Thresholds of Significance for greenhouse gas emissions retain local discretion in proposed SB 97 CEQA Guidelines revisions

First published in California Planning & Development Report, January 9, 2008

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National Business Institute is offering "Climate Change: Local Government Response" on December 12, 2008 at the Sheraton Grand Sacramento Hotel, 1230 J Street in Sacramento.

The faculty for this seminar are land use and environmental attorneys Timothy D. Crimin of Meyers Nave, Eric W. Davis of Somach, Simmons & Dunn and Joel Ellinwood, AICP Lawyer-Planner. Topics include Planning, Land Use and Climate Change; Local Government Operations and Initiatives and CEQA and Climate Change. You will hear about the latest developments in this rapidly evolving field including a review of the AB 32 CARB Scoping Plan, SB 375 Regional transportation, land use, housing and greenhouse gas reduction coordinated planning, and the status of revisions to the CEQA Guidelines mandated by SB 97.

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[first published in California Planning & Development Report on October 30, 2008]

The old joke about the man on the street who asked a scientist for the time and instead got a two-hour lecture about how to build a watch (and the poor fellow never did find out what time it was) was played out again in Sacramento this week when the California Air Resources Board staff released its "Preliminary Draft Staff Proposal Recommended Approaches for Setting Interim Significance Thresholds for Greenhouse Gases" on Friday and presented it in a workshop on Monday. The twenty-page document leaves most of the spaces for benchmark numbers blank, while proposing an elaborate process amounting to a new categorical exemption with CARB squarely at the controls.

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