Protect California's Environmental Legislation — Oppose CEQA Exemptions !

Posted March 3, 2010

• What’s happening
• Why this is important
• What you can do

Four identical bills in California's Assembly and Senate have the goal of exempting 125 public agency and private projects from the legal scrutiny required under California's premier environmental law, the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA).  Please fax or call your Assembly Member and State Senator and ask them to oppose the bills for 125 loopholes in California's environmental law.

What’s happening
Using the economic crisis as an excuse to reduce the environmental protection that makes California such a great place to work and live, proposed legislation:

ABX8 37 (Calderon & Nestande)
AB 1805 (Calderon & Nestande)
SBX8 42 (Correa & Cogdill)
SB 1010 (Correa & Cogdill)

would exempt 25 projects annually for five years from judicial review that enforces CEQA, a law that requires accurate disclosure of environmental impacts and reduces significant impacts when feasible.  Private developer projects that need permits as well as governmental projects would be eligible for exemption from the CEQA requirements that applies to all other Californians.  The obligation to prepare environmental review would still exist, but preparers would know in advance that no one could challenge them in court for preparing inadequate reviews that violate the law. 

The 125 projects would be chosen by a state agency only after the law has passed.  The state agency is supposed to consider economic benefits from a project when making selections, without mention of environmental harms, and would likely choose the largest and most environmentally problematic projects for exemption from judicial review.
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Why this is important

Protecting the high quality of life in California remains the best option for continuing to attract and retain business to our state.  Legislation like the ones proposed will increase traffic problems, promote sprawl, and worsen air pollution - all factors that drive businesses away and lower our quality of life.  The whole point of judicial review is to keep the preparers of environmental documents honest and accurate, an objective that is often missed even with the possibility of a judge examining them for accuracy.  Dropping that review eliminates the incentive for meaningful compliance with CEQA, and the end result may be an even broader attack against environmental protection in California.


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What you can do

Please call or fax a short letter to your Assembly Member or State Senator.  Click here to find your representatives' phone numbers.  Please click on your representatives' name to find their fax number.
Please call or fax by this Friday,  March 5.  We recommend calls or faxes as they have more impact than emails.  Please let us know that you have written by emailing  info@greenfoothills.org or fax us a copy (650) 968-8431.

To see the Committee for Green Foothills letter, click here.

Thanks for speaking up for our coastal wetlands and environmental protections!  Your voice does make a difference!

- The folks at Committee for Green Foothills

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