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Fulfilling California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) Responsibilities for Greenhouse Gas Impacts in Power Plant Siting Applications
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Greenhouse Gas Emission Impacts of Power Plants
DOCKET # 08-GHG OII-01
Committee overseeing this proceeding is:
Presiding Member
Siting Committee
Robert B. Weisenmiller, Commissioner
Associate Member
Siting Committee
The Energy Commission adopted an Order Instituting Informational Proceeding (OII) on October 8, 2008 to address greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in power plant licensing cases.
- Order Instituting Informational Proceeding (Acrobat PDF file)
Background: The Energy Commission is the lead agency under California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) for all thermal power plants (50 megawatts or more) that are proposed for construction and operation in the state. The Energy Commission's licensing process is the equivalent of the CEQA environmental impact report process, which has been certified as an equivalent regulatory program.
The Siting Committee believes that as the lead agency in the power plant licensing process, the Energy Commission has a responsibility to determine if these proposed projects have a significant adverse environmental impact resulting from their greenhouse gas emissions (GHG), and if so, to mitigate such impacts if feasible.
The Siting Committee has proposed to begin an informational investigation, designed to assist the Energy Commission in determining:- How the GHG emissions of any proposed power plant should be measured.
- How the Energy Commission could determine if a proposed project's GHG emissions from construction and/or operation of the facility will result in any significant environmental impacts.
- What, if any, mitigation is feasible.
- How this determination coordinates with the forthcoming ARB requirements or other programmatic approaches on these proposed power plants.
For more information, please contact:
Matthew Layton
Supervising Engineer
Siting, Transmission, and Environmental Protection Division
California Energy Commission
1516 Ninth Street, MS-46
Sacramento, CA 95814
Phone: 916-654-3868
E-mail: mlayton@energy.state.ca.us
News media, please call: Media & Public Communications Office - 916-654-4989.