BILL ANALYSIS
AB 888
Page 1
Date of Hearing: May 16, 2007
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Mark Leno, Chair
AB 888 (Lieu) - As Amended: April 11, 2007
Policy Committee: Natural Resources
Vote: 6-2
Business & Professions 7-3
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
No Reimbursable:
SUMMARY
This bill requires CalEPA to coordinate a working group to help
the agency, by July 1, 2009, develop mandatory green building
minimum standards for commercial building construction.
Specifically, this bill:
1)Requires each state agency in the working group to determine
minimum standards that must be met for a commercial building
to be considered a sustainable and environmentally sound
building, and requires CalEPA to coordinate these minimum
standards.
2)Requires the California Building Standards Commission (BSC) to
review these minimum standards to make sure that they don't
fall short or conflict with existing commercial building
standards.
3)Requires CalEPA, by July 1, 2010, to submit the minimum
standards to the BSC for adoption, and requires, starting July
1, 2012, new commercial buildings to meet these minimum green
building standards. The owner of a new commercial building
that is proposed to be smaller than 50,000 square feet can
obtain a waiver from these standards if he or she can show an
economic inability to comply.
FISCAL EFFECT
Moderate costs, in the range of $300,000 annually in 2008-09 and
2009-10, to CalEPA to support the activities of the state agency
work group, to coordinate state-agency-developed minimum green
AB 888
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building standards, and to pay BSC costs to review and revise
those minimum standards. (GF or various special regulatory
funds)
COMMENTS
1)Rationale . The author believes new commercial buildings in
California should be built using the best available green
building standards that provide the broadest spectrum of
environmental benefits during construction and during the life
of the building. To this end, this bill establishes a process
by which several state agencies, with expertise on the
building process and on methods to minimize negative
environmental impacts and energy use, work together to develop
mandatory minimum standards for new commercial buildings
constructed in California starting July 1, 2012.
2)Guidelines vs Mandates . While most state efforts to
encourage green building practices across all construction
projects have relied on the development of guidelines and
other voluntary goals, this bill mandates, starting July 1,
2012, that all commercial building construction be subject to
BSC established minimum green building standards.
3)Related Legislation . AB 1058 (Laird), also scheduled to be
heard today in this committee, requires CalEPA to coordinate a
working group to help the agency, by July 1, 2009, develop a
set of voluntary green building best practices and mandatory
minimum standards for residential home construction.
Analysis Prepared by : Steve Archibald / APPR. / (916)
319-2081