BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Senator Ricardo Lara, Chair
2015 - 2016 Regular Session
AB 2800 (Quirk) - Climate change: infrastructure planning
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|Version: June 16, 2016 |Policy Vote: N.R. & W. 7 - 2, |
| | E.Q. 6 - 1 |
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|Urgency: No |Mandate: No |
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|Hearing Date: August 8, 2016 |Consultant: Narisha Bonakdar |
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This bill meets the criteria for referral to the Suspense File.
Bill
Summary:1) AB 2800 requires the California Natural Resources Agency (CNRA)
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.
Fiscal
Impact:
1)Approximately $150,000 to the CNRA (General Fund) for staff
and contracting costs.
2)Unknown costs, likely absorbable, for the state agency members
of the Working Group (Department of Transportation, Department
of Water Resources, and Department of General Services).
3)Unknown costs, likely absorbable, for the California State
University and University of California to participate on the
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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.
Background:1)
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, "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.
Administrative actions. Several administrative actions have been
adopted to ensure the state is preparing for the impacts of
climate change. Executive Order S-13-08 required the Natural
Resources Agency (CNRA), to develop a state Climate Adaptation
Strategy to summarize the best known science on climate change
impacts and outline solutions that can be implemented within and
across state agencies.
Executive Order B-30-15 (Brown), in addition to establishing a
40% Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emission reduction goal by 2030,
requires the CNRA to update the state's climate adaptation
strategy every three years and ensure that its provisions are
AB 2800 (Quirk) Page 2 of
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fully implemented. This Executive Order also requires:
a) 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.
b) 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.
c) The state's Five-Year Infrastructure Plan to take
current and future climate change impacts into account in
all infrastructure projects and 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.
Additionally, existing law requires the CNRA to update its
climate adaptation strategy, the Safeguarding California Plan
by July 1, 2017, and every three years thereafter, by
coordinating adaption activities among lead state agencies in
each sector.
Proposed Law:
This bill:
1) Requires state agencies to take into account the expected
impacts of climate change when planning, designing, building,
and investing in state infrastructure.
2) Requires the CNRA to establish a Climate-Safe Infrastructure
Working Group (working group) by July 1, 2017 to examine how
to integrate scientific data concerning projected climate
AB 2800 (Quirk) Page 3 of
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change impacts into state infrastructure engineering, as
specified.
3) 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.
b) Scientists from the University of California, the
California State University system, and other institutions
with expertise in climate change impacts in the state, as
specified.
c) Licensed architects with relevant experience.
d) Requires groups (a) and (b) to be equally represented
to the extent possible and appropriate.
4) Requires the working group to coordinate with other climate
adaptation planning efforts, and build upon existing
information produced by the state.
5) 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
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communication between infrastructure engineers and climate
scientists.
6) 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.
7) Sunsets the provisions of the bill on July 1, 2020.
Related
Legislation:
SB 1217 (Leno, 2014) proposed to require the CNRA 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 CNRA
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
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.
Staff Comments:
Purpose of Bill. According to the author, "Sound and reliable
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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 engineers in the conversation
is necessary."
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