Existential Threat to CEQA or Just Building Stuff We Need Faster?

A coalition of businesses want to build more quickly in California. The way they hope to do it is by putting a big, legal stopwatch on California’s Environmental Quality Act or CEQA. The sweeping environmental movement of the 1960s gave birth to CEQA. The intent: limit environmental harm of development by placing the responsibility on government to ensure a project doesn’t significantly damage the California environment. While well intentioned, CEQA has also been used to block or stall projects – even projects cities are trying to encourage, like more affordable apartments and clean energy infrastructure.