Sacramento --
A proposal to loosen
California's landmark environmental protection law is expected to be
introduced at the Capitol as soon as Thursday, giving the public and
lawmakers only about a week to debate and consider the controversial
legislation's fate.
Backers of the proposal, largely from the
business community, say the California Environmental Quality Act passed
in 1970 needs to be updated because it has become cumbersome, and some
individuals and groups misuse the law to stop or delay development for
non-environmental reasons.
Republicans in the Legislature have long sought changes to the environmental law, commonly known as CEQA, and this year some
Democrats, including Gov.
Jerry Brown, signaled that they are open to discussion.
At
a news conference last month, the governor said, "I've never seen a
CEQA exemption I didn't like." And on Wednesday in San Francisco at a
news conference for his ballot measure to raise taxes, Brown said of the
proposal that has been circulating: "To tell you the truth, I have not
read it. In fact it's not even clear we have a final draft yet. But look
- CEQA reform is the Lord's work."
Environmental groups say the
proposal is an attempt to gut the law in the waning days of the
legislative session to avoid public input and scrutiny. The
Legislature's two-year session comes to a close Aug. 31.
Typically,
it takes at least several months - often longer - for a proposal to be
vetted by committees and then go to a vote of the Legislature. But
nearing the end of a session, controversial proposals sometimes are
inserted into bills and pushed through.
While the bill has yet to
be introduced, people both for and against it expect language that would
alter the environmental law to be inserted into SB317 by state Sen.
Michael Rubio,
D-Bakersfield. That bill pertains to fish management in the Kings
River, and amendments to the bill with the new language were released by
proponents late Wednesday.
An influential law
CEQA is the cornerstone of California's environmental protection efforts. It was signed into law by then-Gov.
Ronald Reagan,
and has been a model for other states and even for some changes in
federal law. Under the law, a project that will have a significant
effect on the environment is subject to an environmental impact report.
Members
of the public can comment on that report, and government agencies
preparing the report must respond to those comments. Once the impacts
are identified - they can range from traffic congestion to public health
problems and damage to the environment - the developers must take steps
to mitigate those impacts.
Perhaps more than any other, the law is responsible for how communities across California look today.
Eliminating reviews
Business
leaders called the law an important tool that provides the public with
an assessment of the environmental impacts of projects, but said it
needs revisions.
"Since CEQA became law, many other environmental
and land-use laws have been passed by multiple agencies at the federal,
state and local levels, creating duplicative and overlapping processes,
standards and mitigation requirements which often result in lengthy
project-permitting delays and uncertainty," said
Bill Allen, CEO of the
Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp., in a letter to lawmakers supporting the proposal.
Under
the proposal, projects that meet the requirements of an existing
land-use plan - which has met CEQA mandates - would be exempt from going
through the law's rigorous environmental review process. Backers say
that eliminates duplication, but opponents say it means the public will
not have a chance to weigh in on - and force changes to - large projects
that will affect them or the environment, including power plants and
hazardous waste dumps.
Exemptions from CEQA may also apply to two
of the governor's biggest priorities: high-speed rail and the proposed
tunnels to move water under the delta, environmentalists said.
"It
would be really devastating for California and probably the rest of the
nation for the kind of precedent this would set," said
Jena Price, legislative director for the
Planning and Conservation League.
Previous measures
She
said attempts to alter the environmental law frequently emerge at the
end of the legislative session, but previous measures have not gone as
far as the current proposal.
"This is one of the more, if not the most, egregious attempts to gut CEQA I have ever seen," Price said.
Other environmental groups, including the
Sierra Club,
already have called on their members to contact leaders of the
Legislature to block action on the measure even before it's an actual
bill. Business groups, too, have asked members to call lawmakers, but to
urge them to make changes in the law. Variations of the proposal for
exemptions have been passed around the Capitol for more than a week. On
Monday, a coalition of business groups, developers and some labor unions
held a press conference to outline what they would like to see in
a proposal.
Their ideas are reflected in the amendments.
But
environmentalists are pushing back, and on Tuesday a group of 33
lawmakers sent a letter to the Democratic leaders of the Legislature
calling for no changes to CEQA without first going through the full
public process.
What is CEQA?
The
California Environmental Quality Act, passed in 1970, is the
cornerstone of California's environmental protection policies. A public
agency must determine whether a proposed project would have a
significant environmental impact. If so, the project becomes the subject
of an environmental impact report, on which the public can comment.
Those comments must be addressed, and the report must include ways to
mitigate impacts on the environment.
8:07 PM on August 22, 2012
CEQUA
also deals with historic preservation. The delays do get a bit
ridiculous but at the same time developers need to start using more
common sense when designing projects. Why tear down a historic building
when there are plenty of empty lots already? Why cut down century old
trees when buildings can be built around them?
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