---
type: "Bill"
title: "State government."
description: "(1) The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) requires a lead agency to prepare, or cause to be prepared, and certify the completion of, an environmental impact report on a project that it proposes to carry out or approve that may have a significant effect on the environment or to adopt a negative declaration if it finds that the project will not have that effect. CEQA generally requires a lead agency to prepare a mitigated negative declaration for a project that may have a significant effect on the environment if revisions in the project would avoid or mitigate that effect and there is no substantial evidence that the project, as revised, would have a significant effect on the environment. CEQA also provides some exemptions from its requirements for specified projects."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ca"
legislature: "California Legislature"
session: "20092010 Special Session 2"
identifier: "AB 8"
citation: "California AB 8 (20092010 Special Session 2)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["State government."]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Nestande"]
version_count: 5
action_count: 19
vote_count: 3
first_action: "2009-02-11"
last_action: "2009-02-20"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/c9750194-ef6c-4fa3-aa29-f74e329f74cc"
source_url: "http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=200920102AB8"
source_hash: "19a7f9840d3904501a07e5bfe8dc02fbf1178893e987ee285de834c435586fe9"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-ca"]
---

# California AB 8 (20092010 Special Session 2) — State government.

(1) The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) requires a lead agency to prepare, or cause to be prepared, and certify the completion of, an environmental impact report on a project that it proposes to carry out or approve that may have a significant effect on the environment or to adopt a negative declaration if it finds that the project will not have that effect. CEQA generally requires a lead agency to prepare a mitigated negative declaration for a project that may have a significant effect on the environment if revisions in the project would avoid or mitigate that effect and there is no substantial evidence that the project, as revised, would have a significant effect on the environment. CEQA also provides some exemptions from its requirements for specified projects.

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **02/11/09 - Introduced** (filed) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=200920102AB8&version=20092AB899INT)
2. **02/14/09 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=200920102AB8&version=20092AB898AMD)
3. **02/20/09 - Chaptered** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=200920102AB8&version=20092AB896CHP)
4. **AB8** (committee substitute) — [source](http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=200920102AB8)
5. **02/19/09 - Enrolled** (enrolled) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=200920102AB8&version=20092AB897ENR)

## Votes

- Assembly 3rd Supp 1 AB8 Nestande By Cogdill — **pass** (pass) · upper
- W/O REF. TO FILE AB8 Evans — **pass** (pass) · upper
- AB8 NESTANDE Assembly Third Reading Second Extraordinary Session — **pass** (pass) · lower

## Sponsors

- Nestande — primary (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2009-02-11** Read first time. To print. `reading-1`
- **2009-02-12** From printer.
- **2009-02-14** Art. IV, Sec. 8(b) of the Constitution suspended. (Ayes 67. Noes 1. Page 43.)
- **2009-02-14** Read second time. To third reading. `reading-2, reading-1`
- **2009-02-14** Read third time, amended, and returned to third reading. (Page 47.). `reading-3, amendment-passage, reading-1`
- **2009-02-14** Read third time, passed, and to Senate. (Ayes 48. Noes 28. Page 48.) `reading-3, passage, reading-1`
- **2009-02-14** In Senate. Read first time. To Com. on RLS. for assignment. `reading-1`
- **2009-02-14** Referred to Com. on RLS. `referral-committee`
- **2009-02-14** Withdrawn from committee. Ordered placed on second reading file.
- **2009-02-14** Read second time. To third reading. `reading-2, reading-1`
- **2009-02-15** Unanimous consent granted to take up without reference to file.
- **2009-02-15** Read third time, passed, and to Assembly. (Ayes 24. Noes 11. Page 39.) `reading-3, passage, reading-1`
- **2009-02-15** Motion to reconsider made by Senator Florez.
- **2009-02-15** Reconsideration granted. (Ayes 39. Noes 0. Page 39.)
- **2009-02-19** Read third time, passed, and to Assembly. (Ayes 26. Noes 10. Page 45.) `reading-3, passage, reading-1`
- **2009-02-19** In Assembly. To enrollment.
- **2009-02-19** Enrolled and to the Governor at 11 a.m.
- **2009-02-20** Approved by the Governor. `executive-signature`
- **2009-02-20** Chaptered by Secretary of State. Chapter 6, Statutes of 2009-10 Second Extraordinary Session.

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/c9750194-ef6c-4fa3-aa29-f74e329f74cc`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official California legislature records).