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City of Santa Ana Environmental Checklist • Reduced snow pack and stream flow in the Sierra Nevada mountains, affecting winter recreation and water supplies. • Potential increase in the severity of winter storms, affecting peak stream flows and flooding. • Changes in growing season conditions that could affect California agriculture, causing variations in crop quality and yield. • Changes in distribution of plaint and wildlife species due to changes in temperature, competition from colonizing species, changes in hydrologic cycles, changes in sea levels, and other climate- related effects. These changes in California's climate and ecosystems are occurring at a time when California's population is expected to increase from 34 million to 59 million by the year 2040 (CEC 2006). As such, the number of people potentially affected by climate change as well as the amount of anthropogenic GHG emissions expected under a "business as usual" (BAU) scenario is expected to increase. Similar changes as those noted above for California would also occur in other parts of the world with regional variations in resources affected and vulnerability to adverse effects. GHG emissions in California are attributable to human activities associated with industrial/manufacturing, utilities, transportation, residential, and agricultural sectors (CEC 2006) as well as natural processes. Regulatory Setting Federal Climate Change Policy Twelve U.S. states and cities (including California), in conjunction with several environmental organizations, sued to force the EPA to regulate GHGs as a pollutant pursuant to the federal CAA (Massachusetts vs. Environmental Protection Agency et al. [U.S. Supreme Court No. 05-1120; argued November 29, 2006; decided April 2, 2007]). The court ruled that the plaintiffs had standing to sue, that GHGs fit within the CAA's definition of a pollutant, and that the EPA's reasons for not regulating GHGs were insufficiently grounded in the CAA. Despite the Supreme Court ruling, there are no promulgated federal regulations to date limiting GHG emissions. On December 7, 2009, the EPA Administrator signed two distinct findings regarding greenhouse gases under section 202(a) of the Clean Air Act: • Endangerment Finding: The Administrator finds that the current and projected concentrations of the six key well-mixed GHGs--CO2, CH4, N20, HFCs, PFCs, and SF6--in the atmosphere threaten the public health and welfare of current and future generations. • Cause or Contribute Finding: The Administrator finds that the combined emissions of these well- mixed GHGs from new motor vehicles and new motor vehicle engines contribute to the greenhouse gas pollution which threatens public health and welfare. Although these findings did not themselves impose any requirements on industry or other entities, this action was a prerequisite to finalizing the EPA's Proposed Greenhouse Gas Emission Standards/or Light-Duty Vehicles, which was published on September 15, 2009.3 On May 7, 2010, the final Light- Duty Vehicle Greenhouse Gas Emissions Standards and Corporate Average Fuel Economy Standards was published in the Federal Register. 3 httr,//wwiv.epa,guv/cliniateclianEe/`eiidanffernient litini The Bat Nha Buddhist Meditation Center 3-39 June 2013 Initial Study/Mitigated Negative Declaration icF 00215.12 31 C-92