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In August 2008, the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District’s Governing Board adopted the Climate Change Action Plan (CCAP). The CCAP directed the District Air Pollution Control Officer to develop guidance to assist Lead Agencies, project proponents, permit applicants, and interested parties in assessing and reducing the impacts of project specific greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions on global climate change,
On December 17, 2009, the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District (District) adopted the guidance: Guidance for Valley Land-use Agencies in Addressing GHG Emission Impacts for New Projects under CEQA and the policy: District Policy – Addressing GHG Emission Impacts for Stationary Source Projects Under CEQA When Serving as the Lead Agency. The guidance and policy rely on the use of performance based standards, otherwise known as Best Performance Standards (BPS), to assess significance of project specific greenhouse gas emissions on global climate change during the environmental review process, as required by CEQA.
Use of BPS is a method of streamlining the CEQA process of determining significance and is not a required emission reduction measure. Projects implementing BPS would be determined to have a less than cumulatively significant impact. Otherwise, demonstration of a 29 percent reduction in GHG emissions, from business-as-usual, is required to determine that a project would have a less than cumulatively significant impact. The guidance does not limit a lead agency’s authority in establishing its own process and guidance for determining significance of project related impacts on global climate change. For detailed information on the District’s Climate Change Action Plan, BPS, and GHG Emission Reduction Measures, please select from the links below.
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