LEGISLATIVE GOALS
OF THE
BIOENERGY PRODUCERS ASSOCIATION
Following are the legislative goals of the BioEnergy Producers Association, which are embodied in AB 222, sponsored by this Association, and co-authored by Fiona Ma and Anthony Adams:
- To achieve a statutory and regulatory environment in the state of California that allows for the efficient permitting of environmentally preferable industries that produce renewable sources of green power and advanced biofuels from agriculture, forestry and urban biomass, and plastic wastes.
- To enable the regulation of conversion technologies on the basis of standards of performance, subject to the State's stringent standards for air and water quality, rather than attempting to define, categorize and regulate these technologies by type
- To remove a scientifically inaccurate definition of gasification from statute, which, in and of itself, essentially prevents the construction of 21st Century thermochemical renewable energy projects in this state.
- To fully protect the State's commitment to a waste disposal policy that mandates 50% recycling, addressing instead the disposal of only those post-recycled organic wastes that are destined for landfills.
- To provide "green collar" jobs at home in California, rather than exporting its waste materials to China and elsewhere in the Far East where virtually no environmental standards for waste re-processing exist. These practices count as diversion for municipalities, as does organic material that is placed in landfills for use as alternative daily cover. However, when used as feedstock for the local production of liquid and electric energy, these same materials count as disposal.
- To expedite the introduction of these technologies, making it possible for California to produce low-cost electricity and liquid energy from organic wastes, while complying with all requirements under the EIR and CEQA processes.
- Through the implementation of conversion technologies, contribute to achieving the carbon reduction goals mandated in AB 32 and the Low Carbon Fuel Standard.
- To provide new incentives for the reduction of landfills and the elimination of such practices as the agricultural land spreading of sewage sludge.
- To enable the State to take advantage of federal incentives for the demonstration and commercialization of new technologies for the production of renewable energy from sustainable non-food derived resources.
- To expedite the introduction of technologies that could provide farmers with additional sources of income (from the productive use of their existing agricultural residues) without having to change their crops.
- To eliminate the need to import ethanol (or corn for the production of ethanol) from the Midwest, at transportation costs of 12-18 cents per gallon, and to produce ethanol in the State profitably and competitively with gasoline, even if federal ethanol subsidies were to be phased out.
- To enable municipalities and waste management organizations to extend dramatically--by up to five times--the effective life of landfills.
