The Governor's Office of Planning & Research (OPR) has released a draft of the new CEQA Guidelines for assessing greenhouse gas emissions and global warming impacts of and on projects as mandated by SB 97 (Public Resources Code § 21083.05).
The proposed revisions are one more reminder that the shortest path through the CEQA thicket on greenhouse gas emissions will be for local agencies to adopt climate action plans and to be fully engaged in regional planning to assure that greenhouse gas effects are adequately addressed in a plan for which an environmental impact report was certified.
As the introduction to OPR's draft frankly acknowledged, "The most difficult part of any greenhouse gas emissions analysis will inevitably be the determination of significance." OPR tracked existing law in stating that lead agencies have discretion to establish thresholds of significance "based on individual circumstances." Presumably by "individual" OPR means the agency's individualized local circumstances. To be considered valid, local thresholds of significance must be adopted for general use by the jurisdiction for review of all projects, after undergoing a public review process (which for local agencies would include a public hearing) and be based on substantial evidence (CEQA Guidelines § 15064.7). Local thresholds should not be based on the individual circumstances of specific projects. Project-level assessments of significance if potentially above adopted threshold levels as determined in the initial study are made in an EIR.
OPR pointed out that it had requested CARB technical staff to recommend methods for setting thresholds of significance. OPR did not refer to CARB's "Preliminary Draft Staff Proposal Recommended Approaches for Setting Interim Significance Thresholds for Greenhouse Gases" released in October, which received a chilly response at a public workshop last fall. OPR noted only, "If CARB makes recommendations supported by substantial evidence, lead agencies may take them into consideration as part of their independent processes, consistent with adopted CEQA regulations, to adopt thresholds of significance for greenhouse gas emissions." You might say OPR handed CARB back its watch, unwound.
The draft revisions are presented in a red-line strike-out format to show the context in which they appear in the existing CEQA Guidelines. Of particular note are the provisions broadening the documents which may be used for tiering purposes. In addition to general plans and previously specified regional plans, agencies would be allowed to tier off specific plans, regional blueprint plans, sustainable community strategies (a nod to SB 375) and climate action plans. Again, this reinforces the idea that local agencies should take a systematic approach, rather than addressing projects' greenhouse gas impacts on an ad hoc basis.
– Joel Ellinwood, AICP
