The Bioenergy Association of California (BAC) applauds Governor Brown for signing legislation over the weekend that will divert organic waste from landfills and promote a variety of technologies to convert that waste to renewable energy and low carbon fuels. California currently landfills 16 million tons of organic waste – food, yard, wood and other organic material – per year. Together with landfill gas, that waste could be used to generate a billion gallons of transportation fuel per year or enough renewable energy to power more than a million homes. Governor Brown signed three bills over the weekend that will promote the beneficial use of organic materials, rather than wasting those materials in landfills. The bills are:
- AB 1826 (Chesbro), which requires commercial organics recycling – diversion away from landfills for bioenergy, composting or other beneficial uses – beginning in 2016;
- AB 1594 (Williams), which phases out the recycling credit for green waste (yard and other plant waste) that is used as Alternative Daily Cover at landfills; and
- SB 498 (Lara), which clarifies that the definition of biomass conversion includes non-thermal conversion of organic waste to energy.
“Together, these three bills will provide a huge boost to the bioenergy industry in California,” said BAC’s Executive Director, Julia Levin. “They will increase organic feedstock for bioenergy and promote a range of technologies to convert that feedstock to energy. Doing so will reduce greenhouse gas emissions, provide jobs, and cut pollution from fossil fuels.” Organic waste based fuels are the lowest carbon fuels – or transportation of any kind – in existence. According to the California Air Resources Board, transportation fuels made from diverted food and other organic waste are carbon negative because they destroy methane and displace fossil fuel use. If California converted all of its available organic waste to fuels, it could produce more than two billion gallons of low carbon, clean burning fuels – enough to replace nearly two-thirds of all the diesel used by motor vehicles in California. The reductions in greenhouse gas emissions and toxic air contaminants would be huge.
For more information, visit www.bioenergyca.org.