Existing law requires the State Air Resources Board, in consultation with the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, to develop a standardized system for quantifying the direct carbon emissions and decay from fuel reduction activities for purposes of meeting the accounting requirements for Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund expenditures, as specified.
This bill would require the state board, on or before January 1, 2027, to finalize the standardized system described above. The bill would require the state board, on or before January 1, 2028, to adopt a method of quantification of the life-cycle emissions benefits from alternative uses of forest and agricultural biomass residues. The bill would require the state board, on or before January 1, 2028, to assess the suitability of developing a carbon credit or offset protocol for beneficial carbon removal products, including, but not limited to, biochar that are generated from agricultural or forest waste biomass, for inclusion in the state board's compliance offset program. The bill would require the state board, on or before January 1, 2029, to adopt a carbon credit or offset protocol for biochar or other carbon removal products and include that credit or protocol in the compliance offset program if the assessment determines that a carbon credit or offset protocol for production and use of biochar or other carbon removal products is appropriate.
The bill would require the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection to require all state-funded forest health projects to include an appropriate forest biomass resource disposal component that includes a scientifically based, verifiable method to determine the amount of biomass to be physically removed and the amount to be burned by prescribed fire. The bill would require the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission to include the value proposition of using biomass for low- and negative-carbon liquid and gaseous fuels, including hydrogen, from noncombustion conversion technology methods and other emerging and innovative approaches in relevant reports and other agency-sponsored documentation.