republic-os/legislation/us/states/ca/20092010/ab-231.md

---
type: "Bill"
title: "Environment: California Environmental Quality Act: overriding consideration."
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. The 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. For projects whose environmental impacts can not be mitigated to less than significance, existing law authorizes a lead agency to find that specified overriding economic, legal, social, technological, or other benefits of the project outweigh the significant effects on the environment. If an EIR has been prepared and certified for a program, plan, policy, or ordinance, a lead agency is required to use a tiered EIR for a later project if the lead agency determines that the later project is consistent with the program, plan, policy, or ordinance, and satisfies other criteria."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ca"
legislature: "California Legislature"
session: "20092010"
identifier: "AB 231"
citation: "California AB 231 (20092010)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Environment: California Environmental Quality Act: overriding consideration."]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Huber"]
version_count: 10
action_count: 29
vote_count: 6
first_action: "2009-02-05"
last_action: "2010-09-29"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/1664ad03-734e-4cfb-a845-5e011f169e24"
source_url: "http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=200920100AB231"
source_hash: "5eabb0c3347e94e6b90832c6ef21b9b86c5d065c7821ba929b62f7f66c51ef40"
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 231 (20092010) — Environment: California Environmental Quality Act: overriding consideration.

(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. The 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. For projects whose environmental impacts can not be mitigated to less than significance, existing law authorizes a lead agency to find that specified overriding economic, legal, social, technological, or other benefits of the project outweigh the significant effects on the environment. If an EIR has been prepared and certified for a program, plan, policy, or ordinance, a lead agency is required to use a tiered EIR for a later project if the lead agency determines that the later project is consistent with the program, plan, policy, or ordinance, and satisfies other criteria.

## Version chain

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

1. **02/05/09 - Introduced** (filed) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=200920100AB231&version=20090AB23199INT)
2. **04/29/09 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=200920100AB231&version=20090AB23198AMD)
3. **06/18/09 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=200920100AB231&version=20090AB23197AMD)
4. **06/23/10 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=200920100AB231&version=20090AB23195AMD)
5. **06/26/09 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=200920100AB231&version=20090AB23196AMD)
6. **08/09/10 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=200920100AB231&version=20090AB23194AMD)
7. **08/20/10 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=200920100AB231&version=20090AB23193AMD)
8. **09/29/10 - Chaptered** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=200920100AB231&version=20090AB23191CHP)
9. **AB231** (committee substitute) — [source](http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=200920100AB231)
10. **09/13/10 - Enrolled** (enrolled) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=200920100AB231&version=20090AB23192ENR)

## Votes

- Do pass as amended, and re-refer to the Committee on Appropriations. — **pass** (pass) · upper
- AB 231 HUFFMAN Assembly Third Reading — **pass** (pass) · lower
- Do pass. — **pass** (pass) · lower
- AB 231 Huber Concurrence- Urgency Added — **pass** (pass) · lower
- Do pass as amended and be re-referred to the Committee on Appropriations. — **pass** (pass) · lower
- Assembly 3rd Reading AB231 Huber Urgency Clause — **pass** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- Huber — primary (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2009-02-05** Read first time. To print. `reading-1`
- **2009-02-06** From printer. May be heard in committee March 8.
- **2009-03-04** Referred to Com. on NAT. RES. `referral-committee`
- **2009-04-13** In committee: Hearing postponed by committee.
- **2009-04-28** From committee: Amend, do pass as amended, and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 6. Noes 3.) (April 20). `amendment-introduction, amendment-passage, committee-passage`
- **2009-04-29** Read second time and amended. `amendment-passage, reading-2, reading-1`
- **2009-04-30** Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `referral-committee`
- **2009-05-13** In committee: Set, first hearing. Referred to APPR. suspense file. `referral-committee`
- **2009-05-29** From committee: Do pass. (Ayes 11. Noes 5.) (May 28). `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage`
- **2009-05-29** Read second time. To third reading. `reading-2, reading-1`
- **2009-06-02** Read third time, passed, and to Senate. (Ayes 45. Noes 31. Page 1982.) `reading-3, passage, reading-1`
- **2009-06-03** In Senate. Read first time. To Com. on RLS. for assignment. `reading-1`
- **2009-06-18** Referred to Com. on EQ. `referral-committee`
- **2009-06-18** From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to committee. Read second time, amended, and re-referred to Com. on EQ. `amendment-introduction, reading-2, amendment-passage, referral-committee, reading-1`
- **2009-06-26** From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to committee. Read second time, amended, and re-referred to Com. on EQ. `amendment-introduction, reading-2, amendment-passage, referral-committee, reading-1`
- **2010-06-23** From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to committee. Read second time, amended, and re-referred to Com. on EQ. `amendment-introduction, reading-2, amendment-passage, referral-committee, reading-1`
- **2010-08-05** From committee: Amend, do pass as amended, and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 5. Noes 0.) (August 2). `amendment-introduction, amendment-passage, committee-passage`
- **2010-08-09** Read second time and amended. Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `reading-2, amendment-passage, referral-committee, reading-1`
- **2010-08-16** From committee: Be placed on second reading file pursuant to Senate Rule 28.8. `committee-passage`
- **2010-08-16** (Received August 13 pursuant to Joint Rule 61(b)(14).)
- **2010-08-17** Read second time. To third reading. `reading-2, reading-1`
- **2010-08-20** Read third time, amended. To second reading. `reading-3, amendment-passage, reading-1`
- **2010-08-23** Read second time. To third reading. `reading-2, reading-1`
- **2010-08-24** Read third time. Urgency clause adopted. Passed and to Assembly. (Ayes 28. Noes 1. Page 4825.) `reading-3, passage, reading-1`
- **2010-08-31** In Assembly. Concurrence in Senate amendments pending.
- **2010-08-31** Urgency clause adopted. Senate amendments concurred in. To enrollment. (Ayes 57. Noes 10. Page 6942.) `amendment-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2010-09-15** Enrolled and to the Governor at 4:45 p.m.
- **2010-09-29** Approved by the Governor. `executive-signature`
- **2010-09-29** Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 432, Statutes of 2010.

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/1664ad03-734e-4cfb-a845-5e011f169e24`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official California legislature records).