SB318 - Air pollution: stationary sources: best available control technology.

Amended IN Senate April 24, 2025 Amended IN Senate April 10, 2025 Amended IN Senate March 26, 2025 CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2025–2026 REGULAR SESSION Senate Bill No. 318 Introduced by Senator Becker February 11, 2025 An act to amend Sections 39602.5, 39620, 39666, 40405, 40406, 40440.11, 40920.8, 42301, and 42322 of, and to add Sections 39013.5, 39016.1, 39016.2, 39034.5, 39514.5, 39607.2, 42301.19, and 42301.20 to, and to add Article 7 (commencing with Section 39676) to Chapter 3.5 of Part 2 of Division 26 of, the Health and Safety Code, relating to air pollution. LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST SB 318, as amended, Becker. Air pollution: stationary sources: best available control technology: indirect sources. technology. (1) Existing law generally designates the State Air Resources Board as the state agency with the primary responsibility for the control of vehicular air pollution, and air pollution control districts and air quality management districts with the primary responsibility for the control of air pollution from all sources other than vehicular sources. Existing law authorizes air districts to adopt and implement regulations to reduce or mitigate emissions from indirect sources of air pollution. This bill would authorize the state board to adopt and enforce rules and regulations applicable to indirect sources of emissions, as specified. If the state board elects to exercise that authority, the bill would require the state board to establish a schedule of fees on facilities and mobile sources to cover the reasonable costs of implementing and enforcing the regulations and would require the fees to be deposited in the Air Pollution Control Fund and made available to the state board upon appropriation by the Legislature. The bill would require the state board to establish a statewide reporting program to quantify emissions and annually collect related information from indirect sources of emissions. (2) Existing law requires the state board to identify toxic air contaminants that are emitted into the ambient air of the state and to adopt airborne toxic control measures to reduce emissions of toxic air contaminants. Existing law also requires the state board to designate any substance that is listed as a hazardous air pollutant under federal law as a toxic air contaminant and to establish airborne toxic control measures applicable to the substance in accordance with specified procedures. This bill would authorize the state board to assess and collect reasonable fees on emitters of toxic air contaminants. The bill would require the fees to be deposited in the Air Pollution Control Fund and made available for the regulation of toxic air contaminants upon appropriation by the Legislature. (3) Existing law authorizes air districts to establish a permit system to require, with specified exceptions, that a person obtain a permit before constructing or operating any article, machine, equipment, or contrivance that may cause the issuance of air contaminants. Existing law prohibits an air district from issuing a permit to a Title V source, as defined, if the Administrator of the United States Environmental Protection Agency objects to its issuance, as specified. Existing law requires each district with moderate, serious, or severe air pollution to include certain measures in its plan to attain state ambient air quality standards, including the use of best available control technology for any new or modified stationary source, and the use of best available retrofit control technology for all existing stationary sources, under certain circumstances, as prescribed. Under the federal Clean Air Act, a new or modified major stationary source is required to meet various requirements in order to obtain a permit to operate, including a requirement that the source employs best available control technology on its emission-emitting equipment. This bill would establish definitions for the terms “best available control technology” and “best available retrofit control technology” for purposes of the laws governing air pollution and would set forth various requirements for the determination of best available control technology. The bill would require an air district to submit a proposed permit for a Title V source to the executive officer of the state board. The bill would require the executive officer to review the permit and, if the executive officer determines that the permit does not to comply with the federal Clean Air Act or state law governing air pollution, to object to the issuance of that permit. If the executive officer objects to the issuance of a permit, the bill would prohibit the air district from finalizing that permit without revising it to address the objection to the satisfaction of the executive officer. The bill would also authorize any person to petition the executive officer to object to a proposed Title V permit within 30 days of the executive officer’s receipt of the proposed permit, as specified. The bill would require an applicant for a renewal of a Title V permit to submit a technical feasibility analysis to the air district as part of its application for the renewal of that permit if the facility’s current effective operating permit includes equipment or control apparatus that meets certain criteria. The bill would require an air district to require best available retrofit control technology to be applied at each piece of equipment or source category identified in the technical feasibility analysis and would authorize an air district to impose measures more stringent than those proposed by the applicant, as specified. (4) (2) Existing law requires the state board to implement a program to assist air districts to improve efficiencies in the issuance of permits and requires that program to include a process to precertify simple, commonly used equipment and processes as being in compliance with air quality rules and regulations, to expedite permitting of air pollution sources. Existing law requires the California Environmental Protection Agency to evaluate the feasibility of expanding the precertification program to involve other state and local regulatory agencies with jurisdiction over other environmental media. This bill would revise the precertification program including by requiring the state board to update criteria and guidelines for precertification at least once every 8 years. The bill would authorize the precertification program to include the identification of equipment, controls, fuels, and processes, as specified. As part of the precertification program, the bill would authorize the state board to prescribe rules to establish a voluntary program for the temporary assignment or loan of employees within an agency, or between agencies or jurisdictions, including air districts, on a limited-term basis, to enable the state to obtain expertise needed to meet a compelling program need. The bill would authorize the California Environmental Protection Agency to expand the precertification program to involve other state and local regulatory agencies with jurisdiction over other environmental media. (5) (3) Existing law requires every air district, except as provided, to establish a program to provide for the expedited review of permits. Existing law requires that expedited permit system to include, among other things, a precertification program for equipment that is mass-produced and operated by numerous sources under the same or similar conditions and a training and certification program for private sector personnel, as specified. This bill would eliminate the requirement that the expedited permit system include a precertification program established by the applicable air district. The bill would instead require the expedited permit system to include an expedited permit review pathway for permit applications that propose to use equipment and processes identified through the state board’s precertification program described above, as specified. The bill would also eliminate the requirement that the expedited permit system include a training and certification program and would instead require the publication of online training resources for private sector personnel that explain expedited permitting pathways. (6) (4) Existing law requires the state board to establish and maintain a statewide clearinghouse that identifies the best available control technology and best available retrofit control technology for criteria air pollutants, and related technologies for the control of toxic air contaminants. When updating best available control technology determinations, existing law requires a district to use the information in the statewide clearinghouse. This bill would require the state board to periodically issue determinations to suggest best available control technology, and best available retrofit control technology, for any class or category of sources and to establish best available control technology for the control of toxic air contaminants for any class or category of sources. The bill would authorize members of the public to petition the state board to issue a determination. (7) (5) Existing law authorizes the state board to appoint employees and prescribe their duties. This bill would authorize the state board and any district to temporarily loan and assign staff members to each other, via a memorandum of agreement, for any lawful purpose. (8) (6) Existing law generally makes any violation of a rule or regulation of the state board or an air district relating to nonvehicular air pollution control a misdemeanor. To the extent that the bill would expand the definition of a crime, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (9) (7) By expanding the duties of air districts, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (10) (8) The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for specified reasons. Digest Key Vote: MAJORITY Appropriation: NO Fiscal Committee: YES Local Program: YES Bill Text The people of the State of California do enact as follows: SECTION 1. This act shall be known, and may be cited, as the California Clean Air Permitting Modernization Act. SEC. 2. Section 39013.5 is added to the Health and Safety Code, to read: 39013.5. “Alternative technology” means a process that does not produce air pollutant emissions, or that produces emissions below permitting thresholds, including, but not limited to, zero-emissions technology, at a source being permitted. Upstream emissions associated with the use of electricity from the grid shall not be construed as excluding any technology from this definition. SEC. 3. Section 39016.1 is added to the Health and Safety Code, to read: 39016.1. “Best available control technology” has the same meaning as defined in Section 40405. SEC. 4. Section 39016.2 is added to the Health and Safety Code, to read: 39016.2. “Best available retrofit control technology” has the same meaning as defined in Section 40406. SEC. 5. Section 39034.5 is added to the Health and Safety Code , to read: 39034.5. “Indirect source” has the same meaning as set forth in Section 7410(a)(5)(C) of Title 42 of the United States Code. SEC. 6. SEC. 5. Section 39514.5 is added to the Health and Safety Code, to read: 39514.5. The state board and any district may temporarily loan or assign staff members to each other, via a memorandum of agreement, for any lawful purpose, including to support the development of pollution control plans, the issuance and review of air pollution permits, and the development or implementation of determinations pursuant to Section 40920.8. SEC. 7. Section 39602.5 of the Health and Safety Code is amended to read: 39602.5. (a) The state board shall adopt rules and regulations pursuant to Section 43013 that, in conjunction with other measures adopted by the state board, the districts, and the United States Environmental Protection Agency, will achieve ambient air quality standards required by the federal Clean Air Act (42 U.S.C. Sec. 7401 et seq.) in all areas of the state by the applicable attainment date, and to maintain these standards thereafter. The state board shall adopt these measures if they are necessary, technologically feasible, and cost effective, consistent with Section 43013. (b) If necessary to carry out its duties under this section, the state board shall adopt and enforce rules and regulations that anticipate the development of new technologies or the improvement of existing technologies. The rules and regulations shall require standards that the state board finds and determines can likely be achieved by the compliance date set forth in the rule. (c) If necessary to carry out its duties under this section, the state board may adopt and enforce rules and regulations applicable to indirect sources of emissions to facilitate mobile source emission reduction. This subdivision does not affect the authority of a district to establish rules for, require permits of, or establish fees on indirect sources of emissions. In adopting these rules and regulations, the state board shall do all of the following (1) Consult with affected districts to ensure that any state regulation supports district emission reduction needs. (2) Establish a schedule of fees on facilities and mobile sources limited in amount to cover only the reasonable costs of implementing and enforcing the regulations on those facilities and mobile sources. Fees collected pursuant to this paragraph shall be deposited in the Air Pollution Control Fund and made available to the state board for those purposes upon appropriation by the Legislature. (3) Eliminate or minimize impacts to disadvantaged, low-income, and high-poverty communities. SEC. 8. Section 39607.2 is added to the Health and Safety Code , to read: 39607.2. The state board shall establish a statewide reporting program to quantify emissions and annually collect related information from indirect sources of emissions, including data from on-road and off-road mobile sources that visit those sources, but are not owned or operated by those sources. SEC. 9. SEC. 6. Section 39620 of the Health and Safety Code is amended to read: 39620. (a) The state board shall implement a program to assist districts to improve efficiencies in the issuance of permits pursuant to this division. The program shall be consistent with the requirements of Title V. (b) (1) The program shall include a process, developed in coordination with the districts, for the state board to precertify equipment and processes as being in compliance with applicable air quality rules and regulations, under conditions specified by the state board. The state board shall develop, and update at least once every eight years, criteria and guidelines for pre [Text truncated for display. Full text available on Congress.gov.]