BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 2800
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CONCURRENCE IN SENATE AMENDMENTS
AB
2800 (Quirk)
As Amended August 17, 2016
Majority vote
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|ASSEMBLY: |59-19 |(June 1, 2016) |SENATE: |32-6 |(August 22, |
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Original Committee Reference: NAT. RES.
SUMMARY: Establishes a Climate-Safe Infrastructure Working
Group (Working Group) to examine how to integrate scientific
data concerning projected climate change impacts into state
infrastructure engineering. Specifically, this bill:
1)Requires state agencies to take into account the current and
future impacts of climate change when planning, designing,
building, and investing in state infrastructure.
2)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.
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3)Requires the Working Group to make recommendations on how
better integrate scientific knowledge of projected climate
impacts into state infrastructure planning and a platform or
process to facilitate communication between climate scientists
and infrastructure engineers.
The Senate amendments:
1)Require professional engineers serving on the Working Group to
be registered with the state.
2)Require professional engineers and scientists to be equally
represented in the membership of the Working Group, and adds
licensed architects to the Working Group.
3)Require the Working Group to work in coordination with other
state climate adaptation planning efforts and other state
agencies that advance sustainability in infrastructure,
including the Strategic Growth Council and the Government
Operations Agency.
4)Eliminate the authorization for the Working Group to develop
practicable guidelines for planning and designing
infrastructure that is more resilient to the expected impacts
of climate change.
5) Create a sunset date of July 1, 2020 for the Working Group.
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
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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.
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.
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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 Senate Appropriations
Committee:
1)Approximately $150,000 to the NRA (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
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.
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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
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:
0004575
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