What New CEQA Reforms Aimed at Streamlining Housing Production Mean for the Environment

KQED's Forum

KQED

News Commentary, News, Politics

4.2 • 727 Ratings

🗓️ 18 August 2025

⏱️ 55 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

California has long prided itself on being a leader on environmental issues. Innovative laws like a carbon cap and trade program to limit greenhouse gas emissions and CEQA, which allows for environmental reviews of development projects, were a hallmark of that leadership. But a focus on cost of living and the need for more housing are putting into question how the state will balance environmental concerns with its desire for growth. In the first of a 2 day series looking at the impact of environmental reforms, we talk about what’s ahead for California’s environmental agenda. Guests: Wade Crowfoot, secretary, California Natural Resources Agency Ethan Elkind, director of the Climate Program at the Center for Law, Energy and the Environment, UC Berkeley School of Law; host of the podcast, Climate Break Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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0:45.8	From Kikiwedi in San Francisco, I'm Alexis Madrigal. For decades, California's environmental laws and regulations tended to be at the forefront of national policy. Renewable energy, car and appliance efficiency standards,
1:14.8	carbon cap and trade, and of course, CEQA were landmark laws. But times have changed,
1:20.7	and the state's many innovations are in question, both here and across the country. What's changing
1:26.6	and what should be preserved?
1:28.8	That's all coming up next, right after this news. Welcome to Forum. I'm Alexis Madrigal. We're looking at California's legacy of leadership on environmental laws and the revisions that people here in the state are making to some of
2:02.0	these rules and regulations. Foremost among them, CEQA shorthand for the California Environmental
2:08.3	Quality Act has been a contentious piece of legislation as developers say it slows down building
2:14.6	and creates unnecessary uncertainty in their projects. While advocates contend it's a necessary part of preserving the state's landscapes and communities.
2:24.2	Recently, the California legislature passed some changes to SICWA, and we're taking them as a jumping off point to talk about the legislation both today in this environmental history context and also tomorrow
2:35.5	when we tackle CEQA and housing. Up first to lay the groundwork, we've got forum regular
2:41.9	Ethan Elkind, director of the Climate Program Center for Law Energy and the Environment at
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