---
type: "Bill"
title: "Jobs and Economic Improvement Through Environmental Leadership Act of 2011."
description: "(1) The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) requires a lead agency, as defined, to prepare, or cause to be prepared, and certify the completion of, an environmental impact report (EIR) 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 also 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."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ca"
legislature: "California Legislature"
session: "20112012"
identifier: "AB 900"
citation: "California AB 900 (20112012)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Jobs and Economic Improvement Through Environmental Leadership Act of 2011."]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Buchanan"]
version_count: 8
action_count: 43
vote_count: 10
first_action: "2011-02-17"
last_action: "2011-09-27"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/26508489-0db1-4dec-bb24-688efc6ea445"
source_url: "http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201120120AB900"
source_hash: "c350d9daf2ad66aa37df4b23b925351df41fd583397078573b2a70e820fd45c4"
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 900 (20112012) — Jobs and Economic Improvement Through Environmental Leadership Act of 2011.

(1) The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) requires a lead agency, as defined, to prepare, or cause to be prepared, and certify the completion of, an environmental impact report (EIR) 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 also 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.

## Version chain

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

1. **02/17/11 - Introduced** (filed) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201120120AB900&version=20110AB90099INT)
2. **04/26/11 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201120120AB900&version=20110AB90098AMD)
3. **05/10/11 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201120120AB900&version=20110AB90097AMD)
4. **09/08/11 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201120120AB900&version=20110AB90096AMD)
5. **09/09/11 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201120120AB900&version=20110AB90095AMD)
6. **09/27/11 - Chaptered** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201120120AB900&version=20110AB90093CHP)
7. **AB900** (committee substitute) — [source](http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201120120AB900)
8. **09/19/11 - Enrolled** (enrolled) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201120120AB900&version=20110AB90094ENR)

## Votes

- W/O REF. TO FILE AB900 Buchanan By Steinberg Reconsider — **40–0** (pass) · upper
- Do pass as amended and be re-referred to the Committee on Appropriations. — **6–1** (pass) · lower
- Do pass, but re-refer to the Committee on Appropriations. — **5–1** (pass) · upper
- AB 900 SWANSON Assembly Third Reading — **53–26** (pass) · lower
- W/O REF. TO FILE AB900 Buchanan By Steinberg — **33–6** (pass) · upper
- W/O REF. TO FILE AB900 Buchanan By Steinberg Urgency Clause — **32–7** (pass) · upper
- AB 900 BUCHANAN Concurrence in Senate Amendments — **58–15** (pass) · lower
- W/O REF. TO FILE AB900 Buchanan By Steinberg — **35–4** (pass) · upper
- Do pass as amended and be re-referred to the Committee on Natural Resources. — **7–3** (pass) · lower
- Do pass. — **12–5** (pass) · lower

## Sponsors

- Buchanan — primary (person)
- Block — coauthor (person)
- Calderon — coauthor (person)
- Gordon — author (person)
- Lieu — coauthor (person)
- Pan — coauthor (person)
- Rubio — coauthor (person)
- Steinberg — principal coauthor (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2011-02-17** Read first time. To print. `reading-1`
- **2011-02-18** From printer. May be heard in committee March 20.
- **2011-03-14** Referred to Coms. on ED. and NAT. RES. `referral-committee`
- **2011-04-25** From committee: Do pass as amended and re-refer to Com. on NAT. RES. (Ayes 7. Noes 3.) (April 13). `amendment-passage, committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2011-04-26** Read second time and amended. `reading-2, reading-1, amendment-passage`
- **2011-04-27** Re-referred to Com. on NAT. RES. `referral-committee`
- **2011-05-09** From committee: Do pass as amended and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 6. Noes 1.) (May 2). `amendment-passage, committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2011-05-10** Read second time and amended. `reading-2, reading-1, amendment-passage`
- **2011-05-11** Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `referral-committee`
- **2011-05-27** In committee: Set, first hearing. Referred to APPR. suspense file. `referral-committee`
- **2011-05-27** From committee: Do pass. (Ayes 12. Noes 5.) (May 27). `committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2011-05-27** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-2, reading-1`
- **2011-05-31** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Senate. (Ayes 53. Noes 26. Page 1656.) `reading-3, reading-1, passage`
- **2011-05-31** In Senate. Read first time. To Com. on RLS. for assignment. `reading-1`
- **2011-06-08** Referred to Com. on RLS. `referral-committee`
- **2011-09-08** Senate Rule 29.3(b) suspended. (Ayes 22. Noes 11. Page 2408.)
- **2011-09-08** Pursuant to Joint Rules 33.1,
- **2011-09-08** Joint Rule 61(a)(12) suspended. (Page 2420.)
- **2011-09-08** Joint Rule 62(a), file notice suspended. (Page 2420.)
- **2011-09-08** From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to committee. Read second time, amended, and re-referred to Com. on RLS. `reading-2, amendment-introduction, reading-1, amendment-passage, referral-committee`
- **2011-09-08** Re-referred to Com. on E.Q. `referral-committee`
- **2011-09-09** From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 5. Noes 1.) (September 9). Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `referral-committee, committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2011-09-09** Pursuant to Joint Rule 33.1,
- **2011-09-09** Joint Rule 10.5 suspended. (Page 2438.)
- **2011-09-09** Withdrawn from committee.
- **2011-09-09** Ordered to third reading.
- **2011-09-09** Read third time. Urgency clause adopted. Passed. Ordered to the Assembly. (Ayes 32. Noes 7. Page 2442.). `reading-3, reading-1, passage`
- **2011-09-09** In Assembly. Concurrence in Senate amendments pending.
- **2011-09-09** Ordered to the Senate.
- **2011-09-09** In Senate. Held at Desk.
- **2011-09-09** Action rescinded whereby the bill was read third time and passed. `reading-3, passage`
- **2011-09-09** Motion to take up the bill without reference to file by unanimous consent. (Ayes 40. Noes 0. Page 2466.)
- **2011-09-09** Read third time and amended. `reading-3, reading-1, amendment-passage`
- **2011-09-09** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Assembly. (Ayes 35. Noes 4. Page 2466.). `reading-3, reading-1, passage`
- **2011-09-09** Motion to reconsider made by Senator Steinberg.
- **2011-09-09** (Ayes 40. Noes 0. Page 2467.)
- **2011-09-09** Reconsideration of favorable vote granted.
- **2011-09-09** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Assembly. (Ayes 33. Noes 6. Page 2467.). `reading-3, reading-1, passage`
- **2011-09-09** Senate amendments concurred in. To Engrossing and Enrolling. (Ayes 58. Noes 15. Page 3217.). `committee-passage-favorable, amendment-passage`
- **2011-09-09** Measure version as amended on September 9 corrected. `amendment-passage`
- **2011-09-20** Enrolled and presented to the Governor at 3 p.m.
- **2011-09-27** Approved by the Governor. `executive-signature`
- **2011-09-27** Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 354, Statutes of 2011.

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/26508489-0db1-4dec-bb24-688efc6ea445`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official California legislature records).