With Environmental Regulatory Reform, California Gov. Gavin Newsom Finally Does Something Substantial
Gov. Gavin Newsom isn’t afraid to step into the political fray when it comes to standing up to President Donald Trump over national issues that impact California. He’s not always wrong when he sues the administration or speaks out against, say, ICE raids in Los Angeles. But most of those high-profile actions seem designed to burnish his national reputation. For your own safety, please don’t stand between him and a television camera.
Newsom would have a better national-leadership case, however, had he strategically arm-twisted the state’s Democratic-controlled Legislature to pass controversial measures that address California’s long-simmering problems of homelessness, traffic congestion, the high cost of living, crime, and sky-high housing costs. The best way to prove the wisdom of the California Way is to, you know, actually run the state in a stellar manner. But maybe he is learning.
As various news sources reported last week, the governor had tied his signing of a budget deal by requiring the Legislature to pass reforms to the state’s “landmark” California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA)—the 1970 law that has mired construction projects in regulation, environmental impact reports and litigation (or threats of it). The details of the measure were in flux late last week, but it was pitched as being far more aggressive than past housing reforms.
Sure enough, Newsom succeeded. Just in time for the July 1 budget-signing deadline, the legislature overwhelmingly passed the measure, which ended up as two bills. They exempt “nine types of projects from environmental reviews: child care centers, health clinics, food banks, farmworker housing, broadband, wildfire prevention, water infrastructure, public parks or trails and, notably, advanced manufacturing,” per a CalMatters report. One of the bills also “restricts legal challenges under CEQA by narrowing which documents courts can consider.”
The measures were based on several existing proposals, including Senate Bill 607, which affirms the Legislature’s intent “to make changes to the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) to ensure the state meets its infrastructure needs and is more affordable for all Californians, as specified, without compromising environmental protections,” according to the legislative analysis. Lawmakers in May stripped away specific exemptions, turning it into a non-substantive bill in the face of opposition from the usual suspects.
Without Newsom’s efforts, major CEQA reform
Article from Reason.com
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