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CEQA Hypocrisy from the Gov.

When you can find a copy in B'game, the Daily Post is still an informative read–and I don't mean just the Police Blotter.  Last week, Tom Elias had an editorial titled "Brown helps Facebook evade enviro laws".  Enviro is short for environmental and the law he was referring to is the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) signed by Gov. Reagan in 1970.  Elias leads off with this quote

"I've never seen a CEQA exemption I don't like."   –Gov. Jerry Brown

Brown made that observation shortly after starting his second go-'roiund as California's chief executive in early 2011.

This is the same guy who flies all over the world to tout his green policies.  As Elias notes, "He's gone along with the developer and union-influenced Legislature time after time."  The headline refers to a current measure in the Assembly that would

entitle any project that costs more than $100 million and meets union-level wage standards, plus standards for green house gas controls, to get final resolution of any CEQA-related lawsuit within nine months.

You can bet the "final resolution" is not to err on the side of caution and deny the project.  Elias reviews a number of projects besides the Facebook headquarters, but leaves out the biggest, least-green albatross of them all– high-speed rail.  It bears reminding that a UC Berkeley study found that HSR will never recoup the pollution generated by its construction–and that was true even while accepting crazy ridership numbers.  He finishes with "All this is sure to go down in state history as one of the least green and least positive legacies of his long political career."

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7 responses to “CEQA Hypocrisy from the Gov.”

  1. Oski

    I Think the Berkeley study you’re referring to is here?
    http://its.berkeley.edu/btl/2010/spring/HRS-life-cycle
    Main points being the amount of concrete its going to take to construct and where we get our energy from.
    No matter what it will take a significant amount of concrete to construct any sort of infrastructure, including widening of our freeways.
    The other point relies heavily on what sources we receive our energy from, which will continually be moving towards greener and less environmentally negative production means.
    “At mid-level occupancy HSR ROI is achieved at 28 years for energy and 71 years for GHG emissions.”
    Let me know if I missed something, but I don’t think its fair to spread misinformation.

  2. Joe

    Instead of making uninformed accusations (“misinformation”) try reading backwards in the HSR category found at the right frame. You will soon stumble into this post:
    http://www.burlingamevoice.com/2017/05/high-cost-rail-part-133-environmental-hypocrisy#comments
    That will link to the full article.
    I haven’t heard anyone suggesting widening I-5 if High-cost rail is not built.
    We shall see about “moving towards greener energy”. You can read back in the Power section on the right for more information there that might enlighten you–yes, pun intended. Go check out the German cost per kilowatt-hour. It ain’t pretty.
    http://www.burlingamevoice.com/2017/06/clean-power-or-reliable-power#comments

  3. Phinancier

    Dear Oski, if this thing ever does get finished Elon Musk or Richard Branson or Sergey Brin will make it look like a Model T well before 28 years after completion.
    BUT, the chances of it ever running are less than 20% so EVERY little bit of CO2, concrete and steel we have paid for already is likely to be WASTED, dude.

  4. resident

    Even mid-level occupancy is a friggin’ pipe dream. They are talking a train every 10 minutes or somthing stupid like that.

  5. Laura

    Plus if it ever makes it to the Bay Area, it means taking commuter trains off the tracks for those trains running every ten minutes. That means more people having to get in their cars as less trains to get them up and down the Peninsula.

  6. Steve Kassel

    California bullet train cost surges by $2.8 billion: ‘Worst-case scenario has happened’.
    Well this is a shocker.
    http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-bullet-train-cost-overrun-20180116-story

  7. Cathy Baylock

    Steve, thanks for posting this. I am glad to see that the last ten years of my life I have spent opposing this boondoggle have been justified

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