SACRAMENTO, California — Assemblymembers on Monday amended a bill to boost the use of agricultural and forest biomass by incorporating it in California’s long-range climate policies.
What happened: The Assembly Natural Resources Committee approved state Sen. Anna Caballero’s SB 88 on a party-line vote after accepting amendments to delay the requirements and have state regulators assess the life-cycle emissions from using biomass.
The bill would require the California Air Resources Board to include and incentivize the biomass products industry in its next scoping plan, which outlines California’s strategy to achieve its climate goals. The most recent plan was finalized in 2022 and is typically updated every five years.
The amendments would require CARB to publish an assessment of life-cycle emissions from alternative uses of forest and agricultural biomass residues instead of developing a quantification method, and would delay the effective date from 2028 to 2029 so that CARB would have more time to “strategize supporting beneficial carbon removal products.”
