Vote with the League PROPOSITION 45: MODIFIES ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW FOR CERTAIN PROJECTS- OPPOSE

"Proposition 45 is a complex initiative that is deceptive and requires a deeper look to understand its implications and why the League opposes it.  The following article provides a more comprehensive analysis."

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PROPOSITION 45: MODIFIES ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW FOR CERTAIN PROJECTS         OPPOSE

Proposition 45 Summary: Proposition 45 would amend the state’s landmark California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) to create deadlines for environmental reviews of most housing, transportation, water, health and clean energy projects (“essential projects”) to speed up permitting, to reduce mitigation measures, and to limit the court’s ability to stop or delay developments.

The proposed initiative would undermine the fundamental purposes of CEQA and compromise environmental protection by: 

• creating restrictive timelines that discourage thorough analysis of potential impacts and mitigation measures;

• eliminating key alternatives analyses and replacing them with only an applicant alternative and a “no project” alternative; 

• reducing public participation opportunities with potential consequences for all communities. These limitations create potential consequences for unorganized neighborhoods, underrepresented communities, and low income households who may not be prepared to organize quickly and comment effectively in the truncated process. These constraints further impede environmental justice and equity.

• inhibiting meaningful interagency coordination due to the time constraints;

• undercutting other California environmental laws (water quality, endangered species, air quality, pollution control, and more);

• negating current legislative exemptions and judicial CEQA streamlining efforts.

The proposed initiative covers potentially very large-scale infrastructure projects and their complex subsidiary components such as water, energy, transmission and more with the same time constraints as smaller “essential projects.” This increases the probability of rushed studies, incomplete analyses, lack of feasible alternatives, poor interagency coordination, less public participation, and decisions that are done in haste to meet the required timelines without considering the full consequences of the proposed “essential project.”

The League is aware that CEQA has been used to delay, if not completely derail, large projects. The League has supported some streamlining of CEQA requirements to expedite their environmental review, but the process overhaul of CEQA established by Prop 45 measure goes too far. In addition, it is important for voters to remember that current statutory exemptions passed over the past few years already provide fast track streamlining for several of the project types defined as “essential” in the proposed initiative, including specified urban infill housing, transportation, health, and energy projects. A Judicial Streamlining Program has also been recently created to accelerate critical infrastructure projects across California while ensuring thorough environmental review and reducing lawsuit-related delays from three to five years to about 270 days. Judicial Streamlining is a key resource that housing developers, CEQA consultants, analysts, agencies and others can use to accelerate critical infrastructure projects. 

Proposition 45 would significantly modify CEQA for specified “essential projects” to enforce strict timelines, constrain public participation with unreasonable timelines, eliminate key environmental analyses, and make other changes that could only be modified by future voter initiative. The recent statutory exemptions and expedited processes make Proposition 45 unnecessary and flawed with this prescriptive process and inflated promises, with cost savings to individual Californians unlikely, as promised by proposition proponents. Importantly, voters are being asked to pass this long, detailed statute in a ballot initiative.  Making changes or adjustments to this law will be difficult in that it would require a vote of ⅔ of the legislature or going back to the voters in the form of another initiative.

Background: The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) requires all development projects to be analyzed to determine and mitigate potential environmental impacts.  Public participation, transparency, and disclosure are hallmark features of the law.  Since its enactment in 1970, the State Legislature has passed multiple streamlining efforts regarding CEQA environmental review to exempt developments (e.g., infill housing, transit and mobility projects, certain energy projects, and climate infrastructure projects) without compromising environmental review and public process.

The League of Women Voters of California has always recognized the need for the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) mandated environmental reviews of projects to create new housing, education facilities, health facilities, public safety facilities, clean energy, transportation, and water projects in locations with adequate infrastructure and services that have been evaluated to determine potential environmental impacts and mitigation measures.  In addition, the League always urges meaningful public engagement and appropriate due process in connection with those reviews. The LWV’s position on environmental protection and pollution control is to preserve the physical, chemical and biological integrity of ecosystems, with maximum protection of public health, communities, and the environment. The League believes that governmental bodies must protect the citizen’s right to know by giving adequate notice of proposed actions, holding open meetings, and making public records accessible.

Submitted by Kathleen Cha and Laurel Prevetti

LWVC-Natural Resources Committee