CA SB 768

Title: California Environmental Quality Act: State Air Resources Board: vehicle miles traveled: study.
Author: Anna Marie Caballero

Summary
SB 768, as amended, Caballero. California Environmental Quality Act: State Air Resources Board: vehicle miles traveled: study. The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) requires a lead agency, as defined, to prepare, or cause to be prepared, and certify the completion of an environmental impact report (EIR) on a project that it proposes to carry out or approve that may have a significant effect on the environment or to adopt a negative declaration if it finds that the project will not have that effect. CEQA also requires a lead agency to prepare a mitigated negative declaration for a project that may have a significant effect on the environment if revisions in the project would avoid or mitigate that effect and there is no substantial evidence that the project, as revised, would have a significant effect on the environment.Existing law requires the Office of Planning and Research to prepare, develop, and transmit to the Secretary of the Natural Resources Agency for certification and adoption proposed revisions to guidelines establishing criteria for determining the significance of transportation impacts of projects within transit priority areas to promote the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, the development of multimodal transportation networks, and a diversity of land uses.Existing law creates the State Air Resources Board as the state agency charged with coordinating efforts to attain and maintain ambient air quality standards, to conduct research into the causes of and solution to air pollution, and to systematically attack the serious problem caused by motor vehicles, which is the major source of air pollution in many areas of the state. Existing law authorizes the state board to do those acts as may be necessary for the proper execution of the powers and duties granted to, and imposed upon, the state board. This bill would require the state board, by January 1, 2026, to conduct and submit to the Legislature a study on how vehicle miles traveled is used as a metric for measuring transportation impacts pursuant to CEQA, as specified.

Status
Referred to Com. on NAT. RES.

Bill Documents
CA SB 768 - 01/11/24 - Amended Senate
01/11/24 - CA SB 768 (01/11/24 - Amended Senate)