California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006: AB 32 Investment Fund.

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 act 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, and to adopt rules and regulations in an open public process to achieve the maximum, technologically feasible, and cost-effective greenhouse gas emission reductions. The act authorizes the state board to include use of market-based compliance mechanisms. The state board has adopted by regulation a program pursuant to the act to cap greenhouse gas emissions and provide for market-based compliance mechanisms, including the auction of allowances (cap-and-trade program) . Existing law requires all moneys, except for fines and penalties, collected by the state board from the auction or sale of allowances as part of a market-based compliance mechanism to be deposited in the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund and to be available upon appropriation by the Legislature. Existing law requires a state agency, prior to expending any money appropriated to it by the Legislature from the fund, to prepare a record consisting of a description of proposed expenditures and of how they will further the regulatory purposes of the California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006, how they will achieve specified greenhouse gas emissions reductions, how the agency considered other objectives of that act, and how the agency will document expenditure results. This bill would appropriate a specified portion of moneys collected by the state board and derived from the auction or sale of allowances in the 2012–13 fiscal year from the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund to the state board. Under the bill, a specified portion of the money appropriated to the state board would be available to fund prescribed projects that meet certain goals relating to greenhouse gas emissions reductions. This bill would require any funds allocated to fund or finance eligible projects, as specified, or awarded, as specified, to be committed by December 31, 2013. This bill would require the state board, the Strategic Growth Council, and the California Pollution Control Financing Authority to adopt regulations, and authorize those entities to adopt emergency regulations, for the purposes of funding eligible projects, as prescribed. The bill would require the California Pollution Control Financing Authority and the Strategic Growth Council to prepare and submit to the Legislature, until January 1, 2017, annual reports on funded projects and activities. The bill would require the state board to publish information on projects on its Internet Web site. This bill would create the Higher Education Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reduction Account within the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund. This bill would provide that any revenue collected by the state board from the sale of an allowance to the University of California or the California State University is required to be deposited into this account. This bill would appropriate the moneys collected in the 2012–13 fiscal year and deposited in this account to the state board and provide that the moneys collected after the 2012–13 fiscal year in the account are available, upon appropriation by the Legislature, for purposes that are determined, based on the best available evidence, to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, as specified, and would prescribe additional criteria for the expenditure of moneys in the account. This bill would require the state board to submit to the Legislature a 5-year investment plan detailing the projects and activities to be funded. This bill would require, no later than December 31, 2013, and each December 31 thereafter, the University of California and the California State University each to submit to the state board and the Legislature a specified report.