The San Joaquin Valley APCD has released draft regulations and a revised staff report for Rule 4566 (for greenwaste composting). CAW is reviewing these documents and preparing a response. [Read the regulations]

On March 6, the LA County Sanitation District submitted a letter and presentation to the ARB and CIWMB board members that argued that greenwaste used as landfill cover reduced greenhouse gases compared to composting. This outlandish claim was based on a clearly biased life-cycle assessment and we have submitted a joint response with Sierra Club California and NRDC. [Read our response]

The ARB released draft regulations as part of its Landfill Gas Early Action Measure, and, at first glance, these requirements appear to signal a strong statewide shift towards landfill gas collection practices that are protective of public health, safety, and the environment. Since the passage of AB 32, CAW had strongly advocated for rigorous landfills gas regulations and, last year, the Air Resources Board identified landfills as an industry that would be well suited for early regulatory action. These draft regulations are the result of a diligent effort by the ARB staff to identify opportunities to minimize methane emissions from landfills.

As far as CAW is aware, these are the first actual control measures to be drafted by the Air Resources Board as part of AB 32 implementation, and this underscores the importance of achieving maximal emission reductions through these regulations.

The ARB will be holding a workshop on these measures on Monday, the 24th.

• Read the draft regulations here.

The Economic and Technology Advancement Advisory Committee held its final meeting on Monday and adopted progressive recommendations for achieving AB 32 goals through increased recycling and composting.

While the final report has not been released, we expect the recycling and composting sections to be substantively the same as those in the latest draft.

Areas to note:

• Pages 103 to 108 (of the PDF) list the recycling and composting recommendations.
• The introduction/summary lists 5 key opportunities for GHG reductions. Opportunity #4 has to do with emission reductions through forestry and ag, and includes a recommendation on compost use. (Page 20 of the PDF)

The final report will be released within the next few days (we will post it when it will be available), and the ARB Board will adopt it on the 28th. It will then be given to ARB staff for consideration in the AB 32 Scoping Plan.

Today is the deadline for submitting comments to the ETAAC committee, and CAW has submitted a letter supporting recommendations J through N of the Industrial Sector (on page 89 of the report).

• Read our letter to the committee.
• See our previous blog entry for a description of these recommendations.
• Submit additional letters supporting these recommendations. (Letters should be sent to Steve Church at the ARB)
• Attend ETAAC's upcoming meetings on January 25th and February 11th.