Environmental Law

SB 827 is on the Governor?s desk

    Readers may remember that, recently, I wrote about the problem for many businesses and government entities as a result of a State Court ruling holding that the AQMD?s issuance of ?offset? credits violates the California Environmental Quality Act, or ?CEQA? and imposing a moratorium on the issuance of such credits.  Since such credits are, as a practical matter, required in order for such places to operate under California pollution laws, and since with the moratorium the only place to obtain such credits would be on the open market at incredibly expensive prices, the continued operations of several thousand facilities within the AQMD jurisdiction was threatened.

    I also noted that Senator Roderick D, Wright (D-Inglewood) had introduced legislation that would, despite the Court ruling, provide at least interim relief (while the long-term effects of the Court ruling are sorted out) by re-authorizing the AQMD offset credit allowance.  The legislation has passed both houses of the Legislature and now awaits the Governor?s signature.

    As you may be aware, however, the Governor has threatened not to act on the approximately 700 bills awaiting his decision by a Sunday, October 11, 2009 deadline unless the Legislature first deals with the State?s water supply crisis.  So the fate of SB 827 is far from certain as this column is published.

This post is adapted from a portion of my most recent weekly column for The warner center News, The Valley vantage and The Las Virgenes Enterprise, a group of local papers published in the San Feranndo Valley, California.