(a) Not later than September 15, 2017, the commission shall report to the respective budget committees of each house of the Legislature on the resources needed to develop a plan for tracking natural gas, and a recommendation for developing the plan, considering cost-effectiveness and efficacy. This report shall include the resources needed to do all of the following:
(1) Collect data from natural gas participants to support the work described in subdivision (c). The commission shall consult with the State Air Resources Board to determine the most appropriate data to collect.
(2) Consider participation in, or formation of, interstate and federal working groups, compacts, or agreements.
(3) Establish methods to ensure natural gas tracking data reporting compliance by buyers of natural gas, and natural gas producers, marketers, storers, and transporters.
(4) Provide data collected pursuant to paragraph (1) to the State Air Resources Board to support the implementation of Section 39731 of the Health and Safety Code.
(b) In the consideration of the report pursuant to subdivision (a), the commission consult with, and receive information from, stakeholders, including, but not limited to, the Public Utilities Commission, the United States Environmental Protection Agency, the United States Department of Energy, the State Air Resources Board, the division, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the United States Department of Transportation Office of Pipeline Safety, appropriate agencies in states where gas consumed in California is produced, gathered and boosted, processed, transmitted, stored, or distributed, representatives of the oil and gas industry, and independent experts from academia and nongovernmental organizations.
(c) The State Air Resources Board, in consultation with the commission, shall develop a model of fugitive and vented emissions of methane from natural gas infrastructure. The model shall do all of the following:
(1) Quantify emissions from specific natural gas infrastructure.
(2) Incorporate the current condition and current management practices of specific natural gas infrastructure.
(3) Incorporate natural gas industry best management practices established by the Public Utilities Commission pursuant to Section 975 of the Public Utilities Code for gas corporations, by the United States Environmental Protection Agency, by the division, and by other relevant entities.
(Added by Stats. 2016, Ch. 340, Sec. 38. (SB 839) Effective September 13, 2016.)