California Rolls Back Environmental Protection to Aid Housing Development

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California Gov. Gavin Newsom has rolled back a 54-year-old landmark environmental protection law to aid in faster housing and infrastructure development. 

Announced on Monday, the new law reverses the California Environmental Quality Act. Newsom said in a written statement that the reversal aimed to promote “abundance over scarcity.”

“In addition to the Legislature, I thank the many housing, labor, and environmental leaders who heeded my call and came together around a common goal — to build more housing, faster, and create strong, affordable pathways for every Californian. Today’s bill is a game changer, which will be felt for generations to come,” Newsom said. 

The California Environmental Quality Act, signed into law by then-Gov. Ronald Reagan in 1970, allowed environmentalists to slow suburban growth and stop projects if they felt they negatively impacted the environment. 

CEQA doesn’t directly regulate land uses, however, it does require state and local agencies within California to follow a protocol of analysis and public disclosure of environmental impacts of proposed projects and adopt all feasible measures to mitigate those impacts.

Slow development has contributed to a housing shortage in California. According to the state’s Department of Housing and Community Development, fewer than 80,000 homes are built each year, a far cry from the estimated 180,000 needed to support California’s population. 

Environmental advocates condemned the move. Jakob Evans, a senior policy strategist for the Sierra Club of California, said reversing the CEQA will have “destructive consequences for environmental justice communities and endangered species across California.”

“AB/SB 131 and 130 will undermine vital CEQA regulations and halt crucial statewide energy code savings. It is extremely disappointing that California’s leadership is taking notes from the federal administration by ramming through this deregulation via the budget process,” Evans continued, adding, “Sierra Club California and our allies will be working closely with the Legislature to ensure these rollbacks that impact CEQA’s transparency are addressed.”

Kim Delfino, an environmental lobbyist, also expressed displeasure with the bill. She said it would allow for the destruction of coastal habitats, forests, grasslands and deserts, and called it the “worst bill” she’d seen for declining species in her 25-year career. 

“It blows a hole in our efforts to protect habitat,” she told The New York Times on Monday. “Make no mistake, this will be devastating.”

“Affordable housing is the civil rights struggle of our time here in California,” said the speaker of the Assembly, Robert Rivas, in a press conference, “and today we take a transformative step forward in that fight.”

“It is so critically important for California to show that we can get things done to make people’s lives better and more affordable,” said Democratic state Sen. Scott Wiener, who wrote the bill. 

Legislators hope to see “profound benefits” from the new regulations over the long term, but Wiener believes it will not be “an overnight kind of thing.” 

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