California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s recent attempt to bypass environmental rules to speed up construction for certain projects was denied by the Senate Budget Committee 3–0 on May 25.
“The only way to achieve California’s world-leading climate goals is to build, build, build—faster,” Newsom said in a press release on May 19 announcing his plan. “This proposal is the most ambitious effort to cut red tape and streamline regulations in half a century. It’s time to make the most out of taxpayer dollars and deliver results while creating hundreds of thousands of good jobs.”
The governor’s proposals landed on the budget committee’s agenda only days after being announced and a week before statutory deadlines ran out. As a result, the panel recommended postponing approval until thorough debate can occur in the Legislature.
“The question is, are we going to screw it up by being consumed by paralysis and process?” Newsom said while announcing the package on May 19.
Lawmakers cited the intricacies of the language of the bills and the limited time available to discuss details, with a June 2 deadline for bills to pass their house of origin.
The proposals focused on streamlining administrative review and expediting judicial review of projects being held up by the California Environmental Quality Act, better known as CEQA.
One would have ordered wildlife crossings built over Interstate 15 to allow for the construction of the Brightline West high-speed rail project between California and Nevada.
Also was a plan to reclassify some protected species in the state, which would then allow development on land currently blocked by environmental law, according to legal experts, which environmentalists denounced.
A move to rethink CEQA restrictions comes as the state is seeking to achieve its ambitious renewable energy goals with the help of billions of dollars in federal funding.
In an effort to maximize the dollars, Newsom is seeking to expedite infrastructure projects so that California qualifies for a higher percentage of the federal funds, as guidelines for approval include readiness to develop and ongoing project proposals.
The directive is intended to “create quality jobs, accelerate our transition to clean energy, urgently address the climate crisis, and build a transportation network for the 21st century,” the order reads.
It directs state agencies to identify opportunities for development and prioritizes “clean and sustainable transportation for people and goods through mass transit, rail, bicycle, and pedestrian transportation, as well as zero-emission vehicles.”
CEQA, which was passed in 1970, is often blamed for the Golden State’s notoriously slow permitting process, a costly and time-consuming obstacle that has slowed growth and limited development for a long list of projects including those for housing and transportation, according to experts.
Business leaders and Republican lawmakers have long argued that CEQA was prohibiting development, and many are welcoming the recent change of direction from Newsom regarding reforming it.
“California Senate Republicans have been advocating for CEQA reform for years. We are thrilled that Governor Newsom is finally taking action, and we support his commitment to help build more housing and infrastructure projects,” Sen. Brian W. Jones (R-San Diego) said in a statement released on May 19. “We remain eager to collaborate with the governor and our colleagues across the aisle in a bipartisan manner to fix California with solutions that address our state’s myriad issues ranging from homelessness to housing to water infrastructure.”
Senate Minority Caucus Chair Janet Nguyen (R-Huntington Beach) reaffirmed the party’s commitment.
“We are eager to move California forward in this arena so we can build more housing, water storage, and sensible infrastructure projects in a reasonable timeframe and without costly [legal] settlements,” she said in the joint press release with Jones.
Republican lawmakers in both the Assembly and the Senate proposed five bills this year relating to CEQA reform, with all failing to proceed. Three were never heard in committee, one was denied by the Senate’s Budget Appropriations Committee and one by its Environmental Quality Committee.
Over the years, hundreds of bills from both sides of the aisle have sought reforms with little progress made.
Housing has been a persistent concern, and now the state’s high-speed rail and renewable energy projects are being held up by the law, a turn of events that has brought Democrats and Republicans together on an issue that once saw them ideologically opposed.
While the proposals failed to pass the budget committee, the governor’s plan will be reconsidered by the Legislature at a later date.
A bipartisan bill with similar goals—Assembly Bill 1633 introduced by Assemblyman Phil Ting (D-San Francisco), which would limit municipalities’ ability to use CEQA to block housing development—passed May 18 and will now be debated by the Senate this summer.
With bipartisan support for relaxing the rules, lawmakers say they are hopeful they can come together and forge a collaborative solution that addresses concerns from all stakeholders.
Led by Antonio Villaraigosa, former Assemblyman and mayor of Los Angeles from 2005 to 2013—who is now an infrastructure advisor for the state of California—the authors wrote in the report that if Newsom’s proposals were enacted quickly, it would be possible to secure $180 billion in investment and produce approximately 400,000 jobs.
