Scoping Plan Revisions

On August 24, 2011, the California Air Resources Control Board (Board) through its Notice of Decision approved the revised and reapproved the Scoping Plan for carrying out the state’s greenhouse gas law, AB 32.  Although the Board’s action came after a full day of hearing that was mostly dominated by environmental justice advocates arguing that the new analysis still fails to comply with Superior Court Judge Goldsmith’s May 2011 decision regarding inadequate alternatives analysis, particularly as it relates to the Environmental Justice Community.  The analysis of the environmental impacts was more thorough in the new document and the CEQA Functionally Equivalent Document (“FED”) conclusions were essentially the same.  Based on the comments made at the hearing it seems likely that this approved FED will also be subject to challenge.