Environmental Law
Envt'l Law News Summer 2015, Vol. 24, No. 1
Content
- 2014-2015 Environmental Law Section Executive Committee
- California's Efforts to Solve Its Water Shortage: Can They Succeed?
- Editor's Note...
- Environmental Law News Publications Committee
- Is the Endangered Species Act Constitutional? How the Utah Prairie Dog Case May Impact California
- Redevelopment Rewind: a Look at the Current Status of Public and Private Brownfields Redevelopment
- Solar Energy and the Williamson Act: Legal Developments and Recent Trends
- Table of Contents
- The 2014 Environmental Legislative Recap: An Election Year Drought
- The Increasingly Steep Climb to Regulatory Closure for Contaminated Sites
- Where the Rubber Meets the Road: Implementing the Low-Carbon Fuel Standard and Cap-and-Trade for Transportation Fuels to Reduce Carbon Emissions
- A New Era: Consultation with California Native American Tribes and Consideration of Tribal Cultural Resources under Ceqa
A New Era: Consultation with California Native American Tribes and Consideration of Tribal Cultural Resources under CEQA
by Andee Leisy*
INTRODUCTION
On September 25, 2014, Governor Brown signed Assembly Bill 52 (AB 52), expanding the provisions of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) (Pub. Resources Code, § 21000 et seq.) to provide California Native American tribes,1 including those that are not federally recognized,2an opportunity to engage in formal consultation with public agencies considering approval of projects that could result in impacts to "tribal cultural resources." AB 52 applies to projects with a notice of preparation (NOP) of an environmental impact report (EIR) or of a negative declaration or mitigated negative declaration (MND) issued on or after July 1, 2015.
Authored by Assemblyman Mike Gatto, D-Los Angeles, AB 52 establishes tribal cultural resources as a new resource category requiring analysis under CEQA. It also formalizes the duty of State and local public agencies to consult with tribes, upon written request, for the first time.