Environmental quality: Jobs and Economic Improvement Through Environmental Leadership Act of 2021.

(1) 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 the lead agency 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. The Jobs and Economic Improvement Through Environmental Leadership Act of 2011 (former leadership act) , which was repealed by its own terms on January 1, 2021, authorized the Governor, until January 1, 2020, to certify projects that meet certain requirements, including specified labor-related requirements and a requirement that the project applicant agrees to pay the costs of the court of appeal in hearing and deciding a case challenging a lead agency's action on a certified project, for streamlining benefits provided by the former leadership act related to CEQA. The former leadership act also required resolution, to the extent feasible, of judicial review of action taken by a lead agency within 270 days of the filing of the certified record of proceedings with the court. The former leadership act provided that if a lead agency fails to approve a project certified by the Governor before January 1, 2021, the certification expires and is no longer valid. The former leadership act required a lead agency to prepare the record of proceedings for the certified project concurrent with the preparation of the EIR. This bill would enact the Jobs and Economic Improvement Through Environmental Leadership Act of 2021, which would reenact the former leadership act, with certain changes, and would authorize the Governor, until January 1, 2024, to certify projects that meet specified requirements for streamlining benefits related to CEQA. The bill would additionally include housing development projects, as defined, meeting certain conditions as projects eligible for certification. The bill would, except for those housing development projects, require the quantification and mitigation of the impacts of a project from the emissions of greenhouse gases, as provided. The bill would revise and recast the labor-related requirements for projects undertaken by both public agencies and private entities. The bill would provide that the Governor is authorized to certify a project before the lead agency certifies the final EIR for the project. The bill would provide for the certification by the Governor of a project alternative described in an EIR for a certified project, as provided. The bill would additionally require an applicant for certification of a project for which the environmental review has begun to demonstrate that the record of proceedings for the project is being prepared concurrently with the administrative process. The bill would require the project applicant, as a condition of certification, to agree to pay the costs of the trial court in hearing and deciding a case challenging a lead agency's action on a certified project. The bill would authorize the Office of Planning and Research to charge a fee to an applicant seeking certification for costs incurred by the Governor's office in the implementation of the Jobs and Economic Improvement Through Environmental Leadership Act of 2021. The bill would require resolution, to the extent feasible, of judicial review of action taken by a lead agency within 270 days after the filing of the record of proceedings with the court. The bill would provide that if a lead agency fails to approve a project certified by the Governor under the Jobs and Economic Improvement Through Environmental Leadership Act of 2021 before January 1, 2025, the certification is no longer valid. The bill would repeal the Jobs and Economic Improvement Through Environmental Leadership Act of 2021 on January 1, 2026. Because the bill would require the lead agency to prepare concurrently the record of proceedings for projects that are certified by the Governor, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. This bill would further provide that projects certified by the Governor under the former leadership act before January 1, 2020, and that are approved by a lead agency on or before January 1, 2022, are entitled to the benefits of and are required to comply with the requirements set forth in the former leadership act as it read on January 1, 2020. (2) The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason. (3) This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.