BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 2800
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ASSEMBLY THIRD READING
AB
2800 (Quirk)
As Amended April 12, 2016
Majority vote
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|Committee |Votes|Ayes |Noes |
| | | | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
|----------------+-----+----------------------+--------------------|
|Natural |7-2 |Williams, Cristina |Jones, Harper |
|Resources | |Garcia, Gomez, | |
| | |Hadley, McCarty, Mark | |
| | |Stone, Wood | |
| | | | |
|----------------+-----+----------------------+--------------------|
|Appropriations |14-6 |Gonzalez, Bloom, |Bigelow, Chang, |
| | |Bonilla, Bonta, |Gallagher, Jones, |
| | |Calderon, Daly, |Obernolte, Wagner |
| | |Eggman, Eduardo | |
| | |Garcia, Roger | |
| | |Hernández, Holden, | |
| | |Quirk, Santiago, | |
| | |Weber, Wood | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
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SUMMARY: Establishes a Climate-Safe Infrastructure Working
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Group (Working Group) to examine how to integrate scientific
data concerning projected climate change impacts into state
infrastructure engineering. Specifically, this bill:
1)Makes various findings related to climate change's impacts and
the need to consider climate change impacts on siting and
design standards and specifications.
2)Requires state agencies to take into account the expected
impacts of climate change when planning, designing, building,
and investing in state infrastructure.
3)Requires Natural Resources Agency (NRA), by July 1, 2017, to
establish the Working Group to examine how to integrate
scientific data concerning projected climate change impacts
into state infrastructure engineering.
4)Requires the Working Group to consist of the following:
a) Professional engineers with relevant expertise in state
infrastructure design from the Department of
Transportation, the Department of Water Resources, and the
Department of General Services; and,
b) Scientists from the University of California and the
California State University systems with expertise in
climate change impacts in California.
5)Requires the Working Group to consider and offer
recommendations on how better integrate knowledge of climate
impacts into infrastructure planning and design, including
more communication between climate scientists and
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infrastructure engineers.
EXISTING LAW:
1)Pursuant to Executive Order B-30-15 (Brown), in addition to
establishing a 40% Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emission reduction
goal by 2030, requires several actions on adaptation
including:
a) Requires NRA to update the state's climate adaptation
strategy every three years and ensure that its provisions
are fully implemented. Requires the state's climate
adaptation strategy to:
i) Identify vulnerabilities to climate change by sector
and regions, including, at a minimum, the following
sectors: water, energy, transportation, public health,
agriculture, emergency services, forestry, biodiversity
and habitat, and ocean and coastal resources;
ii) Outline primary risks to residents, property,
communities, and natural systems from these
vulnerabilities and identify priority actions needed to
reduce these risks; and,
iii) Identify a lead agency or group of agencies to lead
adaptation efforts in each sector.
b) Requires each sector lead to prepare an implementation
plan by September 2015 to outline the actions that will be
taken as identified in state's climate adaptation strategy,
and report back on those actions to the NRA.
c) Requires state agencies to take climate change into
account in their planning and investment decisions, and
employ full life-cycle cost accounting to evaluate and
compare infrastructure investments and alternatives.
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d) Requires state agencies' planning and investment to be
guided by the principles of climate preparedness,
flexibility and adaptive approaches for uncertain climate
impacts, protective of vulnerable populations, and
prioritization of natural infrastructure solutions.
e) Requires the state's Five-Year Infrastructure Plan to
take current and future climate change impacts into account
in all infrastructure projects.
f) Requires Office of Planning and Research (OPR) to
establish a technical advisory group to help state agencies
incorporate climate change impacts into planning and
investment decisions.
g) Requires the state to continue its rigorous climate
change research program focused on understanding the
impacts of climate change and how best to prepare and adapt
to such impacts.
2)Requires the NRA to update its climate adaptation strategy,
the Safeguarding California Plan (Plan), by July 1, 2017, and
every three years thereafter, by coordinating adaption
activities among lead state agencies in each sector.
FISCAL EFFECT: According to the Assembly Appropriations
Committee:
1)In addition to existing resources, the NRA estimates it will
take an additional staff person working three-quarter time on
this project to fulfill the requirements of the bill.
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2)Unknown costs, likely absorbable for the state agency members
of the Working Group (Department of Transportation, Department
of Water Resources, Department of General Services).
3)Unknown costs, likely absorbable for the California State
University and University of California to participate on the
Working Group.
4)Absorbable costs for state agencies to account for the impacts
of climate change when investing in state infrastructure. The
recommendations provided by the Working Group may provide cost
savings for state agencies' plans and projects.
COMMENTS: According to a report by the American Society of
Civil Engineers entitled, Adapting Infrastructure and Civil
Engineering Practice to a Changing Climate:
Engineers should engage in cooperative research involving
scientists from across many disciplines to gain an
adequate, probabilistic understanding of the magnitudes
of future extremes and their consequences. Doing so will
improve the relevance of modeling and observations for
use in the planning, design, operation, maintenance and
renewal of the built and natural environment. It is only
when engineers work closely with scientists that the
needs of the engineering community become fully
understood, the limitations of the scientific knowledge
become more transparent to engineers, and the
uncertainties of the projections of future climate
effects become fully recognized for engineering design
purposes.
This bill would implement the approach outlined above by
creating the Working Group of both engineers and
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scientists. This is a very different approach than past
adaptation bills. Prior bills focused on a top down
approach to incorporating adaptation into state and local
government decisions. This bill focuses on collaboration
between practitioners to drive systematic change. This
bill also codifies one of points in the Governor's
Executive Order B-30-15 related to state infrastructure.
Analysis Prepared by:
Michael Jarred / NAT. RES. / (916) 319-2092 FN:
0003119