COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE
FOR
COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE
FOR
Senate Bill No. 337
(By Senators McCabe, Hunter, Unger, Foster and Kessler)
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[Originating in the Committee on the Judiciary;
reported February 26, 2007.]
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A BILL to amend the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, by
adding thereto a new section, designated §22-5-19, relating to
the establishment of a program to inventory emissions,
reductions and carbon sequestrations of greenhouse gases;
creating a voluntary registry for the reporting of voluntary
reductions of greenhouse gas emissions if the reductions are
made before they are required by law; clarifying that certain
industries are exempt from reporting; providing public
recognition of voluntary reduction or avoidance of greenhouse
gases; providing definitions; and providing consideration of
the reductions under future federal greenhouse gas emission
reduction programs.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, be amended
by adding thereto a new section, designated §22-5-19, to read as
follows:
ARTICLE 5. AIR POLLUTION CONTROL.
§22-5-19. Net greenhouse gas inventory.
(a) The secretary is authorized to propose legislative rules
for promulgation in accordance with article three, chapter
twenty-nine-a of this code, establishing a net greenhouse gas
inventory to determine whether West Virginia is a net sink or
emitter of greenhouse gas and whether greenhouse gas can be
developed as an asset for economic development by establishing an
inventory using reasonable estimates of current and future
greenhouse gas emissions. The inventory shall include all
significant emissions, reductions, capture and sequestration of
greenhouse gases from stationary, area and mobile sources, such as
power plants, waste combustors, natural gas/oil systems, landfills,
and waste water treatment facilities, highway and nonroad sources,
agricultural sources and shall consider direct (geologic) and
indirect (terrestrial) carbon sequestration. Stationary sources
are not required to but may submit to the secretary estimates of
carbon sequestration activities.
(b) To inventory greenhouse gas emissions, the secretary shall
establish a program for the reporting and, where information
already exists or is reported to the department or other state or
federal agency, the collection of greenhouse gas emissions
information from all sources that emit greater than a
de minimis amount of greenhouse gases on an annual basis.
De minimis shall
mean emissions from an individual facility that are equal to or
less than ten thousand tons per year for carbon dioxide, four
hundred seventy-six tons per year for methane, thirty-two and six
tenths tons per year for nitrous oxide, eight hundred fifty-five
thousandths tons per year for hydrofluorocarbons, one and nine
hundredths tons per year for perfluorocarbons and forty-two
hundredths tons per year for sulfur hexafluoride. Stationary
sources shall only be required to report the annual quantities of
nonmobile source, anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases, and
shall not be required to report naturally occurring emissions of
greenhouse gases. Only those stationary sources who are otherwise
required to report emissions of regulated air pollutants under
rules promulgated by the secretary pursuant to section four of this
article, shall be required to report their greenhouse gas emissions
under this section.
Stationary sources which are not required to
report air emissions under this section and are regulated by the
secretary under the provisions of article three, chapter twenty-two
of this code are not required to, but may voluntarily, report such
emissions. The reporting entities will be permitted to provide
existing and ongoing documented inventories, such as those provided
to the Environmental Protection Agency's Climate Leaders Program,
Chicago Climate Exchange Registry, the International Organization
for Standardization, the SF6 Emissions Reduction Partnership for
Electric Power Systems or other widely recognized and verified
greenhouse gas inventory programs to completely fulfill their West Virginia program reporting requirements.
(c) The secretary shall establish a voluntary program under
which the department registers voluntary reductions in emissions of
greenhouse gases for reductions made before mandated by law. The
voluntary program shall include, but not be limited to, developing
criteria for establishing baseline emissions, quantifying emission
reductions and providing public recognition. The department shall
consider the information recorded in the voluntary emission
reduction registry when determining baselines and reduction
requirements under future emission reduction programs implemented
under federal law.
(d) To inventory greenhouse gas reductions, the secretary
shall consult and coordinate with other state agencies and higher
education institutions, the citizenry and other entities such as
industry trade groups that have knowledge or information relating
to greenhouse gas emissions, measurement protocols, greenhouse gas
reductions and sequestration including, but not limited to, the
Department of Agriculture, the Division of Forestry, Marshall
University, West Virginia University and the Department of
Transportation. These governmental entities shall enter into
interagency agreements with the secretary and shall cooperate by:
(i) Providing information relating to greenhouse gas emissions,
reductions and sequestration; and (ii) providing any necessary
assistance to the secretary in effectuating the purposes of this
article. The secretary shall determine the form and format of the
information submitted by these entities.
(e) In establishing the net greenhouse gas inventory program,
the department shall make the program as consistent as possible
with other state and federal programs designed to monitor, quantify
and register reductions in emissions of greenhouse gases as
referenced in subsection (b) of this section.
(f) As used in this section, "greenhouse gas" means carbon
dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, hydroflurocarbons,
perfluorocarbons and sulfur hexafluoride.
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(NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to create a net greenhouse
gas inventory. The legislation, to be administered by the
Department of Environmental Protection, requires the department to
determine whether the state is a net sink or emitter of greenhouse
gases. Facilities emitting a significant amount of greenhouse
gases must provide such emissions information to the department and
the department is authorized to establish a voluntary registry for
voluntary reductions of greenhouse gas emissions. The program will
enable the department to analyze the extent to which gross carbon
emissions are offset by the rate of carbon sequestration by the
state's forests. The Department of Environmental Protection is to
propose legislative rules to establish the program.
This section is new; therefore, strike-throughs and
underscoring have been omitted.)
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