CEQA and Senate Bill 97 will require agencies to consider greenhouse gas emissions in evaluating projects
The role of the California Environmental Quality Act ("CEQA"), if any, in addressing climate change and greenhouse gas emissions ("GHGs") was the subject of debate in California after the passage in 2006 of the California Global Warming Solutions Act, often referred to as Assembly Bill 32 (“AB 32”). CEQA is a public disclosure law that requires public agencies to identify "significant environmental effects" of discretionary projects that they intend to carry out or approve, and to mitigate such significant effects when it is feasible to do so. AB 32 provided that GHG emissions can cause significant environmental effects, but did not address how public agencies in carrying out their duties pursuant to CEQA in approving projects should evaluate those emissions. For example, how does a public agency determine whether GHG emissions relating to a project meets a threshold of "significant impact"?
AB 32, in brief, provides that California is the source of substantial amounts of GHG emissions and establishes a state goal of reducing GHG emissions to 1990 levels by the year 2020 – a reduction of approximately 25% from predicted emission levels. (The law requires the California Air Resources Board to establish a program to track and report GHG emissions and to undertake numerous other regulatory actions and measures to ensure that the required reductions are implemented.)
In 2007, the California legislature passed a "companion" bill – Senate Bill 97 – to amend the CEQA statute to specifically establish that GHG emissions and their impacts are appropriate subjects for CEQA analysis. But the law does not address the evaluation and determination of "significance." The law simply directs the state's Office of Planning and Research ("OPR") to develop draft CEQA guidelines "for the mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions or the effects of greenhouse gas emissions" by July 1, 2009 and directs the state Resources Agency to certify and adopt the CEQA guidelines by January 1, 2010. Until that time, the OPR has issued a Technical Advisory (“Addressing Climate Change through CEQA Review”) to help guide agencies through the process by providing suggested standards on calculating GHG emissions, determining potential significance, and implementing mitigation measures, if necessary and feasible.
