PUBLIC'S RIGHT TO FREE SPEECH UNDER ATTACK

Hate to say it, environmental laws aren’t exactly on most people’s top ten lists.  That is not to say people don’t care about our physical environment, they do.  And, they probably do their bit to care for Mother Earth.  However, when topics such as California’s Environmental Quality Act (“CEQA”) is viewed as being under attack, most probably figure that’s something the politicians can figure out.  That’s completely understandable since the majority of people don’t become acquainted with these laws until they are faced with a large scale project in their neighborhood that they want to do something about!

CEQA sets forth many important requirements for developers of large scale projects to follow that have gone a long way to bring to the public’s attention the negative impacts to the environment large projects generate (i.e., more traffic, air quality, etc.).  CEQA also makes provision for the right for the public to exercise its rights to contest any legal findings made. Lately, thanks to the introduction of over 24 CEQA related bills, 3 of them contain provisions to eliminate an affordable “time-consuming” public process, e.g., city sponsored hearings and appeals, filing lawsuits at the Superior Court level, etc.

A prime example is Senate Bill 292 which was created to “fast-track” the proposed NFL Stadium in Los Angeles.  If signed by Governor Brown, it will mean if any people want to legally contest the findings of the soon-to-be issued Environmental Impact Report on the stadium, their only recourse will be to file it in the already over-burdened and under-funded Court of Appeals, which would be cost prohibitive for most constituents.  While the bill is artfully written to limit it to the NFL Stadium, it sets a legal precedent; one that some one else can use saying “…AEG got exceptions to CEQA, so why can’t I have the same treatment for my project?”

It is always difficult for the public to separate the politician’s spin on any bill from the practical reality.  Here are few talking points I’ve heard. 

Our elected officials are blaming CEQA for stopping the creation of new jobs. No, it isn’t.  The jobs will be there if and when any project is finally approved.

Projects being covered by the new bills will go green. In other words, the public is being told to accept what should be a given, in exchange for making it more difficult for the public to have their legal say.

While you will also hear that the public is just trying to find the means to stop these big projects, that’s not the point either. The point is by weakening CEQA under the guise of “overhauling it,” really leads to a more onerous implication – the public is slowly being shut-out. 

No matter what happens to CEQA, it will remain the public’s responsibility to insist that politicians protect local environs from any long-term risks new projects produce. Traffic impacts must be studied, solutions need to be found and funded for new traffic impacts; the means to repair and pay for further stress on our failing above and below the ground infrastructure (roads, pipes, electrical, etc.) must be ensured, and the public must be able to have the affordable means to exercise their democratic rights.