Regional greenhouse gas emission reduction program.

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 state board is required to adopt a statewide greenhouse gas emissions limit equivalent to the statewide greenhouse gas emissions level in 1990 to be achieved by 2020, and to adopt rules and regulations in an open public process to achieve the maximum technologically feasible and cost-effective greenhouse gas emission reductions. This bill would require the state board to establish a program to maximize regional greenhouse gas emission reduction and sequestration projects. The state board would be required to create a system by which emission reductions achieved by projects under the program result in the creation of qualified units of exchange that may be transferred to entities subject to an emissions cap adopted pursuant to the act for compliance towards that cap, as determined by the state board. The state board would be required to establish a Regional Emission Reduction Exchange to provide oversight and facilitate the transfer of qualified units of exchange. The bill would create within the Air Pollution Control Fund the Regional Emission Reduction System Account, and would provide that moneys from federal, state, regional, and private sources may be deposited in the Regional Emission Reduction System Account, and moneys within the account may be used for the purposes of the program that would be created by the bill, upon appropriation by the Legislature. The provisions of the bill would be implemented only if the state board adopts a market-based compliance mechanism that includes authorization to use compliance offsets created from greenhouse gas emission reduction or sequestration projects in a sector that is not subject to an emissions cap as part of the market-based compliance mechanism regulation.