Bill > SB887

This bill, by amending the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), aims to ensure that data centers, which are large-scale energy and water consumers crucial for processing and storing data, are subject to environmental review. Specifically, it clarifies that data center development and operation projects are not considered "ministerial projects" (actions that are routine and require little to no discretion from a public agency) and therefore cannot be exempt from CEQA's environmental impact assessment requirements. Additionally, the bill modifies an existing exemption for advanced manufacturing facilities to explicitly exclude data centers from this exemption. Furthermore, it expands the "Environmental Leadership Development Projects" program, which offers streamlining benefits for certain environmentally beneficial projects, to include data centers that meet stringent conditions related to energy and water usage, grid impact, and community benefits, thereby encouraging responsible development of these critical infrastructure components while protecting California's environmental goals and ratepayers from increased costs.

Agriculture and Natural Resources

https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billStatusClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260SB887