AB706 - Forest Organic Residue, Energy, and Safety Transformation (FOREST) and Wildfire Prevention Fund Act.

Amended IN Senate August 21, 2026 Amended IN Senate August 13, 2026 Amended IN Senate July 02, 2026 Amended IN Senate June 18, 2026 Amended IN Assembly May 23, 2025 Amended IN Assembly April 23, 2025 Amended IN Assembly April 10, 2025 Amended IN Assembly March 28, 2025 CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2025–2026 REGULAR SESSION Assembly Bill No. 706 Introduced by Assembly Member Aguiar-Curry (Coauthor: Assembly Member Pellerin) (Coauthor: Senator Dahle) February 14, 2025 An act to amend Sections 4629.6 and 4629.8 of, and to add Article 12 (commencing with Section 4773) to Chapter 10 of Part 2 of Division 4 of, the Public Resources Code, relating to forestry. LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST AB 706, as amended, Aguiar-Curry. Forest Organic Residue, Energy, and Safety Transformation (FOREST) and Wildfire Prevention Fund Act. Existing law establishes in the Natural Resources Agency the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL-FIRE) and makes CAL-FIRE responsible for, among other things, fire protection and prevention, as provided. Existing law establishes the State Board of Forestry and Fire Protection in CAL-FIRE to represent the state’s interest in the acquisition and management of state forests and requires the board to maintain an adequate forest policy. Former Governor Edmund G. Brown, Jr., issued a proclamation of a state of emergency on October 30, 2015, that required CAL-FIRE, the Natural Resources Agency, the Department of Transportation, and the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission (Energy Commission), among other things, to identify areas of the state that represent high hazard zones for wildfire and falling trees, known as Tier 1 and Tier 2 high hazard zones. Existing law creates the Timber Regulation and Forest Restoration Fund (Timber Fund) in the State Treasury and imposes an assessment on the purchase of a lumber product or an engineered wood product for storage, use, or other consumption in this state, at the rate of 1% of the sales price, for deposit into the Timber Fund. Existing law requires that moneys deposited in the Timber Fund, upon appropriation by the Legislature, only be expended for specified purposes, including, among other things, as a loan to the Department of Fish and Wildlife for activities to address environmental damage occurring on forest lands resulting from marijuana cultivation. Existing law specifies the funding priorities of the Timber Fund. Under existing law, the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) has regulatory authority over public utilities, including electrical corporations. The California Renewables Portfolio Standard Program requires every electrical corporation to file with the PUC a standard tariff for electricity generated by an electric generation facility, as defined, that qualifies for the tariff, is owned and operated by a retail customer of the electrical corporation, and is located within the service territory of, and developed to sell electricity to, the electrical corporation. This bill would, upon appropriation by the Legislature, make moneys from the Timber Fund or from the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund available to the state board to establish and implement the Forest Organic Residue Energy and Safety Transformation (FOREST) program in order to maintain and expand biomass power generation in the state, to revitalize idle facilities for biomass power generation, and to support biomass power generation facilities by creating additional capacity for power generation or feedstock utilization in strategically located regions of the state. The bill would make a facility’s electrical generation eligible for reimbursement at an incentive rate determined by the state board if, among other things, the facility uses forest biomass waste, as defined, to generate electricity and the electricity is sold to specified retail sellers. The bill would require, among other things, that no less than 60% of the feedstock used by a facility originate from Tier 1 and Tier 2 high hazard zones, as defined, and would require the facility to be located in specified counties or meet specified emission limits. The bill would create an application process for an operator of a facility to seek this reimbursement that also requires the operator to demonstrate the facility is certified by the Energy Commission as an eligible renewable energy resource for purposes of the California Renewable Portfolio Standards Program, as provided, and would require the state board to adopt regulations to implement the FOREST program, as provided. This bill would establish the FOREST and Wildfire Prevention Fund (FOREST Fund) in the State Treasury, and would make moneys in the FOREST Fund available, upon appropriation, to the Natural Resources Agency for the FOREST program, as specified. The bill would repeal the authorization to loan moneys in the Timber Fund for addressing marijuana cultivation damage, as described above, and would instead, in the same funding priority, authorize the Timber Fund to be expended to support the FOREST Fund and FOREST program, as specified. The bill would also specify certain procedures regarding the funding priorities of the Timber Fund so that each purpose identified in a higher priority is funded before a lower priority, as specified. This bill would incorporate additional changes to Sections 4629.6 and 4629.8 of the Public Resources Code proposed by AB 2494 to be operative only if this bill and AB 2494 are enacted and this bill is enacted last. Digest Key Vote: MAJORITY Appropriation: NO Fiscal Committee: YES Local Program: NO Bill Text The people of the State of California do enact as follows: SECTION 1. The Legislature finds and declares all of the following: (a) Forest waste has accumulated dramatically across California over the last many years. The State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission estimates California has 47,000,000 bone-dry tons of biomass resource potential. (b) Since Governor Edmund G. Brown, Jr., issued Executive Order No. B-52-18 on May 10, 2018, all partners, including federal, state, tribal entities, and nongovernmental organizations, have worked diligently to attempt to treat 1,000,000 acres annually to ameliorate the wildfire crisis. (c) The Wildfire and Forest Resilience Task Force reports that as of at least 2023, the state has not yet met that goal, indicating that 727,269 acres are treated across the state. (d) Wildfire impacts of the last several years require California to make forest recovery efforts for millions of acres of forest. (e) According to the research of the State Air Resources Board and the United States Forest Service, wildfires release vast amounts of carbon dioxide, methane, and black carbon into the atmosphere that negate the benefits of renewable energy adoption and emissions regulations. (f) The destruction of millions of acres of forest lands depletes natural carbon sinks, reducing the state’s ability to sequester future emissions. (g) Without proactive forest management strategies, including fuel reduction and biomass utilization, wildfires will continue to erode California’s climate gains. (h) The Joint Institute for Wood Products Innovation, an advisory committee to the State Board of Forestry and Fire Protection, reports that meeting the 1,000,000-acre treatment goal will require removal and subsequent disposal of an estimated 5,000,000 to 15,000,000 bone-dry tons of dead forest biomass waste annually from a range of vegetation management projects for forest restoration and identifies a conservative estimate that since 2018, at least 1,000,000 tons of material is stored on the landscape, with a significant amount of that accumulation accessible for removal and disposal. (i) A report published by Bain and Company in collaboration with The Nature Conservancy, entitled “Accelerating Forest Restoration: Stimulating a Forest-Restoration Economy and Rebuilding Resilience in California’s Fire-Adapted Forests” concluded that the expanded use of existing technologies, including bioenergy and sawmills, offers the most promising means of accelerating forest restoration, in addition to forest waste materials that need to be disposed of from wildfire scars to support resiliency. (j) The current Bioenergy Renewable Auction Mechanism (BioRAM) procurement, as stated by the Public Utilities Commission, is currently allocated to all customers given that there are broad social benefits that are realized from supporting wildfire mitigation and the limited energy procurement standards of the program have been or are nearly fully subscribed. (k) Senate Bill 1122 of the 2011–12 Regular Session of the Legislature (Chapter 612 of the Statutes of 2012), mandates the development of 250 megawatts (MW) of small-scale bioenergy projects using organic waste, including at least 50 MW from forest waste removed for wildfire mitigation or restoration. Very few of these required megawatts are currently in operation. Despite this shortfall, the Public Utilities Commission ended the Bioenergy Market Adjusting Tariff (BioMAT) program that was established to meet the requirements of Senate Bill 1122 of the 2011–12 Regular Session of the Legislature (Chapter 612 of the Statutes of 2012) on December 31, 2025, stalling the development of new projects. (l) To meet the 1,000,000-acre-per-year goal would require California to remove 5,000,000 to 15,000,000 bone-dry tons of forest biomass waste annually, enough for the procurement of between 625 MW to 1,875 MW of bioenergy annually. (m) Given that only 135 MW of BioRAM and BioMAT plants are operational, California must procure an additional 1,740 MW of bioenergy to get to the point of 15,000,000 bone-dry tons of forest waste removal annually. (n) Biomass is primarily managed through open pile burning that produces significantly more emissions than biomass energy facilities. Processing biomass in a cogeneration facility reduces particulate matter emissions by as much as 98 percent, nitrous oxide (NOx) emissions by as much as 54 percent, and carbon monoxide (CO) emissions by as much as 97 percent. (o) A study entitled “Up in smoke: California’s greenhouse gas reductions could be wiped out by 2020 wildfires” found that wildfires in 2020 negated 18 years of greenhouse gas emissions reductions. (p) Oversight of biomass plant emissions in California is conducted by local air pollution control districts and the United States Environmental Protection Agency, which reserve issuing authority for plant operating permits known as Title V Operating Permits as part of the 1990 amendments to the federal Clean Air Act (42 U.S.C. Sec. 7661 et seq.), which requires continuous emissions monitoring for ozone, CO, and NOx. (q) Continuously monitoring these critical parameters ensures consistent and efficient combustion in the boilers and safe air quality levels. (r) A recent report by the Clean Air Task Force found that bioenergy creates more jobs than other renewable resources and a higher proportion of those jobs are permanent and high-paying jobs. SEC. 2. Section 4629.6 of the Public Resources Code is amended to read: 4629.6. Moneys deposited in the fund shall, upon appropriation by the Legislature, only be expended for the following purposes: (a) To reimburse the State Board of Equalization for its administrative costs associated with the administration, collection, audit, and issuance of refunds related to the lumber products and engineered wood assessment established pursuant to Section 4629.5. (b) To pay refunds issued pursuant to Part 30 (commencing with Section 55001) of Division 2 of the Revenue and Taxation Code. (c) To support the activities and costs of the department, the Department of Conservation, the Department of Fish and Wildlife, the State Water Resources Control Board, and regional water quality control boards associated with the review of projects or permits necessary to conduct timber operations. On or after July 1, 2013, except for fees applicable for fire prevention or protection within state responsibility area classified lands or timber yield assessments, no currently authorized or required fees shall be charged by the agencies listed in this subdivision for activities or costs associated with the review of a project, inspection and oversight of projects, and permits necessary to conduct timber operations of those departments and boards. (d) For transfer to the department’s Forest Improvement Program for forest resources improvement grants and projects administered by the department pursuant to Chapter 1 (commencing with Section 4790) and Chapter 2 (commencing with Section 4799.06) of Part 2.5. (e) To fund existing restoration grant programs, with priority given to the Fisheries Restoration Grant Program administered by the Department of Fish and Wildlife and grant programs administered by state conservancies. (f) To fund costs directly associated with only the administration, staffing, and creation of the “FOREST Fund” and “FOREST Program” as defined in Section 4773.1, not to exceed the fee revenue allocated for these purposes. (g) To the department for fuel treatment grants and projects pursuant to authorities under the Wildland Fire Protection and Resources Management Act of 1978 (Article 1 (commencing with Section 4461) of Chapter 7). (h) To the department to provide grants to local agencies responsible for fire protection, qualified nonprofits, recognized tribes, local and state governments, and resources conservation districts, undertaken on a state responsibility area (SRA) or on wildlands not in an SRA that pose a threat to the SRA, to reduce the costs of wildland fire suppression, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, promote adaptation of forested landscapes to changing climate, improve forest health, and protect homes and communities. (i) To the Natural Resources Agency to provide a reasonable per diem for attendance at a meeting of the advisory body for the state’s forest practice program by a member of the body who is not an employee of a government agency. SEC. 2.5. Section 4629.6 of the Public Resources Code is amended to read: 4629.6. Moneys deposited in the fund shall, upon appropriation by the Legislature, only be expended for the following purposes: (a) To reimburse the State Board of Equalization for its administrative costs associated with the administration, collection, audit, and issuance of refunds related to the lumber products and engineered wood assessment established pursuant to Section 4629.5. (b) To pay refunds issued pursuant to Part 30 (commencing with Section 55001) of Division 2 of the Revenue and Taxation Code. (c) To support the activities and costs of the department, the Department of Conservation, the Department of Fish and Wildlife, the State Water Resources Control Board, and regional water quality control boards associated with the review of projects or permits necessary to conduct timber operations. On or after July 1, 2013, exce [Text truncated for display. Full text available on Congress.gov.]