Natural Resources Climate Improvement 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. The act authorizes the state board to include the use of market-based compliance mechanisms. 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. Existing law requires the Department of Finance, in consultation with the state board and any other relevant state agency, to develop, as specified, a 3-year investment plan for the moneys deposited in the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund. This bill would establish the Natural Resources Climate Improvement Program, which would be administered by the state board, in coordination with the Natural Resources Agency, to assist in the development and implementation of highly leveraged, regionally integrated natural resources projects that maximize greenhouse gas emissions reductions or sequestration. The bill would authorize moneys from the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund to be available, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to the state board to implement the Natural Resources Climate Improvement Program.