LegAlert 15

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no. 15 - JULY 14, 1995

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Many LegAlert users have expressed interest in contacting their legislators
via e-mail. For those of you with World Wide Web access, directories are
available at the following sites:

CA Assembly: http://www.assembly.ca.gov
CA Senate: http://www.sen.ca.gov
US Congress: http://www.lib.umich.edu/libhome/Documents.center/federal.html

If you're interested but can't access these sites, I can e-mail the files to
you.

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SB 1180 (Calderon) - Originally introduced by Senator Haynes to provide a
relatively narrow exemption for military base re-use, this measure was
recently substantially amended by Senator Calderon to repeal the heart of the
California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA).

The purpose of CEQA is to inform decision makers and the public about the
impacts of proposed activities and projects on the environment. It creates an
important mechanism through which the public can participate in local land use
planning decisions which may significantly affect the quality of their lives
and neighborhoods. At the heart of CEQA is the legal standard by which a lead
agency makes the threshold determination of whether to prepare an
environmental impact report (EIR) or a negative declaration -- the "fair
argument" standard. The standard sets forth the following question: Can it
be fairly argued based on substantial evidence in light of the whole record
that a project may have a significant effect on the environment? If so, an
EIR must be prepared.

Essentially, SB 1180 eliminates that standard and substitutes one that is much
higher by requiring a lead agency determination that a project "would" have a
significant effect on the environment. In addition, SB 1180 changes the
standard for the determination of whether a negative declaration should be
prepared for a project. This proposed change is significant and is
fundamentally flawed. It assumes that a lead agency has enough information
before it at the initial study stage to make such a comprehensive
determination; however, at the initial study stage, there is no record upon
which to base such a decision. All the lead agency has before it is a
checklist of information. The significance of this change is that it will
truly "gut" CEQA.

Status - SB 1180 is currently in the Assembly Committee on Natural Resources
and may be heard as soon as next week. If it passes the Assembly, it must
return to the Senate for concurrence (due to the substantial amendments).

Action needed - Call or write your Assembly Member as well as your Senator and
urge them to vote "NO" on SB 1180. Legislators sitting on the Natural
Resources Committees (listed below) will be particularly influential.

Assembly: Sher (Chair), Olberg(Vice-Chair), Bates, Boland, Bowen, Figueroa,
Firestone, Kuehl, Poochigian, Richter, Rogan, Speier, Sweeney, Thompson and
Woods.

Senate: Hayden(Chair), Thompson (Vice-Chair), Johannessen, Johnston, Killea,
Leslie, Mello, Monteith, O'Connell, Rogers and Solis.

SB 649 (Costa) - Water pollution (see LegAlert #13). Defeated July 11 in
Assembly Water, Parks and Wildlife Committee. May be reconsidered soon.

AB 1659 (Woods) - Administrative regulations (see LegAlert #13). Defeated July
11 in the Senate Governmental Organization Committee. May be reconsidered
soon.

SB 28 (Leslie) - Mountain lion hunting (see LegAlert #1). Passed out of the
Assembly Water, Parks and Wildlife Committee on July 11. Will be heard next by
the Assembly Appropriations Committee.

Address your letters to:      Assemblymember/Senator ________
                              State Capitol
                              Sacramento, CA  95814

To find out who your
state legislators are, call:  (916) 445-3614 (Assembly)
                              (916) 445-4251 (Senate)

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