environmental review
What does BACA do? Part VII
Proposed CEQA ballot initiative would cover a wide range of projects, not just housing and clean energy.
This is the seventh in a series of blog posts on the California Chamber of Commerce’s proposed ballot initiative amending the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). The first blog post is here. The second blog post is here. The third blog post is here. The fourth blog post is here. The fifth blog post is …
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CONTINUE READINGWhat does BACA do? Part VI
Proposed CEQA ballot initiative would allow project proponents to control the scope and alternatives for environmental review for covered projects.
This is the sixth in a series of blog posts on the California Chamber of Commerce’s proposed ballot initiative amending the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). The first blog post is here. The second blog post is here. The third blog post is here. The fourth blog post is here. The fifth blog post is …
Continue reading “What does BACA do? Part VI”
CONTINUE READINGWhat does BACA do? Part V
Proposed ballot initiative to amend CEQA would sharply limit what environmental effects should be considered for mitigation for covered projects.
This is the fifth in a series of blog posts on the California Chamber of Commerce’s proposed ballot initiative amending the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). The first blog post is here. The second blog post is here. The third blog post is here. The fourth blog post is here. The core of CEQA is …
Continue reading “What does BACA do? Part V”
CONTINUE READINGThe details of SEQRA reform
Looking at the specifics of how New York’s SEQRA reform efforts would work
I recently posted about proposed legislation in New York, advanced by the governor, to reform the state’s environmental review law (the State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA)) to facilitate infill housing – an approach similar to what California did last year. There’s now legislative text (available here) available to allow a close review of what …
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CONTINUE READINGClean up on aisle 131
Legislature should fix flaws in SB 131
As this year’s legislative session comes to a close, I want to highlight legislative action that I hope happens in the next session. I noted earlier that AB 130 and SB 131 both were important steps to advance infill housing in California by creating exemptions for infill housing from the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). …
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CONTINUE READINGAn Abundance Research Agenda
If we need to build lots of things fast to address climate and housing crises, how will we do that?
There’s been a lot of buzz about this column by Ezra Klein in the New York Times. Klein’s basic argument: We need to do a lot of infrastructure and other development projects to make the world a better place. For example, we’ll need to build power lines and renewable projects to address climate change. But …
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CONTINUE READINGNEPA Saves the World!
Well, not really. But in some circumstances it might have helped. Consider the civil unrest now roiling Turkey. It began over protests against the government’s plan to turn a much-beloved, historic urban park into a mosque and shopping mall. But as many news reports have indicated, the point was not simply the plan, but the high-handed …
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CONTINUE READINGMaybe a Super EIS for Climate Policy?
Following closely on the heels of Ann’s argument concerning the flaws of the Keystone XL DEIS came a NYT story from John Broder with an interesting suggestion: if the administration approves the pipeline, then it should do something else in order to advance the battle against climate change: [C]ould some kind of deal be in …
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CONTINUE READINGWhen streamlining environmental review really means undermining it
The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee has unanimously endorsed S 601, the Water Resources Development Act of 2013. Although it’s nice to see some bipartisanship in the capitol — S 601 is co-sponsored by Committee chair Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and ranking minority member David Vitter (R-LA) — the bill as approved by the Committee …
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CONTINUE READINGTunnel vision in environmental law and policy
One of the reasons that environmental law and policy is so interesting, and so challenging, is that it is very, very difficult to reduce what we mean by “environmental quality” to one single metric. A couple of recent posts by a leading progressive policy blogger (Matt Yglesias) make this point very well.
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