Turning Green
(Greenhouse Gases)
The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) requires that lead agencies present the public with information regarding potential environmental impacts of a proposed project and feasible ways to avoid or reduce resulting environmental damage. The State Legislature enacted Assembly Bill (AB) 32, the Global Warming Solutions Act, in 2006 to require the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by the year 2020. Your project's environmental documents, therefore, must now address these issues; however, many developers don't yet understand how they will impact future development.
Let's start with the basics. Global warming (also known as climate change) is an alteration in the average weather of Earth measurable by wind patterns, storms, precipitation and temperature. Greenhouse gases that trap heat in the atmosphere include carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons and sulfur hexafluoride. The California Attorney General's Office (Jerry Brown) and most environmental watchdog groups are demanding that all projects analyze climate change as part of the CEQA process. However, due to SB 97, these specific CEQA guidelines for determining the effects of greenhouse gas emissions will not be required or officially adopted by the State Office of Planning and Research until January 2010. Until then, there will be no published thresholds or approved methods for determining whether a project's greenhouse gas emissions are significant under CEQA; so, without the benefit of a knowledgeable CEQA consultant, you may find yourself caught between a rock and a hard place.
The simplest course of action is to hire a good environmental consultant who will include an analysis of greenhouse gases in your environmental document. Now, to understand what they will be doing on your behalf, read on.
There are various options for a CEQA threshold of significance, including a "net- zero threshold" or a "nonzero threshold." Each is discussed below.
Under a net-zero threshold, all projects subject to CEQA would have to quantify and mitigate their greenhouse gas emissions to zero, regardless of the project's size or the availability of measures to reduce emissions. Projects unable to reduce emissions to zero would require an Environmental Impact Report disclosing significant impacts and developing justification for a statement of overriding considerations to be adopted by the lead agency.
A nonzero threshold is derived from one of many options, including compliance with state or local strategies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the creation and use of a "green list" to promote the construction of projects that have desirable greenhouse gas emission characteristics and/or use of tiered methodology to estimate emissions and mitigate. Desirable greenhouse gas emissions can be achieved through smart land use concepts (high-density/retail mixed use, infill and transit-oriented design) and Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design.
The concept of addressing greenhouse gases is a new CEQA requirement; yet, it is somewhat obscure and, currently, poorly defined. Fortunately, there are firms that understand the process and can get your project successfully cleared under CEQA.
March 2008 Builder Architect Edition Issue
| Permalink
