Governor's Million Solar Roofs Program, which has the goal of creating 3,000 megawatts of solar power through 2016.

Many hail SB 1 and other legislation that has come after it that incentivizes solar and other renewable energy as necessary means to reach the state's overall greenhouse gas emissions reductions goal.

For more information, go to www.gosolarcalifornia.org or the California Public Utilities Commission's web site at www.cpuc.ca.gov.