Alternative fuel and vehicle technologies: sustainable transportation.

Existing law establishes the Alternative and Renewable Fuel and Vehicle Technology Program, administered by the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission, to provide funding to certain entities to develop and deploy innovative technologies that transform California's fuel and vehicle types to help attain the state's climate change policies. Existing law requires the commission to give preference to those projects that maximize the goals of the program based on specified criteria and to fund specified eligible projects, including, among others, alternative and renewable fuel projects to develop and improve alternative and renewable low-carbon fuels. Existing law creates the Alternative and Renewable Fuel and Vehicle Technology Fund, to be administered by the commission, and requires the moneys in the fund, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to be expended by the commission to implement the program. This bill would revise and recast the program to expand the purpose of the program to include developing and deploying innovative technologies that transform California's fuel and vehicle types to help reduce criteria air pollutants and air toxics. The bill would no longer require the commission to provide certain project preferences. The bill would delete the list of projects that the commission is required to make eligible for funding. The bill would authorize the commission to periodically review incentive programs, as provided. The bill would provide that the goals of the program shall be to advance the state's clean transportation, equity, air quality, and climate emission goals and would require the commission to ensure program investments support specified requirements. The bill would require the commission to expend at least 50% of the moneys appropriated to the program for projects that directly benefit or serve residents of disadvantaged and low-income communities and low-income Californians, and would require at least 50% of funding for tangible location-based investments to be expended in disadvantaged and low-income communities. The bill would delete various other requirements relating to the administration of the program. This bill would require the Strategic Growth Council to coordinate and convene at least 2 meetings each calendar year with specified state agencies and regional entities, if the regional entities choose to participate, to coordinate their implementation of sustainable transportation policies. The bill would require those state agencies and regional entities, on or before December 31, 2023, and each year thereafter, to collaboratively develop a summary of actions undertaken as part of the meetings and would require the summary to be publicly available on the Strategic Growth Council's internet website.