Victory for the YIMBY crowd! And despite the article title, it does not completely rollback environmental reviews, it just reforms and tightens the process so that CEQA can't be used to stop any...
California leaders on Monday rolled back a landmark law that was a national symbol of environmental protection before it came to be vilified as a primary reason for the state’s severe housing shortage and homelessness crisis.
For more than half a century, the law, the California Environmental Quality Act, has allowed environmentalists to slow suburban growth as well as given neighbors and disaffected parties a powerful tool to stop projects they found objectionable.
Victory for the YIMBY crowd! And despite the article title, it does not completely rollback environmental reviews, it just reforms and tightens the process so that CEQA can't be used to stop any and all development, including infill housing, green energy projects, and even bike trails.
This alone won't solve California's housing crisis. But it's a big step in the right direction.
This is fantastic news and a step (among many) toward making housing affordable. CEQA was signed in 1970 with the intention of protecting the environment. In the 55 years since then, it has...
This is fantastic news and a step (among many) toward making housing affordable.
CEQA was signed in 1970 with the intention of protecting the environment. In the 55 years since then, it has ironically supercharged auto-centric suburban sprawl by making it expensive and difficult to densify existing urban areas.
California Unions for Reliable Energy is a coalition of labor unions, mainly affiliated with the State Building & Construction Trades Council of California, that uses CEQA lawsuits (or threats thereof) to force developers of power plants, including new solar and other clean energy projects, to sign "project labor agreements", which require construction be done by union workers. This practice has been described as "greenmailing", and has been estimated to increase the cost of renewable energy projects by about 20%.
I think it's unfortunate that it took so long for people to heed California Republicans' criticisms of CEQA, because it was clearly corrupted and misused. I think that the complete domination of California state politics by the Democrats led to too much groupthink and complacency. From the article:
Republicans have long blamed CEQA for California’s problems, arguing that it was bad for the state’s business climate. It was notable that Democrats, led by Mr. Newsom, moved the party away from the kind of measure that has long been central to Democratic thought.
Mr. Elmendorf said he viewed Mr. Newsom’s shift partly as a testament to how much housing has risen as a priority for California voters. But it also reflects a broader reckoning for Democrats nationwide after Donald Trump’s re-election in 2024. Democrats are re-evaluating whether they are aligned with the needs of the electorate, he said, which has opened the door for considering positions that were once off-limits.
Bringing cost of living and doing business down in flagship blue states is important in Democrats' quest to reclaim the Mandate of Heaven in the American public's eyes.
Victory for the YIMBY crowd! And despite the article title, it does not completely rollback environmental reviews, it just reforms and tightens the process so that CEQA can't be used to stop any and all development, including infill housing, green energy projects, and even bike trails.
This alone won't solve California's housing crisis. But it's a big step in the right direction.
This is fantastic news and a step (among many) toward making housing affordable.
CEQA was signed in 1970 with the intention of protecting the environment. In the 55 years since then, it has ironically supercharged auto-centric suburban sprawl by making it expensive and difficult to densify existing urban areas.
From Wikipedia on CEQA:
I think it's unfortunate that it took so long for people to heed California Republicans' criticisms of CEQA, because it was clearly corrupted and misused. I think that the complete domination of California state politics by the Democrats led to too much groupthink and complacency. From the article:
Bringing cost of living and doing business down in flagship blue states is important in Democrats' quest to reclaim the Mandate of Heaven in the American public's eyes.
I'm so glad CEQA is gone, now maybe California will be able to build their HSR. Unless Trump fucked the funding.