While no California Environmental Quality Act ("CEQA") reform was achieved by the California Legislature in its last session, Senate President Pro-Tem Darrell Steinberg has indicated in a recently-issued statement that it will be a top priority in the next session.
Not long before, Governor Jerry Brown was quoted in a Capitol Alert pieces calling legislative reform of CEQA "the Lord's work." Hopefully, he did not mean the quest for the Holy Grail. SB 317, the most significant effort at CEQA reform proposed last legislative session, died in the session's waning days. While "hope springs eternal," meaningful legislative reform of CEQA has thus continued to prove elusive. To paraphrase Senator Steinberg: "Wait 'til next year!"
