To the editor: In his op-ed article calling for reforming the California Environmental Quality Act, William Fulton doesn’t acknowledge the explanation that the legislation has not been drastically overhauled: It empowers a really broad vary of the state’s inhabitants, together with essentially the most weak.
CEQA is a invoice of rights for an environmental, participatory democracy.
Along with being relied upon by environmental teams, labor unions and community-based organizations, it has additionally empowered public companies, Native American tribes and others who’re in search of to guard California’s valuable atmosphere and assets.
An across-the-board deregulatory strategy that fails to embody the nuances crucial to guard California’s various inhabitants with its multiplicity of pursuits isn’t going to fly within the Legislature, nor ought to it.
Doug Carstens, Hermosa Seashore
The author is an environmental legal professional.
..
To the editor: Proponents of massive initiatives dangle the prospect of cash (and the specter of not doing the venture) to get exemptions from CEQA. Everybody else will get to slog by means of the method, enjoying whack-a-mole for each objection and paying dearly for it.
The atmosphere not often even advantages.
Suggestion: Proponents of a high-profile venture conform to exemptions if in addition they observe CEQA on a parallel path, with commitments to expedited opinions. And they need to fund an effort to interact stakeholders to revamp the method as they go. This group would produce suggestions for revisions for the broader profit.
Douglas Hileman, Valley Glen
