Tuesday, January 01, 2013

LA Times quotes California Gov. Jerry Brown on the environment: "There are too many damn regulations"

Jerry Brown readjusts his stand on the environment vs. business - latimes.com
SACRAMENTO — When Gov. Jerry Brown spoke to a crowd of beaming environmentalists and renewable energy advocates at the launch of a solar farm last year, he turned heads by praising another form of fuel: oil.
...in his return engagement as California's chief executive, he has eased key regulations for oil companies, capped wildfire liability for timber companies and relaxed the state's landmark environmental law.
...
Hoping to boost the state's economy, Brown has signaled his desire to loosen the California Environmental Quality Act — the same law he used as attorney general to pressure cities and counties to comply with the global warming law.

The measure requires developers to go through a lengthy public process detailing their projects' potential environmental effects and how those would be mitigated. Business groups have long complained that activists, labor unions — even corporate competitors — abuse the law by filing frivolous lawsuits to delay and kill development.

In 2011 Brown heard their call and signed bills to help a football stadium proposed for downtown Los Angeles and other major projects avoid drawn-out CEQA litigation. "There are too many damn regulations," he said at a signing ceremony.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Test comment. (Please excuse my test -- it's just coz I want to see if I'm able to comment. Last days it was not possible for me to comment at Hockey Schtick or Cleas Johnson's blogspot blog any longer (In the past I was able to comment there without signing in.)

Beale said...

Filing frivolous lawsuits isn't an abuse of the law - it's what it's for.