California’s bedrock environmental law has helped protect residents, wildlife and natural resources from pollution and other negative effects of development countless times since then-Gov. Ronald Reagan put it on the books more than half a century ago.
But the California Environmental Quality Act, better known as CEQA, sometimes is weaponized by competing businesses, labor unions and anti-development neighbors who aren’t necessarily motivated by environmental concerns. They challenge projects in court, based on CEQA complaints, and delay or kill some projects entirely. Some people now argue that such tactics have contributed to California’s housing crisis.
Witnesses spelled out those competing realities during an all-day hearing Thursday before the Little Hoover Commission