BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY
Senator Wieckowski, Chair
2015 - 2016 Regular
Bill No: AB 2800
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|Author: |Quirk |
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|Version: |6/16/2016 |Hearing |6/29/2016 |
| | |Date: | |
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|Urgency: |No |Fiscal: |Yes |
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|Consultant:|Dan Brumbaugh |
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SUBJECT: Climate change: infrastructure planning.
ANALYSIS:
Existing law:
1) Establishes the Governor's Office of Planning and Research
(OPR) as the comprehensive state planning agency and requires
OPR to assist state, regional, and local agencies in a
variety of research and planning efforts, including climate
adaptation. (Government Code §65040)
2) Establishes the Strategic Growth Council (SGC), a
cabinet-level committee that is tasked with coordinating
activities that support, among other goals, increasing the
availability of affordable housing, improving transportation,
and assisting state and local entities in the planning of
sustainable communities. (Public Resources Code §75121 et
seq.)
3) Requires that the Natural Resources Agency (NRA) update the
state's climate adaptation strategy, Safeguarding California,
every three years, as specified, and ensure that its
provisions are fully implemented. (PRC §71153)
4) Requires that the Safeguarding California strategy:
a) Identify vulnerabilities to climate change by sector
and regions, including, at a minimum, the water, energy,
transportation, public health, agriculture, emergency
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services, forestry, biodiversity and habitat, and ocean
and coastal resources sectors;
b) Outline primary risks to residents, property,
communities and natural systems from these
vulnerabilities, and identify priority actions needed to
reduce these risks; and
c) Identify a lead agency or group of agencies to lead
adaptation efforts in each sector. Each sector lead is
responsible for preparing an implementation plan to
outline the actions that will be taken as identified in
Safeguarding California, and reporting back to the
California Natural Resources Agency on actions taken. (PRC
§71153)
5)Requires that state agencies work to maximize, where
applicable and feasible, educating the public about the
consequences of climate change; ensuring there is a continuous
repository for scientific data on climate change and
adaptation to help identify climate change risks and
facilitate educated state and local policy decisions. (PRC
§71154)
6) Requires the Strategic Growth Council to identify and review
activities and funding programs of state agencies that may be
coordinated to address, among other goals, the strategies and
priorities developed in the Safeguarding California plan.
(PRC §75125)
7) Establishes the Integrated Climate Adaptation and Resiliency
Program (ICARP) through OPR to coordinate regional and local
adaptation efforts with state climate adaptation strategies
and programs. This includes working with and coordinating
local and regional efforts for climate adaptation and
resilience. (PRC §71354)
8) Directs the ICARP to assist the Office of Emergency Services,
as specified, to update the Adaptation Planning Guide to
provide tools and guidance to regional and local governments
and agencies in creating and implementing climate adaptation
and community resiliency plans and projects. (PRC §71356).
9) Directs ICARP to coordinate and maintain the state's
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clearinghouse of best-available resources, including climate
projections and other models, assessments of vulnerabilities
to various impacts, tools for visualizations, a library of
written resources, information about funding opportunities,
and information on best-practice adaptation projects. (PRC
§§71354 and 71360)
10)Establishes an advisory council to OPR, which will be
comprised of members from a range of scientific and technical
disciplines and will have expertise in the intersection of
climate change and various sectors. (PRC §71358)
11)Defines infrastructure as real property, including land and
improvements to the land, structures and equipment integral
to the operation of structures, easements, rights-of-way and
other forms of interest in property, roadways, and water
conveyances. (Government Code §13101)
This bill:
1) Makes a series of findings about climate change impacts, the
need for state infrastructure to withstand these changing
impacts, and the opportunity to better connect climate
science to engineering guidance in the state.
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 the NRA to establish a Climate-Safe Infrastructure
Working Group (working group) by July 1, 2017 to examine how
to integrate scientific data concerning projected climate
change impacts into state infrastructure engineering, as
specified.
4) Specifies that the working group members include a reasonable
and equitable mix of the two categories:
a) Certified professional engineers, as specified, with
relevant expertise in state infrastructure design from the
Department of Transportation, Department of Water
Resources, Department of General Services, and other
relevant state agencies, as applicable.
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b) Scientists from the University of California and the
California State University system with expertise in
climate change impacts in the state, as specified.
5) Requires the working group to coordinate with other climate
adaptation planning efforts, and build upon existing
information produced by the state.
6) Suggests topics on which the working group could make
recommendations, including:
a) Current barriers to integrating projected climate
change impacts into state infrastructure design;
b) Development of practicable guidelines for planning and
design of more infrastructure that is more resilient to
climate change impacts;
c) Identification of gaps in critical information for
engineers to address climate change impacts through
infrastructure design and construction;
d) Consideration of engineering design for multiple
projected climate scenarios; and
e) Consideration of a platform or process to facilitate
communication between infrastructure engineers and climate
scientists.
7) Requires by July 1, 2018 that the working group recommend to
the Legislature a process for integrating scientific
knowledge of projected climate change impacts in state
infrastructure design and for addressing the information gaps
in a timely manner.
Background
1)Definition of climate adaptation. According to the United
States Environmental Protection Agency, "adaptation is the
adjustments that society or ecosystems make to limit negative
effects of climate change. It can also include taking
advantage of opportunities that a changing climate provides."
In 2009, the NRA described adaptation as a relatively new
concept in California policy and stated the term means,
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"efforts that respond to the impacts of climate change -
adjustments in natural or human systems to actual or expected
climate changes to minimize harm or take advantage of
beneficial opportunities."
Climate risks in California include sea-level rise that
affects our built infrastructure, natural habitats, and
freshwater resources; changes in precipitation that increase
the risk of both drought and flooding; and increases in
temperatures that can affect air quality, public health, and
natural habitat.
2)Emergence of California's climate adaptation policy.
California's adaptation efforts originate primarily with
Governor Schwarzenegger's Executive Orders S-3-05, which
established the cabinet-level Climate Action Team (CAT), and
S-13-08, which directed the NRA, through the CAT, to
coordinate with local, regional, state, federal, public, and
private entities to develop the state's first Climate
Adaptation plan. The resulting 2009 California Climate
Adaptation Strategy synthesized the efforts of seven
sector-specific working groups led by 12 state agencies,
boards, and commissions, and numerous stakeholders. The
strategy presented the best known science on climate change
impacts for California, assessed California's vulnerability to
the identified impacts, and outlined solutions that could be
implemented within and across state agencies to promote
resilience. NRA released an update to the 2009 California
Climate Adaptation Strategy, Safeguarding California: Reducing
Climate Risk in July 2014, followed by Safeguarding
California: Implementation Action Plans in March 2016.
In addition, the Coastal Commission has been working with
coastal zone local governments to update their local coastal
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programs to address shoreline hazards and sea-level rise. In
August 2015, the Commission adopted a Sea-Level Rise Policy
Guidance document that provides an overview of best available
science on sea-level rise for California, and recommends steps
for addressing sea-level rise in Commission planning and
regulatory actions. This will help coastal local governments
make planning decisions that take into account sea-level rise
and identify infrastructure and property that is at risk.
In 2015, Governor Brown issued Executive Order B-30-15, which,
in addition to specifying new greenhouse gas emission
reduction targets, also created a Technical Advisory Group
(TAG) within the OPR to further focus and enhance 1) state
agency efforts in planning and investment under climate
uncertainty, and 2) engagement, outreach, and coordination
with local, regional, and federal partners. The Legislature
also passed three laws, AB 1482 (Gordon, Chapter 603, Statutes
of 2015), SB 246 (Wieckowski, Chapter 606, Statutes of 2015),
and SB 379 (Jackson, Chapter 608, Statutes of 2015) that build
on this Executive Order in various ways to strengthen and
codify several climate adaptation efforts within the state. In
addition, the Senate Environmental Quality Committee held a
series of four informational hearings in 2015 to explore
state-wide and regional and local climate adaptation needs,
with a special focus on environmental quality and public
health issues.
3)Focus on infrastructure. This burst of recent policy, layered
on top of its antecedents, has resulted in a suite of
adaptation planning efforts occurring at and targeting
different levels of government. With respect to
infrastructure, the CAT's Climate Change, Land Use and
Infrastructure Working Group (CCLU-In), for example, was
established as a multi-agency subcommittee charged with
advising the CAT on mitigation and adaptation measures
relating to land use and infrastructure. In recent years,
CCLU-In has not met, but it may be revived with a narrower
focus on land-use issues.
OPR's TAG is also composed of multiple subgroups, known as
sub-TAGs, which address Climate Scenarios, Metrics, Built
Infrastructure, Natural and Green Infrastructure, Local and
Regional Coordination, and Vulnerable Populations. The TAG and
sub-TAGs are collectively developing guidance and actions for
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state agencies and departments on the implementation of
Executive Order B-30-15.
The SGC also manages an Infrastructure Working Group, which
among other things, focuses on reviewing the state's annual
Five-Year Infrastructure Plan, as directed by AB 1482, and on
developing Guidance for Planning for Climate for California
Capital Outlay Projects. The Built Infrastructure sub-TAG also
coordinates with the Infrastructure Working Group on
contributions to the Five-Year Infrastructure Plan.
OPR will also host the Integrated Climate Adaptation and
Resiliency Program (ICARP), which was created by SB 246 to
coordinate regional and local adaptation efforts with state
climate adaptation strategies and programs. SB 246 also
establishes an Advisory Council within OPR to provide
scientific and technical expertise covering a broad set of
sectors to help support and facilitate coordination across
state, regional, and local adaptation efforts.
4)Water. The Department of Water Resources' Climate Change
Technical Advisory Group (CCTAG) oversees modeling of the
possible impacts on climate change on the state's water
resources. These predictions then get incorporated into
updates of California's Water Action Plan, which, in addition
to overall sustainability of the state's water supply, also
addresses adaptation to extreme events like drought and
flooding. The Water Quality, Supply, and Infrastructure
Improvement Act of 2014 (Proposition 1), which has several
pots of funding for responding to drought conditions,
sea-level rise, or flooding related to climate change,
provides additional support for adaptation in the state. Of
the over $7 billion allocated in the bond, $3.6 billion could
be spent on projects that deal in some way with adaptation.
5)Tools. Several state entities have invested in the development
of tools and websites intended to facilitate better planning
and outreach, but there remains a need for ongoing development
of tools and clearinghouse mechanisms. Cal-Adapt, managed by
the California Energy Commission, is a web-based climate
adaptation planning tool that was recommended in the 2009
California Climate Adaptation Strategy to "synthesize existing
California climate change scenarios and climate impact
research and to encourage its use in a way that is beneficial
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for local decision-makers." The state's Climate Change Portal
also provides links to major climate research, mitigation
initiatives and plans, investments, and news. Certain
land-use resources can also be accessed through the Climate
Change, Land Use, and Infrastructure Web Portal.
SB 246 directs OPR to create a new, regularly updated
clearinghouse that will serve as "a centralized source of
information that provides available climate data to guide
decisionmakers at state, regional, and local levels when
planning for and implementing climate adaptation projects to
promote resiliency to climate change."
Comments
1) Purpose of Bill. According to the author, "Sound and
reliable infrastructure is critically important to public
safety, quality of life and California's economy. While
California is actively engaged in developing the most
up-to-date climate change science, this information is not
significantly impacting infrastructure engineering and design
decisions. There is an urgent need for state infrastructure
engineering to adapt to predicted impacts of climate change.
Fortunately, California is already undertaking important
climate adaptation work across different sectors. However,
much of this work is designed to be used by state and local
planners, not people who actually design and build
infrastructure. As a result, there is a gap between the
state's scientific understanding of projected impacts of
climate change and the nature of the information that
engineers require to determine specifications on how to
build.
"AB 2800 bill is a small but critical step forward to
addressing the problem. It is important to bring together
climate scientists and professional engineers who work
directly on infrastructure with the directive to examine how
to integrate climate change impacts data into infrastructure
engineering. It is critical that engineers have practicable
information about climate change to better inform their
design specifications, and therefore a process that includes
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engineers in the conversation is necessary."
2) Filling a gap. Although there are currently a number of
climate adaptation processes playing out within the state,
these still largely focus on either relatively high-level
planning and coordination across departments and agencies
(e.g., the NRA's Safeguarding California strategy and
implementation plans), or on broader support of local and
regional planning efforts (e.g., through OPR and the SGC).
The narrower and deeper focus of AB 2800 - on strengthening
the connections between climate scientists and on-the-ground
engineers to enhance adaptation planning of state
infrastructure - therefore appears to address a gap in the
current state of planning.
As an illustration of this gap, the existing Caltrans Highway
Design Manual (dated July 1, 2015) recognizes that the
typical assumption for infrastructure design, that
previously-experienced hydrological and climatological
patterns are good predictors of future patterns the project
will experience over its lifetime, may no longer be valid,
although there is no apparent consensus on an alternative
approach.
3) Another planning process? Given the range of existing
planning processes, and the perpetual challenge for state
agencies to meet new mandates, it's important that the
working group established by AB 2800 does not just add
another duplicative mandate. To avoid this outcome,
coordination between the proposed Climate-Safe Infrastructure
Working Group and pre-existing processes is likely to be
important for maximizing complementarity, and the bill
language recognizes this need: "The working group shall work
in coordination with other climate adaptation planning
efforts and shall consider and build upon existing
information produced by the state, among other resources."
For example, although there may be some overlap between the
proposed new working group and OPR's Built Infrastructure and
Climate Scenarios sub-TAGs, new "win-wins" should be
achievable through planning how the Climate-Safe group - with
its narrower but deeper focus - can build on and inform the
broader infrastructure discussions emanating from OPR's
TAG/sub-TAG process. Similarly, planning how Climate-Safe
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recommendations and other outcomes can be actively
disseminated through other channels, such as via OPR's
planned Advisory Council and adaptation clearinghouse should
help the Climate-Safe group amplify its impact by reaching
other practitioners working at the local and regional levels.
4) Home office? Given the existence of cross-agency climate
adaptation initiatives in both the NRA and OPR, one could
make arguments for either entity as the best host for the
proposed Climate-Safe Infrastructure Working Group. Because
of the working group's focus on state infrastructure, and the
state-level coordination that the NRA does through the
Safeguarding California process, there is a fit there. But
OPR also does state-level coordination through its TAG
process, and the Climate-Safe Infrastructure Working Group
seems like it may have the greatest amount of complementarity
with the Built Infrastructure sub-TAG. The author and sponsor
may therefore wish to further consider whether OPR represents
a more appropriate host for administering the proposed
working group.
5) Possible outcomes? The bill leaves the specific agenda and
form of the eventual recommendations for the working group's
bridging of science, design, and engineering purposely vague
to allow the program the freedom to outline its direction and
scope, but the committee may nevertheless wish to explore
some of the potential programmatic outcomes. For example,
what might be some possible recommended processes for
"integrating scientific knowledge of projected climate change
impacts into state infrastructure design and for addressing
the information gaps"?
Because some state technical professionals, including
engineers, currently lack a requirement for continuing
education, new professional education programs regarding the
current state of climate science and engineering may be
critical. The development of cooperative extension programs
between public universities and the state agencies may also
offer a complementary pathway for technical assistance and
professional education.
6) Working Group membership. Although the CSU and UC systems
play essential roles in the state's educational and research
enterprise, and professionals at these institutions are
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therefore natural advisors during state policy formulation,
scientific membership in the Climate-Safe Infrastructure
Working Group should not be restricted to current CSU and UC
scientists. Instead, membership should be open to any
scientists with the appropriate expertise in estimating
climate change and its impacts across California.
Committee Amendment 1: Section 71155(b)(2)(B) should read
"Scientists from the University of California, the
California State University systems, and other
institutions who have expertise in climate change
projections and impacts across California."
7) Sunset. Because AB 2800 establishes the Climate-Safe
Infrastructure Working Group with the goal of producing
recommendations by a deadline in July 2018, the committee may
wish to amend AB 2800 to add a sunset provision for the sake
of cleaning up the code after the Working Group has served
its original purpose. Of course, if the Working Group proves
to be a useful entity for achieving ongoing benefits, a new
bill could extend its authorization and provide new
legislative direction to the Working Group.
Committee Amendment 2: Add a provision making the chapter
inoperative on July 1, 2020, and repealed as of January
1, 2021, unless a later enacted statute becomes operative
by January 1, 2021 and deletes or extends the dates on
which the chapter becomes inoperative or repealed.
8) Author amendments. The author would like to add licensed
architects as a third category to the Working Group, with
corresponding changes.
In section 71155(b)(2), provision (C) would be added
stating "Licensed architects with relevant experience in
state infrastructure design, as applicable."
Section 71155(b)(3) would be modified to "The two groups
specified in subparagraphs (A) and (B) of paragraph (2)
shall be equitably represented in the membership of the
working group, to the extent reasonable and appropriate."
Related/Prior Legislation
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AB 1482 (Gordon, Chapter 603, Statutes of 2015) codifies a
portion of Executive Order B-30-15 (Brown), requires the NRA to
update its climate adaptation strategy, Safeguarding California,
every three years, and coordinates across state departments and
agencies to identify opportunities to enhance the ability of all
sectors to adapt and increase their resilience to the impacts of
climate change.
AB 2516 (Gordon, Chapter 522, Statutes of 2014) requires the
NRA, in collaboration with the Ocean Protection Council, to
create, update biannually, and post on the internet a "Planning
for Sea Level Rise Database" describing steps being taken
throughout the state to prepare for, and adapt to, sea level
rise.
SB 246 (Wieckowski, Chapter 606, Statutes of 2015) establishes
the Integrated Climate Adaptation and Resiliency Program
administered by OPR to work with and assist local and regional
efforts for climate adaptation and resilience.
SB 317 (de León, 2015) proposed to, among other things, allocate
$100 million to the SGC for grants to develop or implement a
regional or local greenprint or climate adaptation plan, add
climate adaption to a general plan, or protect agricultural and
open-space resources that support sustainable communities
strategies that have been adopted. SB 317 was ordered to the
inactive file.
SB 379 (Jackson, Chapter 608, Statutes of 2015) requires cities
and counties to do an assessment of their vulnerability to the
risks posed by climate change in order to update their general
plans' safety elements.
SB 1217 (Leno, 2014) proposed to require the NRA to prepare a
California climate risk assessment that provides original
research on regionally appropriate climate risk vulnerabilities,
risk management options, and other necessary research to support
California's development of informed climate policy and actions
to address climate change. The bill would have required the NRA
to update the Safeguarding California Plan every five years to
reduce risks to California from the impacts of climate change.
The bill also required OPR to develop Infrastructure Resilience
Guidelines to integrate climate risks into capital outlay and
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infrastructure planning and investment, and the Strategic Growth
Council to use these Guidelines to review the state's
investments, identify priority projects, and seek funding for
priority projects that offer the state important protection from
the impacts of climate change. SB 1217 was held on the Assembly
Appropriations suspense file.
DOUBLE REFERRAL:
This measure was heard in Senate Natural Resources and Water
Committee on
June 14, 2016, and passed out of committee with a vote of 7-2.
SOURCE: Union of Concerned Scientists
SUPPORT:
American Institute of Architects, California Council
American Society of Civil Engineers, Region 9
California League of Conservation Voters
California Shore and Beach Preservation Association
Climate Resolve
Local Government Commission
National Audubon Society
National Parks Conservation Association
Professional Engineers in California Government
Silicon Valley Leadership Group
University of Southern California Sea Grant Program
5 individual engineers and scientists
OPPOSITION:
None received
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