Turning Green
(Greenhouse Gases)
By Thomas J. McGill, Ph.D.
The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) requires that Lead Agencies present the public with information regarding potential environmental impacts from 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 the earth measurable by wind patterns, storms, precipitation, and temperature. Greenhouse gases that trap heat in the atmosphere and 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, specific CEQA guidelines for determining the effects of greenhouse gas emissions from a project do not yet exist. Additionally, there are no published thresholds or approved methods for determining whether a project's greenhouse gas emissions are significant under CEQA. So basically, without the benefit of a knowledgeable CEQA consultant, you may find yourself caught between a rock and a hard place... you know you have to analyze greenhouse gases but there is no guidance for how to do it.
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 "non-zero threshold." 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 non-zero 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 (LEED).
The concept of addressing greenhouse gases is a new yet somewhat obscure and, currently, poorly defined CEQA requirement. Fortunately, there are firms that understand the process and can get your project successfully cleared under CEQA. If you have questions regarding greenhouse gases or would like a specific topic addressed in a future column, please let me know via email at tmcgill@brandman.com.
References
Association of Environmental Professionals. June 29, 2007. Principal Authors Michael Hendrix and Cori Wilson. Alternative Approaches to Analyzing Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Global Climate Change in CEQA Documents.
California Air Pollution Control Officers Association. January 2008. CEQA & Climate Change, Evaluating and Addressing Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Projects Subject to the California Environmental Quality Act.
February 2008 Issue