To get more housing built across the state, California lawmakers and Governor Gavin Newsom passed major changes to the 50-year-old California Environmental Quality Act on Monday. For these years, this law has enabled environmental advocates to delay suburban expansion and empowered local residents and other dissenters to block projects they opposed. It has also become a common tool for critics to challenge nearly all types of development initiatives.
What is a landmark environmental law?
The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) is one of the most significant environmental laws of the state. The Act sets up a state policy of sustainability in response to “create and maintain conditions under which man and nature can exist in harmony to fulfil the social and economic requirements of present and future generations.”
CEQA mandates that state and local authorities identify and assess the major environmental effects of proposed developments and implement all practical measures to minimise or eliminate those impacts.
Does Governor Newsom threaten to reject the state budget?
In a rare show of bipartisan agreement, Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom signed two bills that avoid rigorous environmental review requirements for certain housing and infrastructure projects, aiming to remove costly obstacles and speed up development.
Though CEQA has long been considered a pillar of California’s environmental policy, Democrats acknowledged that the state’s strict regulations had contributed to a severe housing crisis affecting its nearly 40 million residents. Environmental groups criticised the move, but lawmakers ultimately prioritised housing needs over procedural protections, marking a shift in the approach to development in California.
“If we can’t address this issue, we’re going to lose trust, and that’s just the truth,” Newsom, a Democrat, said in a news conference, the New York Times reported. “And so this is so much bigger in many ways than the issue itself. It is about the reputation of not just Sacramento and the legislative leadership and executive leadership, but the reputation of the state of California,” he added.
Over the past decades, discussions hovering over changing the law have repeatedly surfaced, thwarted only by opposition from environmentalists and local governments. In addition, Newsom also threatened to reject the state budget until lawmakers rolled back CEQA.
Meanwhile, survey director for the Public Policy Institute of California, Mark Baldassare, said, “This has created a different political environment.” “Voters have been telling us in our polling for quite a while that the cost of housing is a big problem, but maybe for the elected officials, the election itself was a wake-up call,” he added.
On Monday, environmentalists flooded a legislative hearing room, emphasising that the sweeping changes could hurt sensitive ecosystems and ease the process to build manufacturing sites that could result in more pollution. Some Democratic lawmakers also flagged concerns, highlighting that the legislation could pose a threat to the habitat of certain species of butterflies, bears and bighorn sheep. “Jeopardising those whole ecosystems, I think, is a risk that we don’t want to take,” said State Senator Catherine Blakespear, a Democrat.
CEQA lead to unforeseen consequences?
As governor, Republican Ronald Reagan signed the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) into law in 1970, during a period when his party was more in step with environmental priorities. The act emerged from a shared understanding among state leaders that California’s vast natural landscapes, its forests, coastlines, and mountains, needed protection from increasing smog, water pollution, traffic, and unchecked suburban development.
Over time, however, even some environmental advocates have acknowledged that CEQA, while well-intentioned, led to unforeseen consequences. Originally intended to apply mainly to government-led projects, a 1972 court ruling extended its reach to many private developments as well.
For years, Republicans have criticised CEQA for damaging California’s business environment. So it’s significant that Democrats, under Governor Gavin Newsom’s leadership, have now steered the party away from a law that once reflected core Democratic values.
Faced with worsening homelessness and soaring living costs, state lawmakers have increasingly focused on fixing the housing crisis. The Legislature has passed hundreds of bills in recent years to speed up construction, often trying to work around CEQA’s restrictions rather than overhaul it directly, until now.