Climate Change

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By Leslie Walker

For the general public, the most exciting events so far this year on the climate change front have been at the national level. The Secretary of the Interior announced that the Polar Bear is a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act (16 U.S.C. § 1531 et seq.) because reduced sea ice coverage threatens its habitat; and Congress hotly debated, and then rejected, a bill to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 66% below 2005 levels by 2050.Continue Reading Mid Year Heat Up: Climate Change January-July 2008

By Leslie Z. Walker

On June 26, 2008, the California Air Resources Board released a draft of the scoping plan required under Assembly Bill 32 (Chapter 488, Statutes 2006), the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006.
Continue Reading Local Government Responsible for 1% of Statewide GHG Emission Reduction According to ARB Draft Plan

By Leslie Z. Walker

CEQA practitioners have spent the last year anxiously anticipating the Governor’s Office of Planning and Research (OPR) advice to local agencies on the evaluation of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and their effect on climate change in the CEQA process. On June 19, 2008, OPR offered a peek at its perspective by issuing the Technical Advisory CEQA and Climate Change: Addressing Climate Change Through California Environmental Quality Act Review.
Continue Reading OPR on CEQA and Climate Change: Local Agencies Continue to Bear the Heat

By Leslie Z. Walker

The California Attorney General and the Local Government Commission hosted the first of five statewide workshops, CEQA and Climate Change: Partnering with Local Agencies to Combat Global Warming, on Thursday, March 20, 2008. In his invitation to cities and counties across the state, the Attorney General explained that planning for Climate Change should not await the 2012 implementation of binding Greenhouse Gas (“GHG”) emission limits and emission reduction measures required by AB 32. At the workshop, the Attorney General reiterated his position that CEQA requires GHG analysis.
Continue Reading Attorney General’s Conference on Climate Change: Many Methods, No Answers

By Leslie Z. Walker

On November 30, 2007 the San Diego Association of Governments (“SANDAG”) adopted its 2030 Regional Transportation Plan (“RTP”) over Attorney General Jerry Brown’s criticism that the Environmental Impact Report (“EIR”) for the RTP “does not fully address the impacts on global warming of the project.”…
Continue Reading Attorney General Criticizes San Diego’s Smart Growth Strategy for Failure to Fully Address Global Warming Impacts