Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund: forestry and fire prevention.

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 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 continuously appropriates 35% of the annual proceeds of the fund for transit, affordable housing, and sustainable communities programs and 25% of the annual proceeds of the fund for certain components of a specified high-speed rail project. Existing law, beginning with the 2017–18 fiscal year, suspended certain fire prevention fees. This bill, beginning in the 2019–20 fiscal year, would continuously appropriate $74,805,000 from the fund annually to the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection for purposes of fire prevention activities that reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This bill also, beginning in the 2019–20 fiscal year, would continuously appropriate $450,000,000 from the fund annually to the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection for state and local healthy forest and fire prevention programs and projects that improve forest health and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, for vegetation management projects of local entities that will reduce greenhouse gas emissions and maximize certain cobenefits, for the implementation of memorandums of understanding regarding federal lands for vegetation management that will reduce greenhouse gas emissions and maximize certain cobenefits, and for resource management, to be allocated as specified.