BILL NUMBER: AB 231	AMENDED
	BILL TEXT

	AMENDED IN SENATE  JUNE 23, 2010
	AMENDED IN SENATE  JUNE 26, 2009
	AMENDED IN SENATE  JUNE 18, 2009
	AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY  APRIL 29, 2009

INTRODUCED BY   Assembly Member  Huffman   Huber

    (   Principal coauthor: 
 Senator   Pavley   )


                        FEBRUARY 5, 2009

    An act to amend Section 38597 of, and to add Sections
38597.2 and 38597.5 to, the Health and Safety Code, relating to air
pollution.   An act to amend Section 21094 of the Public
Resources Code, relating to the environment, and declaring the
urgency thereof, to take effect immediately. 


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   AB 231, as amended,  Huffman   Huber  .
 California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006: Climate
Protection Trust Fund.   Environment: California
Environmental Quality Act: overriding consideration.  
   (1) The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) requires a
lead agency, as defined, to prepare, or cause to be prepared, and
certify the completion of, an environmental impact report (EIR) on a
project that it proposes to carry out or approve that may have a
significant effect on the environment or to adopt a negative
declaration if it finds that the project will not have that effect.
The CEQA also requires a lead agency to prepare a mitigated negative
declaration for a project that may have a significant effect on the
environment if revisions in the project would avoid or mitigate that
effect and there is no substantial evidence that the project, as
revised, would have a significant effect on the environment. For
projects whose environmental impacts can not be mitigated to less
than significance, existing law authorizes a lead agency to find that
specified overriding economic, legal, social, technological, or
other benefits of the project outweigh the significant effects on the
environment. If a prior environmental impact report has been
prepared and certified for a program, plan, policy, or ordinance, a
lead agency is required to use a tiered environmental impact report
for a later project if the lead agency determines that the later
project is consistent with the program, plan, policy, or ordinance,
and satisfies other criteria.  
   This bill would authorize a lead agency to rely on a finding of
overriding consideration made in a prior environmental impact report
for a later project if the lead agency determines that the later
project's significant impacts on the environment are no greater than
those identified in the prior environmental impact report from which
the project is tiered.  
   (2) This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately
as an urgency statute.  
   The California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 requires the
State Air Resources Board to adopt regulations to require the
reporting and verification of emissions of greenhouse gases and to
monitor and enforce compliance with the reporting and verification
program, and requires the state board to adopt a statewide greenhouse
gas emissions limit equivalent to the statewide greenhouse gas
emissions level in 1990 to be achieved by 2020. The act requires the
state board to adopt rules and regulations in an open public process
to achieve the maximum technologically feasible and cost-effective
greenhouse gas emission reductions. The act authorizes the state
board to include the use of market-based compliance mechanisms. The
act authorizes the state board to adopt a schedule of fees to be paid
by the sources of greenhouse gas emissions regulated pursuant to the
act, and requires the revenues collected pursuant to that fee to be
deposited into the Air Pollution Control Fund and be available, upon
appropriation by the Legislature, for purposes of carrying out the
act.  
   This bill would instead require the state board to, no later than
March 30, 2010, adopt that schedule of fees. The revenues collected
would be deposited in the Climate Protection Trust Fund, which the
bill would create. All other compliance revenues collected pursuant
to the act, including fines and penalties, would be required to be
deposited into the fund, and would be available, upon appropriation
by the Legislature, for the purposes of carrying out the act. The
bill would require federal climate change funds to also be deposited
into the fund, as provided.  
   Because failure to pay the fee would be a crime, this bill would
impose a state-mandated local program by creating a new crime.
 
   The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local
agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the
state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that
reimbursement.  
   This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this
act for a specified reason. 
   Vote:  majority  2/3  . Appropriation:
no. Fiscal committee: yes. State-mandated local program: yes
  no  .


THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

   SECTION 1.    Section 21094 of the   Public
Resources Code   is amended to read: 
   21094.  (a)  Where   (1)   
 If  a prior environmental impact report has been prepared
and certified for a program, plan, policy, or ordinance, the lead
agency for a later project that meets the requirements of this
section shall examine significant effects of the later project upon
the environment by using a tiered environmental impact report, except
that the report on the later project need not examine those effects
 which   that  the lead agency determines
were either (1) mitigated or avoided pursuant to paragraph (1) of
subdivision (a) of Section 21081 as a result of the prior
environmental impact report, or (2) examined at a sufficient level of
detail in the prior environmental impact report to enable those
effects to be mitigated or avoided by site specific revisions, the
imposition of conditions, or  by  other means in
connection with the approval of the later project. 
   (2) If a prior environmental impact report has been prepared and
certified for a program, plan, policy, or ordinance, and the lead
agency makes a finding of overriding consideration pursuant to
subdivision (b) of Section 21081, the lead agency for a later project
that uses a tiered environmental impact report from that program,
plan, policy, or ordinance may rely on that finding of overriding
consideration if the lead agency determines that the project's
significant impacts on the environment are no greater than those
identified in the environmental impact report from which the project
is tiered. 
   (b) This section applies only to a later project  which
  that  the lead agency determines (1) is
consistent with the program, plan, policy, or ordinance for which an
environmental impact report has been prepared and certified, (2) is
consistent with applicable local land use plans and zoning of the
city, county, or city and county in which the later project would be
located, and (3) is not subject to Section 21166.
   (c) For purposes of compliance with this section, an initial study
shall be prepared to assist the lead agency in making the
determinations required by this section. The initial study shall
analyze whether the later project may cause significant effects on
the environment that were not examined in the prior environmental
impact report.
   (d) All public agencies  which   that 
propose to carry out or approve the later project may utilize the
prior environmental impact report and the environmental impact report
on the later project to fulfill the requirements of Section 21081.
   (e)  When   If    tiering is
used pursuant to this section, an environmental impact report
prepared for a later project shall refer to the prior environmental
impact report and state where a copy of the prior environmental
impact report may be examined.
   SEC. 2.    This act is an urgency statute necessary
for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health, or safety
within the meaning of Article IV of the Constitution and shall go
into immediate effect. The facts constituting the necessity are:
 
   To promote, as soon as possible, the creation of jobs in the state
by expediting the environmental review of a project, thereby
preserving the public peace, health, and safety, it is necessary for
this measure to take effect immediately.  
  SECTION 1.    Section 38597 of the Health and
Safety Code is amended to read:
   38597.  The state board shall adopt by regulation no later than
March 30, 2010, after a public workshop, a schedule of fees to be
paid by the sources of greenhouse gas emissions regulated pursuant to
this division, consistent with Section 57001. The revenues collected
pursuant to this section shall be deposited into the Climate
Protection Trust Fund.  
  SEC. 2.    Section 38597.2 is added to the Health
and Safety Code, to read:
   38597.2.  Except as otherwise provided in this part, the fees
established by the state board pursuant to Section 38597 shall be
designed to be paid by the sources of greenhouse gas emissions
regulated pursuant to this division, consistent with Section 57001.
 
  SEC. 3.    Section 38597.5 is added to the Health
and Safety Code, to read:
   38597.5.  (a) The Climate Protection Trust Fund is hereby
established in the State Treasury. All compliance revenues collected
pursuant to this division, including, but not limited to, all fees
collected pursuant to Section 38597 and all fines and penalties
collected pursuant to Section 38580 shall be deposited into the
Climate Protection Trust Fund, and are available, upon appropriation
by the Legislature, for the purposes of carrying out this division.
All fees collected pursuant to Section 38597 before January 1, 2010,
shall be transferred from the Air Pollution Control Fund into the
Climate Protection Trust Fund.
   (b) The Climate Protection Trust Fund shall receive, on behalf of
state and local agencies, funds from federal climate change programs
that are dedicated to or otherwise accrue to the state for climate
change projects and programs, including, but not limited to, energy
efficiency, technology development and deployment, natural resource
planning and adaptation, and green job development and training, to
be expended, upon appropriation by the Legislature, under terms and
conditions as may be established by federal law.  
  SEC. 4.    No reimbursement is required by this
act pursuant to Section 6 of Article XIII B of the California
Constitution because the only costs that may be incurred by a local
agency or school district will be incurred because this act creates a
new crime or infraction, eliminates a crime or infraction, or
changes the penalty for a crime or infraction, within the meaning of
Section 17556 of the Government Code, or changes the definition of a
crime within the meaning of Section 6 of Article XIII B of the
California Constitution.