California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006: Local Emission Reduction Program.

The California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 requires the State Air Resources Board to adopt regulations to require the reporting and verification of emissions of greenhouse gases and to monitor and enforce compliance with the reporting and verification program, and requires the state board to adopt a statewide greenhouse gas emissions limit equivalent to the statewide greenhouse gas emissions level in 1990 to be achieved by 2020. The act requires the state board to adopt rules and regulations in an open public process to achieve the maximum technologically feasible and cost-effective greenhouse gas emission reductions and authorizes the state board to use market-based compliance mechanisms to achieve these ends. The act authorizes the state board to adopt a schedule of fees to be paid by the sources of greenhouse gas emissions regulated pursuant to the act, and requires the revenues collected pursuant to that fee to be deposited into the Air Pollution Control Fund and be available, upon appropriation by the Legislature, for the purposes of carrying out the act. This bill would create the Local Emission Reduction Program and would permit specified moneys collected pursuant to market-based compliance mechanisms to be available, upon appropriation by the Legislature, for purposes of carrying out the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006. The bill would require the state board, in coordination with the Strategic Growth Council and other state entities, as appropriate, to provide local assistance grants to eligible recipients for the purposes of developing and implementing multibenefit greenhouse gas emission reduction projects in this state. The bill would authorize the Strategic Growth Council to award moneys under the program to a county, or counties, that adopts a local greenhouse gas emission reduction program, as certified by the state board, that achieves specified purposes.