BILL NUMBER: SB 754	INTRODUCED
	BILL TEXT


INTRODUCED BY   Senator Evans

                        FEBRUARY 22, 2013

   An act to amend Section 21081 of the Public Resources Code,
relating to environmental quality.


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   SB 754, as introduced, Evans. California Environmental Quality
Act.
   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 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. CEQA exempts from
its provisions, among other things, certain types of projects
proposed to be carried out or approved by public agencies.
   This bill would make various technical, nonsubstantive changes in
those provisions governing exemptions from CEQA.
   Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: no.
State-mandated local program: no.


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

  SECTION 1.  Section 21081 of the Public Resources Code is amended
to read:
   21081.  Pursuant to the policy stated in Sections 21002 and
21002.1,  no  a  public agency shall 
not  approve or carry out a project for which an environmental
impact report has been certified  which   that
 identifies one or more significant effects on the environment
that would occur if the project is approved or carried out unless
both of the following occur:
   (a) The public agency makes one or more of the following findings
with respect to each significant effect:
   (1)  Changes or alterations have been required in, or incorporated
into, the project  which   that  mitigate
or avoid the significant effects on the environment.
   (2)  Those changes or alterations are within the responsibility
and jurisdiction of another public agency and have been, or can and
should be, adopted by that other agency.
   (3)  Specific economic, legal, social, technological, or other
considerations, including considerations for the provision of
employment opportunities for highly trained workers, make infeasible
the mitigation measures or alternatives identified in the
environmental impact report.
   (b) With respect to significant effects  which 
 that  were subject to a finding under paragraph (3) of
subdivision (a), the public agency finds that specific overriding
economic, legal, social, technological, or other benefits of the
project outweigh the significant effects on the environment.