CEQA

Just south of downtown Los Angeles, the Exide battery recycling facility ​​spent decades leaking lead and arsenic into the soil — sickening children, causing cancer, and creating a nearly billion-dollar liability for the state of California.  A flurry of last-minute reforms to the California Environmental Quality Act at the end of last year’s legislative session […]

Lawmakers passed exemptions for advanced manufacturing in CEQA, the state’s main environmental law. Now they should plug some of those holes.

Gov. Gavin Newsom is tougher on Republican-leaning communities that resist building housing than on similar regions run by affluent Democrats.

New housing starts were around 100,000 a year when Newsom took office in 2019; they still hover around that number today.

Gov. Gavin Newsom and the Legislature overhauled the CEQA environmental laws for housing, but a business group wants that to include other kinds of "essential" projects.

Despite a last-minute scramble, California Senate leaders failed to fix an environmental law rollback for advanced manufacturing, leaving pollution concerns untouched as session ends.

The legislation removes environmental delays but includes language that could allow local governments to add "vehicle miles traveled" fees to a project's cost.

Housing bills in California often face fierce opposition from construction unions. The carpenters’ union went their own way, becoming a “game-changing” force in the debate.

In contrast to New York voters favoring a "democratic socialist," Californians chose moderate politicians like Gov. Gavin Newsom and San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie.

The social and economic costs of leaving CEQA intact became too high. With Gavin Newsom nearing the end of his governorship, he decided to confront the issue squarely.