Environmentalists and unions band together to fight CEQA changes

Environmentalists and labor unions are banding together to fight efforts to overhaul California's landmark environmental law.

Organizers said the new coalition, made up of dozens of advocacy groups and dubbed "CEQA Works," was formed to counter an aggressive campaign by business groups to make changes to the California Environmental Quality Act. While legislation has yet to be introduced, Gov. Jerry Brown has called on the Legislature to streamline the law to help speed the state's economic recovery.

Environmentalists fear a repeat of last year, when lawmakers tried and failed to push through last-minute changes that activists said would have gutted CEQA.

"CEQA is the most foundational environmental law in California," said Bruce Reznik, executive director of the Planning and Conservation League, one of the coalition's founding members. "We decided we couldn’t sit on the sidelines anymore and wait for bad things to happen."

Signed into law by Gov. Ronald Reagan in 1970, the measure requires developers to go through a lengthy public process detailing their projects' potential environmental effects and how those would be mitigated.

Business groups have long complained that activists, labor unions -- even corporate competitors -- abuse the law by filing frivolous lawsuits to delay and kill development. The Silicon Valley Leadership Group and the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce are leading an effort to streamline environmental reviews and limit legal challenges.

But environmentalists argue that claims of delays are exaggerated. Less than 1% of all projects in the state face CEQA lawsuits, according to the Public Policy Institute of California.

Nevertheless, Reznik said the new group will offer its own proposals to update CEQA, including increased electronic record-keeping. "I think there is a recognition that things can be improved in CEQA," he said. "We’re not just the group of no."

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Ex-governors call for changes to environmental law

Three of California's former governors have banded together to urge an overhaul of the state's landmark environmental law, saying the 40-year-old measure needs to be "modernized" to help speed the Golden State's economic recovery.

The message echoes that of Gov. Jerry Brown, who called for changes to the California Environmental Quality Act in his State of the State address last month.

Former Govs. George Deukmejian, Pete Wilson and Gray Davis made their case in the pages of the Sacramento Bee on Sunday, arguing in an op-ed that CEQA has become "the favorite tool of those who seek to stop economic growth and progress for reasons that have little to do with the environment."

The measure requires developers to go through a lengthy public process detailing their projects' potential environmental effects and how those would be mitigated. Business groups have long complained that activists, labor unions -- even corporate competitors -- abuse the law by filing frivolous lawsuits to delay and kill development.

"While CEQA's original intent must remain intact, now is the time to end reckless abuses of this important law -- abuses that are threatening California's economic vitality, costing jobs and wasting valuable taxpayer dollars," the ex-governors wrote.

They suggested "requiring petitioners to disclose their economic interests; adding certainty to the CEQA time line; avoiding duplicative reviews; and lessening opportunities for unjustified litigation and delay."

Environmentalists have said the claims of delays are exaggerated. Less than 1% of all projects in the state face CEQA lawsuits, according to the Public Policy Institute of California.

Last year, environmentalists and labor unions persuaded legislative leaders to kill a proposal by state Sen. Michael Rubio (D-East Bakersfield) that would have streamlined environmental reviews and limited lawsuits. They argued that the measure would have effectively gutted CEQA.

Rubio has said he intends to redouble his efforts this year, and state Senate leader Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento) has declared a CEQA overhaul one of the upper house's top priorities.

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-- Michael J. Mishak in Sacramento

twitter.com/mjmishak

Lawmakers to hold hearing on fracking

State lawmakers will hold a hearing next month to examine the regulation of hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking," in California.

Unlike other major oil-producing states, California does not require energy firms to disclose where they use the controversial procedure or what chemicals they inject into the ground. Regulators released draft rules for fracking last month that would mandate such disclosure but allow oil companies to keep secret the names of certain chemicals they claim to be proprietary.

Lawmakers have expressed concerns about that provision, raising safety questions about the hundreds of chemicals used — many of them known carcinogens — and the potential for drinking water contamination.

The joint hearing of the Senate Natural Resources and Water and Environmental Quality committees is set for Feb. 12.

Legislation to regulate fracking died last year in the face of industry opposition. Oil companies say the technology is safe and that the trade-secrets clause is necessary to protect their competitive advantage.

At least two lawmakers -- state Sen. Fran Pavley (D-Agoura Hills) and Assemblyman Bob Wieckowski (D-Fremont) -- have revived legislation to compel disclosure, even as regulators undertake the rulemaking process.

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-- Michael J. Mishak in Sacramento

Twitter.com/mjmishak

Photo: The Inglewood Oil Field in the Baldwin Hills. Credit: Al Seib / Los Angeles Times

Gov. Brown calls for environmental law reform to 'cut needless delays'

Gov. Jerry Brown said in his State of the State address Thursday that he wants to refine California’s environmental protection laws so they don’t unnecessarily hold up development projects that create jobs.

"We … need to rethink and streamline our regulatory procedures, particularly the California Environmental Quality Act," Brown told the joint session of the Legislature. "Our approach needs to be based more on consistent standards that provide greater certainty and cut needless delays."

The comments came a few weeks after a group of business leaders called for changes in CEQA to prevent what they say is lawsuit abuse that misuses the environmental laws to bottle up projects in court.

On Thursday, the Natural Resources Defense Council asked the governor to preserve CEQA.

"We urge Gov. Brown to reject efforts to weaken the California Environmental Quality Act, which has provided protections against local pollution and health threats for residents for more than 40 years,’’ the council said in a statement responding to Brown’s address.

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Photo: Gov. Jerry Brown gives his State of the State address at the Capitol. To the left is Assembly Speaker John Perez; at right is Senate President Darrell Steinberg. Credit: Hector Amezcua / Sacramento Bee

While California considers fracking rules, legal battles flare elsewhere

As California considers rules for hydraulic fracturing, a legal battle in Wyoming over regulations for the controversial drilling process could underscore the flash points in the coming debate here.

A coalition of environmental groups is suing the Wyoming Oil and Gas Conservation Commission over that state's "fracking" rules, arguing that regulators are rubber-stamping requests by oil and gas companies to keep secret certain chemicals they inject into the earth to break apart rock and release fossil fuels.

According to Earthjustice, a San Francisco-based nonprofit law firm representing the environmental groups, Wyoming regulators have approved 50 secrecy claims, allowing companies to withhold information about more than 190 chemicals.

Oral arguments in the case began in Natrona County District Court on Tuesday.

Environmentalists in California have raised similar concerns about Sacramento's proposed rules for fracking.

Draft regulations released by regulators last month would allow companies to file trade secret claims for chemicals they consider to be proprietary. Mark Nechodom, director of the state Department of Conservation, has said that public health and safety will "not be overshadowed by concerns about trade secret protections."

The issue of fracking is particularly potent in Wyoming, where the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency tied the cause of water contamination to fluids used in hydraulic fracturing. The agency's draft report, issued in 2011 but still not finalized, said the best explanation for the pollution was that fluids had migrated up from fracking operations and contaminated an aquifer.

Oil and gas operators there have contested the findings, saying the federal investigators' testing methods may have tainted water samples.

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-- Michael J. Mishak in Sacramento

Twitter.com/mjmishak

After fracking debate, state Senate confirms conservation director

The state Senate approved Gov. Jerry Brown's pick to head the state Conservation Department on Monday after the nominee assured lawmakers he would address their concerns about the safety of hydraulic fracturing, the controversial drilling process driving the nation's oil and gas boom.

Although "fracking" has been used in California to tap crude for decades, regulators are only now beginning to write rules to govern the process. Environmentalists and public health advocates have raised concerns about the potential hazards of the process, which involves injecting chemical-laced water and sand deep into the earth to break apart rock and extract previously unreachable fossil fuels.

Legislators have criticized a provision in the state's proposed fracking rules that allow oil companies to withhold disclosure of chemicals they claim to be proprietary.

The nominee, Mark Nechodom, faced a grilling from a legislative committee last week when he said regulators were trying to strike a balance between public disclosure and the state's trade-secrets law. Nechodom later emphasized his commitment to protecting public health and safety in a letter to state Senate leader Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento).

"I share the committee's view that the protection of public health and safety not be overshadowed by concerns about trade secret protections," he wrote. "Therefore, as I stated at the hearing, the department will keep health and safety as our first priority as we develop the regulations."

Nechodom said his department would work with lawmakers to pass legislation to "ensure that the public has access to critical information affecting public health and safety." He also said regulators were open to changing a provision in the proposed rules so Californians would have more advance notice before hydraulic fracturing operations begin. Draft regulations released by officials last month would require oil companies to notify regulators 10 days before fracking. Regulators would then post that notice on a state website.

On Monday, Steinberg cited Nechodom's letter and urged his colleagues to support the nominee. The nomination passed, 34-0.

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-- Michael J. Mishak in Sacramento

Twitter.com/mjmishak

Photo: The Inglewood Oil Field in L.A.'s Baldwin Hills. Credit: Al Seib / Los Angeles Times

California conservation chief faces grilling over fracking

Mark Nechodom, Gov. Jerry Brown's nominee for state conservation chief, won the support of a key Senate committee on Wednesday after a grilling from lawmakers over hydraulic fracturing -- and demands for more safeguards on the controversial drilling process before the upper house considers his final approval next week.

Nechodom, a research scientist by training and former senior adviser on climate change in the U.S. Department of Agriculture, acknowledged the California Conservation Department was late in developing regulations for "fracking," but said the administration was moving forward with proposed rules that would make the state a leader in environmental protection and public health.

He was introduced by his wife, Secretary of State Debra Bowen.

"When I arrived at the department a year ago, fracking had not been given its fair due," Nechodom told lawmakers. "I believe we have righted the ship and we are going in the right direction."

Last month, oil regulators released draft regulations that would require energy companies to disclose for the first time the chemicals they inject deep into the ground to break apart rock and release oil.

Lawmakers, however, seized on a provision in the proposed rules that would allow oil companies to withhold disclosure of chemicals they claim to be proprietary. Nechodom said regulators were trying to strike a balance between public transparency and the state's trade-secrets law, which he noted protects the recipes of products like Coca-Cola.

Legislators pushed back.

"This is not Coca-Cola to me," said state Senate leader Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento). "How to differentiate the taste of Coca-Cola from Pepsi … is a very different question from whether or not the brew of chemicals that are injected into the ground might affect the health and safety of a community because of water supply contamination."

State Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson (D-Santa Barbara) said the public deserved more disclosure.

"We want to know the science," she said. "Maybe fracking isn't a bad thing but the fact that we have been kept from knowing what is in this brew has created some real problems for the industry."

Nechodom emphasized that regulators were at the beginning of a rulemaking process that could last more than a year. Disclosure and other issues, including permitting and oversight, will be subject to debate, he said.

Despite the heated questioning from lawmakers, representatives from environmental groups, as well as oil and mining companies, testified in support of Nechodom's confirmation.

Steinberg, chairman of the Senate Rules Committee, ultimately offered conditional support and the committee approved the nominee, 5-0. The Democratic leader said he wanted Nechodom to respond to lawmakers' concerns in writing before the full Senate takes up his confirmation on Monday.

"I want written assurance that health and safety trumps all else, including trade secrets," Steinberg said.

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-- Michael J. Mishak in Sacramento

Twitter.com/mjmishak

Photo: The Inglewood Oil Field in L.A.'s Baldwin Hills. Credit: Al Seib / Los Angeles Times

Senate appointments set up battle over revamping environmental law

State Senate leader Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento) has said reform of the state’s environmental protection laws is a priority this year, but his appointments to the Senate Environmental Quality Committee on Monday had some people doubting dramatic changes are in the offing.

Steinberg appointed Sen. Michael Rubio (D-East Bakersfield) as the committee’s chair after the lawmaker spearheaded an effort last year to streamline the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). Rubio has been in talks with a group of business leaders on changing CEQA to streamline and limit legal challenges to projects judged environmentally friendly.

But some Capitol insiders say it looks like Steinberg has made it harder for dramatic changes to be made to CEQA by stacking the nine-person panel with five staunch supporters of the state environmental laws.

Some said it looks like major changes are less likely to get out of a committee that includes Democratic state Sens. Fran Pavley of Agoura Hills, Hannah Beth Jackson of Santa Barbara, Ellen Corbett of San Leandro, Loni Hancock of Berkeley and Mark Leno of San Francisco.

Bruce Reznik, executive director of the Planning and Conservation League, has fought previous attempts to create loopholes in CEQA. He said Monday he is encouraged by the number of what he described as "greenies'' on the panel. "It is a good group,'' he said, adding he is gearing up for a big push on the issue.

A push for change this year was confirmed by Carl Guardino, president and CEO of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group.

``We believe CEQA is a great law, which has sadly been greatly abused for non-environmental purposes,’’Guardino said, adding support for CEQA reform from legislators including Rubio and Gov. Brown are ``good signs.’’

 

 

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Photo: State Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento) has stacked a committee with some of the most vocal defenders of California's environmental quality law. Credit: Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press

 

 

Term ending for Fish and Game commissioner who killed cougar

Time will apparently accomplish what public outrage and political pressure could not: Force controversial figure Daniel W. Richards to step down from the California Fish and Game Commission.

Richards' term on the panel expires in two weeks, on Jan. 15, and it is unlikely he will be reappointed by Gov. Jerry Brown, sources said.

Richards made national headlines as president of the commission a year ago when a photo appeared on the Internet showing him grinning as he held up the carcass of a mountain lion he had killed during a hunt in Idaho.

Although such kills are legal in Idaho, they have been banned in California for years. More than 40 California lawmakers signed a letter voicing outrage at Richards and demanding that he resign, and their call was backed by Sierra Club California and the head of the Humane Society of the United States.

Hunter groups and the National Rifle Assn. rallied behind the Upland resident, who defiantly refused to step down. The Republican real estate businessman had been appointed to the commission in 2008 by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Brown lacked the power to remove Richards before his term expires, but will be free in two weeks to name somebody new to the position. Commissioners are allowed to continue serving until a replacement is appointed, but critics of Richards, including Jennifer Fearing of the Humane Society, are hoping for swift action by the governor.

"Clearly it's time for him to go,'' Fearing said of Richards, who did not respond to calls for comment.

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Photo: California Fish and Game Commissioner Dan Richards attends a meeting last year in Riverside. Credit: Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times

 

Gov. Jerry Brown wants to "calibrate" environmental rules

An early environmental leader as California's governor nearly four decades ago, Jerry Brown is now easing restrictions for oil companies and talking about overhauling the state's landmark environmental law to boost the economy.

As detailed in The Times, that strain of pragmatism has run throughout Brown's current governorship — and flummoxed many allies — and nowhere is it more apparent than on the issue of the environment.

The actions come as the state forges ahead with an ambitious program to combat global warming by penalizing major polluters and moves to meet a requirement that California get a third of its power from renewable energy sources.

Brown's spokesman, Gil Duran, compared the approach to that of President Obama, who has touted what he calls an "all of the above" energy strategy.

"You have to pursue renewable energy — and California is leading the way — but you also have to have balance and common sense," Duran said.

A key flashpoint this year will be new regulations for hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking," a controversial drilling process that could help unlock billions of barrels of oil buried deep in California shale.

Although recently drafted rules would require energy companies to disclose for the first time what chemicals they pump underground to break apart rock and release crude, the proposed regulations would also allow firms to claim trade secrets and withhold information they consider proprietary.

After the November election, Brown said streamlining the state's regulations would be a top priority for 2013.

"We are going to calibrate our regulations," Brown said, "to ensure that they encourage jobs as well as protect other aspects of public interest such as environment, health and good working conditions."

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-- Michael J. Mishak in Sacramento

Twitter.com/mjmishak

Photo: Gov. Jerry Brown at a news conference. Credit: Wally Skalij, Los Angeles Times