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Senate Republican Budget Move to Gut the California Environmental Quality Act Raises Larger Questions

By Frank D. Russo

There is an overarching lesson to be learned from the attempt by Republican California State Senators to change California's basic environmental law and using the leverage of a state budget stalemate they are causing to do so.

On the surface, these Senators are trying to link it to the budget--California's laundry list appropriating money for the various activities of state government. They say that changes in a 1970 law, the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) are needed to spend bond money for construction of transportation projects and other items the voters approved money for in last year's bond measures. There is ample reason to dispute this contention, and we've had articles on these pages that refute this claim.

But, if you probe just a bit deeper, you see that there is a much larger picture: Large developers want to build massive housing projects and to be able to do these unfettered by complying with California law and to have the lawyer we have elected, Attorney General Jerry Brown, be able to enforce the law through the courts.

But this ploy goes even deeper and involves disrespect for the basic rule of law and our system of government. It goes beyond Jerry Brown and the particulars of the moment.

You've got a law here, CEQA, which has been on the books for many years and has been amended through the legislative process. Majority votes have been needed to both pass the law and in the consideration of the bills to change it. There have been hearings, witnesses have been called to testify, letters have been written, the language has been scrutinized, committees with some expertise (what's left after term limits and budgetary changes in Prop 140 caused many experienced staff to leave--but that's another story) have looked this over and vetted them in a deliberative process.

The same procedures were laboriously used in the enactment of AB 32, the landmark global warming bill passed last year--with majority votes of the legislature. Some folks didn't want it to pass. Some folks wanted it to be written differently. They have the same opportunity to change its provisions as the folks who have secured the passage of amendments to CEQA: Write a bill, present it to a committee, allow the public to express their views and to tell their elected representatives what they want done, and go through the process.

The changes being sought here in California's existing laws do not have the support of a majority of the legislature. We've elected an Attorney General to enforce those laws. We have courts of judges, appointed by the governors of this state, and a court system to review their decisions, and make sure they comply with the law. That's the basics of government, folks. Something sacred, an ideal to be striven for, and for sure one that we deviate from with the human condition of the people who write and enforce these laws. This is being missed in the clutter of the current spectacle, but we need to be reminded of this.

These were the thoughts of this lawyer early this morning as I read an article in the Sacramento Bee: Laying down law on global warming: Brown uses 1970 statute to insist projects assess climate-change impacts.

I commend this article to you. You'll see how some local governments are complying with these state laws at the prompting of the Attorney General, including the Sacramento Area Council of Governments. The Bee article says: "They took Brown's warning to heart in drafting the council's 30-year Metropolitan Transportation Plan. "Our board had already committed to measuring and minimizing climate change impacts. The attorney general's letter takes the seriousness of our commitment to a new level," said Mike Mc-Keever, SACOG executive director."

It then goes on:

"Word of Brown's letters -- precursors to lawsuits -- has traveled fast among developers and land-use planners, prompting some to take pre-emptive action.

Developers of the recently approved 14,132-home Placer Vineyards community west of Roseville scrambled to add a global warming chapter to their environmental review.

"The letters from the attorney general and environmental groups brought the issue to the fore," said James Moose, a Sacramento lawyer and CEQA expert who represents the Vineyards.

"It was clear that there would be a lot of lawsuits in the state," Moose said. "If we didn't put (the global warming chapter) in, then we could be drawn into one of those lawsuits."
Still, some local governments are balking."

That's the way the system is supposed to work under the laws we have enacted and our state's constitution.

Posted on July 27, 2007

Comments

Frank,

We've seen this time and time again -- when will we stop being surprised when these leopards show their true spots?

Jeff Denham ran for Senate with the endorsement of the CTA -- and he promised to protect school funding. But when the budget came up for a vote, where was he? Lining up with Tom McClintock and the crazies, of course.

Enough. WWW.DUMPDENHAM.COM

Posted by: Dump Denham at July 27, 2007 01:48 PM

My mom always told me, don't look at the speck in someone else's eye when you have a plank in your own....look at the D's own attempts to insert policy language into the budget bills, ie "green state buildings" language, to name just one, all without going through the proper legislative process.? Next, the R's are not trying to "gut" CEQA, as u irresponsibly claim, they're simply saying that if the "landmark" AB 32 gave ARB the massive responsibility of adopting GHG regulations, why should we have cities and counties pursue a concurrent process through CEQA? The regs that local govt's enact could very well conflict w the mandates of AB 32. in addition, the vast majority of voters did not approve $40 billion in infrastructure bonds to just have them held up in court..

Posted by: Tony at July 28, 2007 12:08 AM

Posted by: Tony at July 28, 2007 12:09 AM

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