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SENATE BILL 549 (JOHNSON – 1982)
CHAPTER 58, STATUTES OF 1982 - SB 549
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In 1982, Public Resources Code section 21080.5 was added, and Public Resources Code section 21080.13 was amended following passage of Senate Bill 549. (See Exhibit #1f) Senator Ray Johnson introduced this measure on March 11, 1981, as it related to funding for grade separation projects. (See Exhibit #1a) This language was deleted on June 30, 1981 and a provision relating to environmental impact reports was substituted. (See Exhibit #1b) In a letter to Governor Brown on February 8, 1982, Senator Johnson indicated that Senate Bill 549 was sponsored by the California Railroad Association and Tosco. (See Exhibit #12, documents PE-1 and PE-11) The letter also stated that the amendments relating to air pollution control districts were made on behalf of Assembly member Hannigan, who was serving as the chairman of the Assembly Energy and Natural Resources Committee. (See Exhibit #12, document PE-11, and #8)
Senate Bill 549 was assigned to the Senate Committee on Energy and Public Utilities and the Assembly Committee on Energy and Natural Resources where policy issues raised by the bill were considered. (See Exhibits #3 and #8) The fiscal ramifications of the bill were considered by the Senate Committee on
Finance and the Assembly Committee on Ways and Means. (See Exhibits #2 and #9) Four amendments were made to Senate Bill 549. (See Exhibits #1b through #1e and #2)
When the Senate did not accept the last Assembly amendments, a Conference Committee was called. (See Exhibits #1e and #2) The purpose of a Conference Committee is to bring together six legislators, three from each House, in an attempt to reach a compromise on a bill’s language which is acceptable to both the Senate and the Assembly. The Conference Committee on Senate Bill 549 made amendments to the bill in a conference report on February 4, 1982, which were accepted by the Legislature. (See Exhibit #1f) Subsequent to legislative approval, Governor Edmund G. Brown, Jr., signed Senate Bill 549 on February 18, 1982 and it was recorded by the Secretary of State on that day as Chapter 58 of the Statutes of 1982. (See Exhibit #1g)
Senate Bill 549 was an urgency bill going into immediate effect. The reason necessitating the urgency was noted in Section 4 of the bill. (See Exhibit #1g, page 190)
The Senate Republican Caucus analysis of Senate Bill 549, as amended in Conference Committee, summarized the measure as follows:
This bill exempts from the California Environment Quality Act’s (CEQA) environmental impact report providions [sic] any grade separation project which eliminates an existing grade crossing or which reconstructs an existing grade separation. Specifies that the grade exemption is to apply only to railroad grade separation projects.
Declares that any air pollution control district is to be a state agency for the purposes of qualifying for an EIR or negative declaration exemption under CEQA. It deletes the exception for an air quality management district for activities undertaken by it with respect to specified provisions relating to nonattainment area plans.
Approval by a district of a nonattainment plan would be subject to these state agency requirements only if the approval adopts or amends rules or regulations.
(See Exhibit #7, page 1)