BILL ANALYSIS AB 231 Page 1 CONCURRENCE IN SENATE AMENDMENTS AB 231 (Huber) As Amended August 20, 2010 2/3 vote. Urgency ----------------------------------------------------------------- |ASSEMBLY: |45-31|(June 2, 2009) |SENATE: |28-1 |(August 24, | | | | | | |2010) | ----------------------------------------------------------------- Original Committee Reference: NAT. RES. SUMMARY : Authorizes a lead agency under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), when using a tiered environmental impact report (EIR) based on a prior EIR that used a finding of overriding consideration, to use the prior finding of overriding consideration in the new EIR if specified conditions are met. The Senate amendments delete the Assembly version of this bill, and instead: 1)Permit a lead agency to incorporate, by reference, a finding of overriding consideration from a previous EIR if all of the following conditions are met: a) The lead agency determines that the project's significant impacts on the environment are not greater than or different from those identified in the prior EIR; b) The lead agency incorporates into the later project all the applicable mitigation measures identified by the prior EIR; c) The prior finding of overriding consideration was not based on a determination that mitigation measures should be identified and approved in a subsequent environmental review; d) The prior EIR was certified not more than three years before the date the finding of overriding consideration is made for the later project; and, e) The lead agency has determined that the mitigation measures or alternatives found to be infeasible in the AB 231 Page 2 prior EIR remain infeasible. 2)Sunset the above provision January 1, 2016. 3)Add a section incorporating amendments made by SB 1456 (Simitian) to resolve a potential chaptering conflict.| 4)Add an urgency clause allowing this bill to take effect immediately upon enactment. EXISTING LAW : 1)Requires lead agencies with the principal responsibility for carrying out or approving a proposed project to prepare a negative declaration, mitigated negative declaration, or EIR for this action, unless the project is exempt from CEQA. 2)Authorizes a lead agency to use a tiered EIR (based on a prior EIR) for a project when the prior EIR has been prepared for a program, plan, policy or ordinance and the project is consistent. Provides that the tiered EIR is not required to examine effects that were examined at a sufficient level of detail in the prior EIR. 3)Permits a lead agency to approve a project with one or more significant effects on the environment if it finds specific economic, legal, social, technological, or other considerations make infeasible the mitigation measures or alternatives identified in the EIR, and the public agency also finds that specific overriding economic, legal, social, technological, or other benefits outweigh the significant environmental effects. AS PASSED BY THE ASSEMBLY , this bill required the Air Resources Board to adopt fees on sources of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and required the fees to be designed to allocate the costs of implementing AB 32 based on the contribution of the source to statewide emissions of GHGs. FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Senate Appropriations Committee, pursuant to Senate Rule 28.8, negligible state costs. COMMENTS : According to the author, "If a lead agency adopts a statement of overriding consideration for an environmental impact when it does an EIR on a General Plan (or other plan, AB 231 Page 3 policy or ordinance), that same finding of overriding consideration may be used for any specific project that creates the same adverse environmental impact, provided the impact is not greater or different at the project level than at the plan level. In other words, the project may tier off the statement of overriding consideration at the plan level." Analysis Prepared by : Lawrence Lingbloom / NAT. RES. / (916) 319-2092 FN: 0006688