California moves one step closer to landmark biomass policy
California is facing an unprecedented wood waste crisis. Millions of tons of forest and agricultural biomass are piled and burned or left to decay each year, causing significant carbon and air pollution. Yet this challenge also presents an opportunity: by incentivizing a sustainable bioeconomy where these residues are collected and converted into low-carbon products, the state can avoid the above impacts while creating high-road jobs, accelerating technology innovation, and supporting wildfire risk reduction.
Yesterday, AB 1666 (Rogers) passed out of the Senate Natural Resources and Water Committee, moving California one step closer to establishing its first-ever comprehensive statewide biomass policy framework. The bill passed out unanimously (7-0) with support from a broad coalition of environmental organizations, local and regional economic development groups, air pollution control districts, a Tribal government, and biomass technology developers. As the bill moves to Senate Appropriations, we highlight the opportunity to allocate available Proposition 4 funding to support its implementation.
California's wood waste crisis
California policymakers have increasingly recognized the state's escalating wood waste and wildfire crises. In its 2022 Scoping Plan, CARB identified the need to collect and convert forest and agricultural biomass via non-combustion technologies into low-carbon products, including durable wood products such as mass timber, zero-carbon fuels such as biomethane and hydrogen, and carbon dioxide removal (Figure 1). More recently, both the SB 254 Catastrophe Resiliency study and the California Wildfire and Forest Resilience Task Force's Draft Action Plan highlighted the key opportunity for biomass utilization to help pay for forest treatments and reduce wildfire risk. Finally, multiple California Jobs First plans identify the bioeconomy as a priority opportunity for regional economic development.
Figure 1: Non-exhaustive summary of non-combustion technology options consistent with CARB's Scoping Plan. This diagram is illustrative only--for example, it should be noted that municipal solid waste (MSW) is outside the scope of AB 1666. Source: World Resources Institute
While California has identified the strategic importance and need to expand biomass utilization, key implementation barriers remain. AB 1666 seeks to address these through targeted reforms and incentives that remove barriers to project development and support a sustainable bioeconomy consistent with the state's climate, wildfire, and economic development goals.
AB 1666: Biomass Innovation Parks Act
AB 1666 (Rogers) would establish a series of supportive policies and framework to scale a sustainable bioeconomy in California. Specifically, the bill would do all of the following:
Biomass Innovation Parks: Directs the California Natural Resources Agency (CNRA) to solicit proposals to establish one or more Biomass Innovation Parks in the state. These parks would operate as regional hubs that bring together public and private entities to commercialize and scale new biomass technologies. Hubs are focused on developing non-combustion conversion technologies, consistent with the 2022 Scoping Plan. These could include small-diameter sawmills producing mass timber or other wood products, gasification and pyrolysis operations producing zero-carbon fuels such as biomethane and hydrogen, and various potential biomass carbon removal ("BiCRS") strategies, such as carbon sequestration, wood burial, or others.
Biomass Innovation Parks Grants and Financing Program: To facilitate innovation parks, the bill would also establish a funding program to support early-stage park development.
Sustainable feedstock supply: Directs CNRA to address barriers to long-term feedstock supply, which is key requirement for project financing, including by: (i) evaluating regional wood waste availability; (ii) developing new, or supporting existing, public agencies in order to facilitate feedstock supply from federal and non-industrial private lands; and (iii) developing new mechanisms to trace and authenticate forest biomass origins to ensure sustainable supply.
Public procurement of wood products: Directs the Board of Forestry, in coordination with the Department of General Services, to develop a strategy for the public procurement of wood products, such as mass timber, for use in the construction of state buildings.
Building codes and existing grant programs: Directs the Building Standards Commission to adopt new measures to incentivize the use of wood products produced in California; Directs the Strategic Growth Council and Department of Housing and Community Development to incorporate, and give preference to, wood products produced in California in grant programs.
Next steps
Biomass has proven to be a very challenging issue area to make progress on in California. AB 1666 includes targeted reforms and incentives to develop and scale non-combustion technologies consistent with existing state plans and goals across the energy, resource, and climate agencies. It builds on the leadership of the California Wildfire and Forest Resilience Task Force, who convened a working group to develop and refine many of these policies in recent years. The bill is supported by a broad coalition, including environmental NGOs, community groups, and private developers (see below).
AB 1666 now heads to Senate Appropriations, which will be convened after the summer recess in early August. As policymakers plan to negotiate environmental and climate program budget allocations at this time, there is an opportunity to allocate available Proposition 4 funding for non-combustion biomass programs ($40M) to support enactment of AB 1666. This would ensure that CNRA can establish the Biomass Innovation Parks flagship program in earnest as well as support implementation of other key policies in the bill. For more information, please contact Sam Uden (sam@netzerocalifornia.org).
AB 1666: Support coalition
Net-Zero California (sponsor)
3point.xyz
BEAM Circular
California Forward
California Democratic Party Rural Caucus
Charm Industrial
Clean Air Task Force
County of Placer
East Bay Regional Park District
Environmental Defense Fund
Life Cycle Associates
Mariposa County Resource Conservation District
Mote Hydrogen
Northern Sonoma County Air Pollution Control District
Placer County Air Pollution Control District
RNG Coalition
Sierra Business Council
Sierra Institute for Community and Environment
The Nature Conservancy
The Watershed Research and Training Center
World Resources Institute
Yurok Tribe
