HB 6551 — AN ACT CONCERNING ENVIRONMENTAL AIR QUALITY.

(7) UL 3223;

or (8) a program that is equivalent to those listed in subdivisions (1) to (7), inclusive, of this subsection and that is approved by the Commissioner of Economic and Community Development.

Section 1 from passage Section 1 New section Sec.

2 October 1, 20212023 22a-20a StatementSec. of Purpose:

To3 establishOctober a1, working2021 group22a-200b(a) thatSec. will identify disadvantaged communities for purposes of greenhouse gas reduction implications and to amend the environmental justice statute to enable disapproval of facility and permit applications when certain determinations concerning adverse environmental or public health effects are made.

LCO4 No.July 1, 2021 New section ENV Joint Favorable Subst.

3668sHB6551 4/ ofFile 5 Raised Bill No.

6551529 [Proposed6 deletionssHB6551 areFile enclosedNo. in brackets.

Proposed529 additionsThe following Fiscal Impact Statement and Bill Analysis are indicatedprepared byfor underline,the exceptbenefit thatof whenthe members of the entireGeneral textAssembly, solely for purposes of ainformation, billsummarization orand resolutionexplanation orand ado sectionnot ofrepresent athe billintent orof resolutionthe isGeneral new,Assembly itor iseither notchamber underlined.]thereof LCOfor No.any purpose.

3668In 5general, fiscal impacts are based upon a variety of 5informational sources, including the analyst’s professional knowledge.

Whenever applicable, agency data is consulted as part of the analysis, however final products do not necessarily reflect an assessment from any specific department.

OFA Fiscal Note State Impact:

Agency Affected Fund-Effect FY 22 $ FY 23 $ Department of Energy and GF - Cost 228,118 236,413 Environmental Protection State Comptroller - Fringe GF - Cost 91,932 95,274 Benefits1 Department of Energy and GF - Potential 200,000 200,000 Environmental Protection Cost Note:

GF=General Fund Municipal Impact:

None Explanation The bill alters various environmental justice (EJ) laws.

Section 1 requires that the environmental equity working group, in consultation with the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) and the Departments of Public Health (DPH) and Labor (DOL), establish criteria to identify disadvantaged communities.

This requirement has no fiscal impact to DEEP, DOL or DPH as they currently have expertise to identify these communities.

Section 2 of the bill requires DEEP to deny an application or permit for a new or expanded facility if less harmful alternatives are found;

it also allows for resubmittal of applications.

This provision requires DEEP to obtain new information for certain permit applications in The fringe benefit costs for most state employees are budgeted centrally in accounts administered by the Comptroller.

The estimated active employee fringe benefit cost associated with most personnel changes is 41.3% of payroll in FY 22 and FY 23.

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529 advance of creating new EJ decisions.

These new requirements would result in costs to DEEP of $228,118 in FY 22 and $236,413 in FY 23 to hire two additional Environmental Analyst 3 (EA) positions and a new Attorney.

There would also be associated fringe benefit costs of $91,932 and $95,274, respectively for the three new positions.

There are currently two Attorney's covering 125 permitting processes under the Environmental Quality side of DEEP (including materials management/solid waste, air, and industrial waste water programs).

The two DEEP staff persons that currently work on EJ programs also cover the "bottle bill" and are not dedicated EJ staff.

The additional EA positions are required to handle the bill's provisions and would work on data collection and analysis required for permitting decision-making as required under the bill's expanded EJ thresholds.

There may also be costs to DEEP associated with retaining outside consultants, estimated to be approximately $200,000 in each of FY 22 and FY 23 to the extent consulting with DPH is required to meet the public health criteria set forth under the bill for each EJ project, as DEEP currently does not have expertise in this area.

Additionally, current law requires DEEP to publish a schedule of regulatory actions and policies to demonstrate progress towards meeting a schedule of reduced greenhouse gas levels.

Section 3 of the bill requires action on this schedule of reduced emissions to ensure that the state reach these levels.

Changing the scope of the report does not result in a fiscal impact to the state or municipalities.

Lastly, Section 4 establishes (1) emissions requirements for fossil fuel burninggeneratorsusedbyqualifieddatacentersand(2)greenbuilding standards for these centers.

The bill requires qualified data centers who enter into agreements with the Department of Economic and Community Development (DECD) that each fossil fuel burning emergency use generator used by that data center meet certain standards of the Federal Environmental Protection Agency.

This is not anticipated to result in a fiscal impact to the state or municipalities as it sHB6551 / File No.

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529 would apply to private, third-parties.

2 The Out Years The annualized ongoing fiscal impact identified above may continue into the future subject to the number of EJ projects DEEP is required to review.

It is estimated that any consulting costs would only occur in FY and FY 23 and costs for DEEP staff would continue into the future subject to inflation.

2A data center is a facility used to house networked computer servers in one location or contiguous locations.

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529 OLR Bill Analysis sHB 6551 AN ACT CONCERNING ENVIRONMENTAL AIR QUALITY.

SUMMARY This bill does the following:

1.

establishes a 13-member environmental equity working group within the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP)to identify disadvantagedcommunitiesfor suchthingsas pollutant reductions and regulatory impact statements (§ 1);

2.

beginning October 1, 2023, generally prohibits DEEP or the Connecticut Siting Council, as applicable, from approving an application or permit for certain facilities in environmental justice communities if either one determines that there are less harmful alternatives (§ 2);

3.

requires (a) fossil fuel burning generators for qualified data centers to meet certain emissions standards and (b) these centers to be certified as meeting green building standards (§ 4);

and 4.

requires that DEEP’s triennial schedule of recommended policies and actions on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions be for ensuring that the state meets its statutory GHG targets, rather than for showing reasonable progress towards meeting them (§ 3).

EFFECTIVE DATE:

Upon passage for the working group provision;

the changes to the environmental justice law take effect October 1, 2023;

July 1, 2021, for the data center provision;

and the change to the GHG schedule is effective October 1, 2021.

§ 1 — ENVIRONMENTAL EQUITY WORKING GROUP Purpose sHB6551 / File No.

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529 Under the bill, by October 1, 2022, the environmental equity working group must establish criteria to identify disadvantaged communities and use it to identify the communities.

The group must do this in consultation with DEEP and the public health and labor departments.

The purpose of identifying the communities is for reducing GHG emissions and co-pollutants, regulatory impact statements, and allocating investments under the state’s GHG reduction goals.

(By law, the GHG reduction goals do not include investments or methods for allocating them, but provisions on the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative do (CGS § 22a-200c).) Membership Under the bill, the working group consists of the following 13 members:

1.

five representatives of environmental equity communities (see below), appointed by the DEEP commissioner;

2.

two representatives of DEEP’s Environmental Justice Program, appointed by the DEEP commissioner;

and 3.

two representatives each from the public health, housing, and labor departments, appointed by their respective department commissioners.

Under the bill, the representatives of environmental equity communities must be members of (1) communities of color, (2) low- income communities, and (3) communities with disproportionate pollution and climate change effects.

The representatives may be from community-based organizations with experience and a history of advocacy on environmental equity issues.

The bill requires initial appointments to be made within four months after the bill’s passage and vacancies to be filled by the appointing authorities.

The DEEP commissioner must select the working group’s chairpersons from among the group’s members.

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529 Meetings The bill requires the working group’s chairpersons to schedule the group’s first meeting, which must be held within six months after the bill’s passage.

The bill further requires the working group to meet at least annually to (1) review the criteria for identifying disadvantaged communities and (2) modify the criteria to incorporate new data and scientific findings.

Similarly, the group must review the identified disadvantaged communities and change the designations as necessary.

Process for Identifying Criteria Under the bill, after creating the draft criteria for identifying disadvantaged communities and the draft list of these communities, DEEP must publish both documents and make them available on the department’s website.

The billrequiresthat disadvantagedcommunitiesbeidentified based ongeographic, publichealth,environmentalhazard,andsocioeconomic criteria.

This includes areas:

1.

burdened by cumulative environmental pollution and other hazards that can negatively affect public health;

2.

with concentrations of people who have low income, home ownership, or educational attainment levels;

high rent burden or unemployment;

or historically experienced discrimination based on race or ethnicity;

and 3.

vulnerable to climate change impacts such as flooding, storm surge, and urban heat island effects.

The bill requires the working group to (1) have at least one public hearing on the draft criteria and draft list and (2) provide a public comment period of at least 45 days.

It also requires the working group to ensure that all population segments that may be impacted by the criteria (e.g., people living in areas that may be identified as disadvantaged communities) have meaningful opportunities for public comment.

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529 § 2 — AFFECTING FACILITY ALTERNATIVES The state’s environmental justice law generally requires applicants seeking to construct, site, or modify certain facilities (“affecting facilities”) in environmental justice communities to engage in a public participation process and consult with local officials about mitigating facility impacts(see BACKGROUND).Under thelaw,anenvironmental justice community is a (1) distressed municipality or (2) U.S.

census block group for which at least 30% of the population consists of low- income people who are not institutionalized and have an income of less than 200% of the federal poverty level.

The bill requires DEEP or the Connecticut Siting Council, as applicable, to deny an application for a proposed facility or a new or expanded permit if it determines there are less harmful alternatives to the request.

It allows the applicant to resubmit the application, if appropriate, with modifications.

If DEEP or the council, as applicable, determine that the proposed project could cause or contribute to adverse total environmental or public health stressors that are higher than in other communities, on average, then it must deny the application or permit or impose conditions on it as needed to avoid or reduce the stressors.

The agencies must make this determination by considering existing environmentalor public health stressors in the community.

The bill, however, allows DEEP or the council, as applicable, to approve an application or permit and impose conditions on the subject facility to protect public health and the environment if it finds that the facility, or its modification or expansion, will serve a compelling interest in the community.

The bill’s environmental justice provisions apply regardless of any other state law.

The bill requires DEEP or the council, as applicable, to publish any determination related to this process on its respective website.

§ 4 — QUALIFIED DATA CENTERS sHB6551 / File No.

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529 The bill establishes (1) emissions requirements for fossil fuel burning generators used by qualified data centers and (2) green building standards for these centers.

(PA 21-1 authorizes the Department of Economic and Community Development (DECD) commissioner to enter into agreements to provide tax incentives to qualified data centers that locate in Connecticut and make a minimum investment.) Under the bill, as under existing law, a “qualified data center” is a facility developed, acquired, constructed, rehabilitated, renovated, repaired, or operated to house a group of networked computer servers in one location or contiguous locations.

The purpose of a center is to centralize storing, managing, and disseminating data and information related to a particular business or classification or body of knowledge.

Emissions Requirements Under the bill, a qualified data center owner or operator who enters into an agreement with the DECD commissioner beginning July 1, 2021, must provide that each fossil fuel burning emergency use generator the data center uses for its operation, including testing and maintenance, meet atleast federalEnvironmentalProtectionAgency Tier II standards.

For these data centers, the bill requires each fossil fuel burning nonemergency use generator to continuously (1) emit no more than 0.72 g/KW-hr(gramsperkilowatthour)ofnitrogenoxidesand0.036g/KW- hr of ammonia and (2) comply with state air pollution regulations and federal regulations on stationary emission sources and emission standardsfor hazardousair pollutants.The billalso requirestheexhaust stacks of the nonemergency use generators to be taller than 34 feet high.

Any exemption from the emissions requirements of either generator type must be approved by the DEEP commissioner.

Green Building Certification The bill requires the owner or operator of a qualified data center to, within 180 days after beginning operations, become certified under at least one of the following green building standards:

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529 1.

BREEAM for New Construction or BREEAM In-Use;

2.

ENERGY STAR;

3.

Envision;

4.

ISO 50001-energy management;

5.

LEED for Building Design and Construction or LEED for Operations and Maintenance;

6.

Green Globes for New Construction or Green Globes for Existing Buildings;

7.

UL 3223;

or 8.

an equivalent program approved by the DECD commissioner.

§ 3 — GHG POLICY AND ACTION SCHEDULE By law, the state must reduce its GHG emissions to at least the following levels:

1.

10% below 1990’s emission level by January 1, 2020;

2.

45% below 2001’s emissions level by January 1, 2030;

and 3.

80% below 2001’s emissions level by January 1, 2050 (CGS § 22a- 200a(a)).

Current law requires the DEEP commissioner, every three years, to publish a schedule of recommended agency regulatory actions, policies, and other actions to show reasonable progress towards meeting these levels.

The bill instead requires that these actions ensure that the state reach these levels.

BACKGROUND Related Bill sSB 882 (File 282), favorably reported by the Energy and Technology Committee, requires the state to eliminate GHG emissions from sHB6551 / File No.

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529 electricity supplied to electric customers in the state by January 1, 2040, and establishes this requirement as part of the state’s GHG reduction policies.

Affecting Facilities The state’s environmental justice law applies to applicants seeking permits, certificates, or approval from DEEP or the Siting Council for the following types of new or expanded facilities:

1.

electric generating facilities with a capacity of more than 10 megawatts;

2.

sludge and solid waste incinerators or combustors;

3.

sewage treatment plants with a capacity of more than 50 million gallons per day;

4.

intermediate processing centers, volume reduction facilities, or multi-town recycling facilities with a combined monthly volume of more than 25 tons;

5.

landfills, including those with ash, construction and demolition debris, or solid waste;

6.

medical waste incinerators;

and 7.

major air pollution sources under the federal Clean Air Act (e.g., large factories).

The law exempts (1) parts of electric generating facilities that use fuel cells or non-emitting and non-polluting renewable resources such as wind, solar, andhydropower;(2)facilitiesthat obtainedaSiting Council certificate by January 1, 2000;

and (3) facilities under the state higher education system’s control with a satisfactory environmental impact evaluation (CGS § 22a-20a).

COMMITTEE ACTION Environment Committee sHB6551 / File No.

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529 Joint Favorable Substitute Yea 22 Nay 10 (03/31/2021) sHB6551 / File No.

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