If you’re looking for more reasons to dislike Governor Newsom, there’s his support for the Delta Conveyance Project, which takes yet more water from the Delta (salt water intrusion, anyone?) and sends it to the bottomless pit on the southern San Joaquin Valley, so billionaire “farmers” can sell it to growing cities. Then there’s his support for allowing electric utilities to break their contracts with homeowners with rooftop solar, gutting that industry in favor of giant solar installations in desert wildlands. Newsom does have some environmental credentials, but there are also some powerful negatives.
I have a small quibble about CEQA. You seem to say that any member of the public can sue under CEQA to stop a project. It’s more restrictive than that. Only members of the public or organizations who submit comments during the project’s comment period can sue, and only on the issues they commented about. That’s a pretty narrow gate.
That Abundance book is certainly stirring things up. It has Congressional fans in the House's bipartisan Build America Caucus who want to mangle, er, "reform" the National Environmental Policy Act in order to build certain kinds of projects faster-- as though NEPA hadn't already been put through the meat grinder in the last few years. The caucus chair is a Democrat from California (Josh Harder). See https://www.eenews.net/articles/bipartisan-abundance-caucus-sets-sights-on-nepa/ (not paywalled).
I want to say, though, excellent essay as always, Chris!
If you’re looking for more reasons to dislike Governor Newsom, there’s his support for the Delta Conveyance Project, which takes yet more water from the Delta (salt water intrusion, anyone?) and sends it to the bottomless pit on the southern San Joaquin Valley, so billionaire “farmers” can sell it to growing cities. Then there’s his support for allowing electric utilities to break their contracts with homeowners with rooftop solar, gutting that industry in favor of giant solar installations in desert wildlands. Newsom does have some environmental credentials, but there are also some powerful negatives.
I have a small quibble about CEQA. You seem to say that any member of the public can sue under CEQA to stop a project. It’s more restrictive than that. Only members of the public or organizations who submit comments during the project’s comment period can sue, and only on the issues they commented about. That’s a pretty narrow gate.
That Abundance book is certainly stirring things up. It has Congressional fans in the House's bipartisan Build America Caucus who want to mangle, er, "reform" the National Environmental Policy Act in order to build certain kinds of projects faster-- as though NEPA hadn't already been put through the meat grinder in the last few years. The caucus chair is a Democrat from California (Josh Harder). See https://www.eenews.net/articles/bipartisan-abundance-caucus-sets-sights-on-nepa/ (not paywalled).
Thanks for expanding my knowledge -- both about CEQA and the Klein book.