California Clean Truck, Bus, and Off-Road Vehicle and Equipment Technology 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 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 by the Legislature. The California Clean Truck, Bus, and Off-Road Vehicle and Equipment Technology Program, upon appropriation from the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, funds zero- and near-zero-emission truck, bus, and off-road vehicle and equipment technologies and related projects, including, among others, projects for zero- and near-zero-emission bus technology development, demonstration, precommercial pilots, and early commercial deployments. Existing law requires the state board, in consultation with the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission, to create an annual framework and plan for the program. Existing law, for the purposes of the program, defines zero- and near-zero-emission to mean vehicles, fuels, and related technologies that reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve air quality when compared with conventional or fully commercialized alternatives, as defined by the state board in consultation with the commission. This bill would add large-scale deployments of transit buses to the program's list of eligible projects, delete the reference to the annual framework and plan for the program and instead just refer to a framework and plan, and revise the definition of zero- and near-zero-emission to include infrastructure that reduces greenhouse gas emissions and improves air quality when compared with conventional or fully commercialized alternatives.