Transportation projects: environmental mitigation.

The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) requires a lead agency to prepare, or cause to be prepared, and certify the completion of an environmental impact report on a project, as defined, that it proposes to carry out or approve that may have a significant effect on the environment, as defined, or to adopt a negative declaration if it finds that the project will not have that effect, subject to certain exceptions. The bill would create the Advanced Mitigation Program in the Department of Transportation to implement environmental mitigation measures in advance of future transportation projects. The bill, by February 1, 2017, would require the department to establish a steering committee to advise the department in that regard.