Wheels of Misfortune
January 2020 California Compost Coalition Newsletter
The 2020-21 Budget only allocates $15 million, where there was $25 million last year. At least $100 million is needed each year for at least 5 years, thus there is a $500 million ask in the proposed $5 billion Bond Measure, but organic waste diversion is not even mentioned yet. SB 1383 Regulations were adopted by CalRecycle on January 21, 2020, where the local government procurement requirement identifies the RNG option from organic waste recovered. With a full portfolio, up to 75 million diesel gallon equivalents of in-state RNG could be purchased to fuel up to 6,000 vehicles.
CEC is one and done on Cap-and-Trade grants, which was solicited on August 28, 2019 for $12.5 million as part of the Low Carbon Fuel Program Production 2018-2019 budget, where biomethane competed against diesel and gasoline. Zero dollars in 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 for RNG production and use.
CEC gets $100 million each year from DMV fees and funded 27 biomethane projects for $76.8 million and 3,152 CNG vehicles for $86.8 million over the last 10 years (with a $192 million ask). CEC has zeroed out fleet funding in favor of electrification and will no longer carve out biomethane projects as it now favors hydrogen.
CARB got $550 million in 2019-20 and another $400 million proposed in 2020-21 for Low Carbon Transportation from Cap-and-Trade. CARB bundles this money with the Air Quality Improvement Program (AQIP), which is $25-30 million per year for criteria pollutants (NOx, PM2.5) and then skews funding for NOx reductions.
After the HVIP wait list is expended, CARB has near zero plans for more HVIP funding for Near-Zero vehicles even with in-state RNG. The 2020-21 Heavy Duty Work Group is Jan 30 where some heavy-lifting will be needed. CARB is hell-bent on the electrification future where the refuse industry may be served this new lemon law.
Environmental Engineering & Advocacy
