CEQA Guidelines on Greenhouse Gas Impacts Take Effect in March

On March 18, 2010, amendments to CEQA guidelines will take effect, requiring the analysis of greenhouse gas (GHG) impacts.

So, any remaining questions on whether CEQA requires GHG analysis have been eliminated. The issue now is how to perform the analysis. The State CEQA Guidelines left discretion to public agencies to determine the methodology and standards of significance for evaluating GHG impacts. Some air quality districts are providing some guidance for how agencies may address this issue, but the approaches are not uniform. Agencies need to decide how they are going to perform this analysis, considering issues such as a quantified versus qualitative standard and the use of a programmatic analysis based on adoption of a GHG reduction or climate action plan.

These challenging issues are addressed in an article by our firm, Meyers Nave, published this week. The article describes the applicable regulations and evaluates the issues and risks presented by different approaches. Click here to read the article.