BILL NUMBER: AB 1846 AMENDED
BILL TEXT
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY APRIL 5, 2010
INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member V. Manuel Perez
FEBRUARY 12, 2010
An act to amend Sections 21159 and 21159.1 of the Public Resources
Code, relating to the environment.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 1846, as amended, V. Manuel Perez. Environment: expedited
environmental review: climate change regulations.
The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) requires a lead
agency, as defined, to prepare, or cause to be prepared, and certify
the completion of, an environmental impact report (EIR) on a project
that it proposes to carry out or approve that may have a significant
effect on the environment or to adopt a negative declaration if it
finds that the project will not have that effect. CEQA also requires
a lead agency to prepare a mitigated negative declaration for a
project that may have a significant effect on the environment if
revisions in the project would avoid or mitigate that effect and
there is no substantial evidence that the project, as revised, would
have a significant effect on the environment.
CEQA requires specified state agencies to perform, at the time of
adoption of a rule or regulation requiring the installation of
pollution control equipment, an environmental analysis of the
reasonably foreseeable methods of compliance. CEQA authorizes the use
of a focused environmental impact report for a project that is
solely of the installation of pollution control equipment required by
the specified state agencies.
This bill would additionally require that the above
environmental analysis be performed for a rule or regulation
that requires the installation of pollution control equipment or a
performance standard or treatment requirement adopted pursuant
to the California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006. The bill
would authorize the use of the focused environmental impact report
for a project that reduces greenhouse gas emissions in compliance
with a rule or regulation adopted pursuant to the California Global
Warming Solutions Act of 2006.
Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: no.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. It is the intent of the Legislature in enacting this
measure to conform and clarify existing law. This measure is not
intended to supersede existing law.
SEC. 2. Section 21159 of the Public Resources Code is amended to
read:
21159. (a) An agency listed in Section 21159.4 shall perform, at
the time of the adoption of either a rule or
regulation requiring the installation of pollution control equipment,
or a performance standard or treatment requirement, or
including a rule or regulation that
requires the installation of pollution control equipment or a
performance standard or treatment requirement pursuant to the
California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 (Division 25.5
(commencing with Section 38500) of the Health and Safety Code), an
environmental analysis of the reasonably foreseeable methods of
compliance. In the preparation of this analysis, the agency may
utilize numerical ranges or averages where specific data is not
available; however, the agency shall not be required to engage in
speculation or conjecture. The environmental analysis shall, at
minimum, include , all of the following:
(1) An analysis of the reasonably foreseeable environmental
impacts of the methods of compliance.
(2) An analysis of reasonably foreseeable feasible mitigation
measures.
(3) An analysis of reasonably foreseeable alternative means of
compliance with the rule or regulation.
(4) For a rule or regulation adopted pursuant to the California
Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 (Division 25.5 (commencing with
Section 38500) of the Health and Safety Code), the analysis shall
also include reasonably foreseeable greenhouse gas
emission impacts of the methods of compliance identified as required
by this section.
(b) The preparation of an environmental impact report at the time
of adopting a rule or regulation pursuant to this division shall be
deemed to satisfy the requirements of this section.
(c) The environmental analysis shall take into account a
reasonable range of environmental, economic, and technical factors,
population and geographic areas, and specific sites.
(d) This section does not require the agency to conduct a
project level project-level analysis.
(e) For purposes of this article, the term "performance standard"
includes process or raw material changes or product reformulation.
(f) This section is not intended, and may not be used, to delay
the adoption of any rule or regulation for which an analysis is
required to be performed pursuant to this section.
SEC. 3. Section 21159.1 of the Public Resources Code is amended to
read:
21159.1. (a) A focused environmental impact report may be
utilized if a project meets all of the following requirements:
(1) The project , including a project that reduces greenhouse
gases to comply with a rule or regulation adopted pursuant to the
California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 (Division 25.5
(commencing with Section 38500) of the Health and Safety Code),
consists solely of the installation of pollution control equipment
required by a rule or regulation of an agency listed in Section
21159.4 and other components necessary to complete the installation
of that equipment or a project that reduces greenhouse gases
to comply with a rule or regulation adopted pursuant to the
California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 (Division 25.5
(commencing with Section 38500) of the Health and Safety Code).
.
(2) The agency certified an environmental impact report on the
rule or regulation or reviewed it pursuant to a certified regulatory
program, and, in either case, the review included an assessment of
growth inducing impacts and cumulative impacts of, and alternatives
to, the project.
(3) The environmental review required by paragraph (2) was
completed within five years of certification of the focused
environmental impact report.
(4) An environmental impact report is not required pursuant to
Section 21166.
(b) The discussion of significant effects on the environment in
the focused environmental impact report shall be limited to
project-specific potentially significant effects on the environment
of the project which that were not
discussed in the environmental analysis of the rule or regulation
required pursuant to subdivision (a) of Section 21159. A discussion
of growth-inducing impacts or cumulative impacts shall not be
required in the focused environmental impact report, and the
discussion of alternatives shall be limited to a discussion of
alternative means of compliance, if any, with the rule or regulation.