Bob Dutton: AG's stance unfairly limits development

Imagine driving down a recently opened freeway that has no posted or established speed limit. During that drive you are pulled over by a California Highway Patrol officer who proceeds to write you a ticket for speeding.

You tell the officer that there is no posted speed limit and that you weren't driving more than what would be the normal speed limit for that type of road. The officer acknowledges these facts, but says you are still getting the ticket because at some point in the future the speed limit is going to be changed and you should have known that the speed limit was going to be lower.

Does that scenario sound absurd? It should. But here's the scary part: This is the type of situation facing anyone who may attempt to build a freeway, school, hospital or create a new source of fresh drinking water in the state if California's Attorney General Jerry Brown has his way.

The AG filed a lawsuit earlier this year against San Bernardino County and charges that its General Plan violates the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). He believes that the county should take into account greenhouse gas emission standards under Assembly Bill 32 -- the Global Warming Solutions Act.

The problem is that the regulations for AB 32 have not yet been written and aren't scheduled to be completed until 2012. That means Brown is asking San Bernardino County, and potentially any other county or developer in the state, to comply with a set of standards that has yet to be written and put in place.

CEQA's subjective nature lends itself to constant abuse and frivolous litigation, and allows anti-growth advocates to stall critical infrastructure projects. Allowing the attorney general or any other group to sue under CEQA for standards that have not yet been established could likely shut down all development in this state.

In addition, when the attorney general, who is funded with taxpayer money, sues another government agency such as San Bernardino County, which is also funded with taxpayer dollars, it's nothing more than taxpayers suing taxpayers. This is a total waste of hard-earned taxpayer money that could be better spent on improving the quality of life for Californians, whether it is more money for police and fire protection or building more streets and roads.

Speaking of street and road construction, voters of this state passed $43 billion in bonds to build, fix and expand California's infrastructure system, build schools and improve the state's fragile levee system.

It's clear if legislation isn't passed to stop these types of lawsuits, all of these projects will be at risk.
Our solution to the problem is simple and something we've been negotiating with our colleagues on the other side of the isle and the governor for months -- we need legislation that keeps anyone from suing a government agency or any other type of development for greenhouse gas deficiencies under CEQA until AB 32 regulations are written.

This legislation needs to be tied to the budget for the simple reason that billions of voter-approved state dollars were meant to build streets, schools, parks and clean water projects, not to fund unneeded studies and litigation.

Passing this type of litigation protection will ensure that there is an established speed limit and let everyone know what it is when it comes to development in California.

Source: Sacramento Bee
August 8, 2007

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