California Green Business Program and Green Assistance Program.

Existing law creates the California Environmental Protection Agency, consisting of various boards, offices, and departments, including the State Air Resources Board and the Department of Toxic Substances Control. 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 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 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 California Environmental Protection Agency to identify disadvantaged communities and 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 Green Assistance Program within the California Environmental Protection Agency to, among other things, assist small businesses and small nonprofit organizations in applying for moneys from the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund. This bill would also establish the California Green Business Program within the California Environmental Protection Agency to provide support and assistance to green business certification programs operated by local governments that certify small- and medium-sized businesses that voluntarily adopt environmentally preferable business practices, including, but not limited to, increased energy efficiency, reduced greenhouse gas emissions, water conservation, and waste reduction, as specified. The bill would delete an existing authorization for the Department of Toxic Substances Control to create a similar program. The bill would appropriate an unspecified amount annually to each program from the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund.