Bill Text: CA AB248 | 2013-2014 | Regular Session | Introduced

NOTE: There are more recent revisions of this legislation. Read Latest Draft

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Bill Title: Energy: powerplants: Ventura County.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 1-0)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2014-02-03 - From committee: Filed with the Chief Clerk pursuant to Joint Rule 56. [AB248 Detail]

Download: California-2013-AB248-Introduced.html

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BILL NUMBER: AB 248	INTRODUCED
	BILL TEXT


INTRODUCED BY   Assembly Member Gorell

                        FEBRUARY 6, 2013

   An act relating to energy.


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   AB 248, as introduced, Gorell. Energy: powerplants: Ventura
County.
   Under existing law, the State Water Resources Control Board and
the 9 California regional water quality control boards regulate water
quality in accordance with the Porter-Cologne Water Quality Control
Act (act) and the federal Clean Water Act. Under the act, the state
board is required to adopt specified state policies with respect to
water quality as it relates to the coastal marine environment,
including a policy requiring new or expanded coastal powerplants and
other industrial installations using seawater for cooling, heating,
or industrial processing to use the best available site, design,
technology, and mitigation measures feasible to minimize the intake
and mortality of all forms of marine life.
   This bill would state the intent of the Legislature to enact
subsequent legislation that would require the Public Utilities
Commission and the Independent System Operator, in consultation with
specified entities, to submit to the Legislature, before January 1,
2015, a report on policies, recommended legislative actions, and
incentives necessary to accomplish specified objectives related to
once-through cooling powerplants in Ventura County while preserving
and enhancing electric system reliability in the Counties of Santa
Barbara and Ventura.
   Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: no.
State-mandated local program: no.


THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

  SECTION 1.  (a) The Legislature finds and declares all of the
following:
   (1) Ventura County possesses unique environmental resources
including miles of coast lines, working agricultural lands, valleys,
coastal mountains and the distant Channel Islands. These resources
create six distinct microclimates and provide unique habitat, flora,
fauna, and marine resources for the various species that share the
county. Additionally, they provide a wide variety of recreational
opportunities and the base for a superior quality of life in the
communities beyond Ventura County.
   (2) California should promote public policies that create jobs and
foster economic growth while maintaining quality of life. Ventura
County needs policies that preserve its global competitiveness and
allows business to grow, invest, and create jobs. These policies
should encourage innovation while promoting economic prosperity.
Ventura County has a unique blend of industries to protect and
promote. The employment base is secured by agriculture, tourism,
international trade, and manufacturing industries, with growth
occurring in the high-tech, medical, science, and service sectors.
All of these industries need affordable, reliable electricity to
prosper.
   (3) In 2010, the State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB)
adopted its Statewide Water Quality Control Policy on the Use of
Coastal and Estuaries Waters for Power Plant Cooling, commonly
referred to as the "Once-Through Cooling Policy." Two generation
facilities in Ventura County are subject to the Once-Through Cooling
Policy.
   (4) To comply with the Once-Through Cooling Policy, an owner or
operator of an existing powerplant must reduce intake flowrate at
each unit, at a minimum, to a level commensurate with that which can
be attained by a closed-cycle wet cooling system, by
facility-specific deadlines prescribed in the policy. Alternatively,
if an owner or operator demonstrates that compliance with this
standard is not feasible, that owner or operator must reduce
impingement mortality and entrainment of marine life for the facility
to a comparable level to that which would be achieved under the
first standard, using operational or structural controls, or both.
   (5) Pursuant to the Once-Through Cooling Policy, the SWRCB
impaneled a Statewide Advisory Committee on Cooling Water Intake
Structures (SACCWIS), including representatives from the Public
Utilities Commission, the State Energy Resources Conservation and
Development Commission, the Independent System Operator, the
California Coastal Commission, the State Lands Commission, the State
Air Resources Board, and SWRCB staff, to advise the SWRCB on the
implementation of the policy to ensure that the implementation
schedule takes into account local area and grid reliability.
   (6) Electricity reliability is critical to California's economy,
security, and stability of modern life. It is the top priority for
California's electrical energy policy to preserve electric
reliability and maintain regional system integrity. Ventura County
and Santa Barbara County rely on transmission imports across a narrow
corridor that is at risk of outages caused by natural disasters,
including earthquakes and fires. During these events, electric
reliability in this area depends on service from existing flexible
generation units that are subject to the Once-Through Cooling Policy.
Generation and transmission operation in California must be
monitored and controlled in real time to ensure a consistent and
ample flow of electricity. It is designed with system redundancies to
prevent outages during emergencies, such as fires, grid failure, or
maintenance.
   (b) It is intent of the Legislature to enact subsequent
legislation that would require the Public Utilities Commission and
the Independent System Operator, in consultation with the SWRCB, the
State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission, the
California Coastal Commission, the State Lands Commission, the State
Air Resources Board, and other relevant local and federal
authorities, to submit a report, before January 1, 2014, to the
Legislature on a study and evaluation of what policies, legislative
actions, and other federal, state, and local incentives are necessary
to accomplish, while preserving and enhancing electric system
reliability in the Counties of Santa Barbara and Ventura, all of the
following objectives:
   (1) To ensure the preservation of Ventura County's environmental
resources, tourism, and economic development by decommissioning the
existing once-through cooling powerplants or by facilitating the
replacement of existing once-through cooling powerplants in Ventura
County with more modern powerplant while reducing visual impacts and
ensuring that sufficient reserve capacity is available in the local
capacity reliability area.
   (2) To review the potential of acquisition of the properties on
which the once-through cooling powerplants are located by the City of
Oxnard, the County of Ventura, the state, or other responsible
entities for the preservation as a natural resources in the
California coastal zone.
   (3) To uphold contractual obligations and economic interests of
the current owners and operators of the once-through cooling
powerplants in the Big Creek/Ventura local capacity reliability area.

   (4) To modify the cooling technologies at the once-through cooling
powerplants in Ventura County to mitigate impacts on marine
environment, consistent with the Once-Through Cooling Policy and
other existing policies.
   (5) To identify potential sites in Ventura County appropriate for
once-through cooling powerplants that would not impose greater
environmental, agricultural, or economic impacts, or greater costs to
the electricity ratepayer, as compared to the redevelopment or
replacement of the existing powerplants.