By Keith Menconi : sfexaminer – excerpt (audio)
Some San Francisco housing advocates are cheering the latest push to reform California’s environmental review standards.
State Sen. Scott Wiener, who represents San Francisco, has put forward a bill — SB 607 — that would make a number of highly technical changes aimed at narrowing the scope of the California Environmental Quality Act, a decades-old environmental law that critics say has been harnessed to block all manner of projects throughout the state…
Wiener’s bill targets the rollback of CEQA’s reviews only to cover “environmentally friendly and environmentally neutral projects,” according to a press release from his office…
“It rips the heart out of CEQA,” said Richard Drury, an Oakland-based environmental lawyer who has litigated CEQA cases for decades.
The law — first passed in 1970 — requires studies to determine the potential environmental impact from projects, including how they could affect air quality, waterways and noise pollution…
“I’m not one of these people who wants to get rid of CEQA,” said Wiener in an interview with The Examiner. “But I want it to be very focused on actually protecting the environment without preventing California from building all of the things that we need to succeed.”… (more)
HOW CAN WE TRUST EITHER PARTY WHEN THEY ARE GOING IN THE SAME CIRCULAR DIRECTION? IS UT A SEE SAW OR MUSICAL CHAIRS?
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