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TOM WHEELER:

Welcome to the Econews Report. I'm your host this week, Tom Wheeler, Executive Director of EPIC, the Environmental Protection Information Center. And we are talking about Proposition 45, one of the many things that will be on your ballot this November.

So this is alarming a lot of the California environmental community because it is a fundamental attack on the California Environmental Quality Act, or CEQA, one of the prime tools that groups like EPIC use to help defend our natural environment. So we are going to learn a little bit more about Prop 45 today with Elizabeth Reid-Wainscoat. Elizabeth is the Urban Wildlands Policy Specialist at the Center for Biological Diversity. Welcome to the Econews Report, Elizabeth.

ELIZABETH REID-WAINSCOAT:

Thank you so much for having me.

WHEELER:

OK, so first, let's learn a little bit about you and your position. What is the Urban Wildlands Program? And tell me about the Center for Biological Adversity.

REID-WAINSCOAT:

Yeah, well the Center for Biological Diversity is a national environmental non-profit and we work to protect habitat across the country and this is all to protect our wonderful biodiversity. So urban wildlands here in California, we really focus on California biodiversity and we look at how we can best protect biodiversity through land use policies and one of those essential tools that we use is the California Environmental Quality Act. So that's why our program is really specialized to use the California Environmental Quality Act here in California to make projects stronger and to protect the habitat that endangered and threatened species rely on across the state and also we just want to focus on making, ensuring that development across the state really protects community health and well-being as well. So that's our broad range and we work on several, a lot of different projects that impact the natural landscape from water infrastructure projects, multi-use development projects and manufacturing facilities, all of that we engage on.

WHEELER:

Yeah, so stopping sprawl, protecting habitat, things like wetlands, ensuring that communities aren't building in high-risk, fire-prone areas or other such things. I appreciate the work for the Center or that the Center does there.

Okay, so the Wildlands, Urban Wildlands Program, as you said, utilizes the California Environmental Quality Act. This is often referred to as CEQA and CEQA is unique in that it provides an opportunity for the general public to engage with government decision makers on projects. It requires the government to disclose information about the impact of a project on the natural environment, on things like human health. And from that disclosure and from public participation, the idea of the law is that we will create better projects. We will better understand the things that will need to be fixed in projects. If there are impacts, we will find ways to minimize those impacts. If those impacts can't be minimized, we'll figure out ways to mitigate those impacts. And as a consequence, we have a much more engaged citizenry in the state of California than in other states.

CEQA has come under a lot of abuse lately by folks in the YIMBY movement. And I will say that I also will identify in part as a YIMBY, right? I want to see housing built in my backyard, by which I mean the urban area of Eureka. I think that this is the appropriate place that we can build more housing here in Eureka. I, in my work, have never found CEQA to be a substantial obstacle to that housing construction. There are much more important, more difficult things to attack. But the specter of housing has been used to haunt and to denigrate CEQA and is being used now to attack CEQA and really trying to gut it. So Prop 45, as our groups believe, is a fundamental gutting of California's most important environmental law. So let's get into what Prop 45 does. Can you explain broadly what is included in this initiative?

REID-WAINSCOAT:

Yeah, Prop 45 is a statewide ballot measure backed by the California Chamber of Commerce, as well as data center developers, for-profit utilities, and some of the state's biggest corporations. And it would fundamentally dismantle the California Environmental Quality Act. And as you said, that's our state's foundational environmental protection law. And it would do this for a broad range of polluting projects. So it would make it easier for big corporations to build large, potentially polluting projects, including data centers, warehouses, CO2 and methane gas pipelines, landfill gas facilities, fossil fuel power plants, freeway expansions, dams, forest clear-cutting, and other industrial projects that emit toxic chemicals, and also large-scale sprawl development in wildfire and flood zones. The only projects that Prop 45 specifically excludes are jails and detention centers, new oil and gas production facilities, nuclear facilities, high-speed rail, and the Delta Tunnel.

WHEELER:

Yeah, so a broad range of concerning projects. So when the proponents of Prop 45 talk about it, I think that they often are talking about housing. Housing under CEQA has largely been deregulated already by the California legislature. Here, I think that they're using housing and clean energy and other things as a cudgel to get a whole host of other things. As you said, dams, things like the Shasta Dam Raise, which would kill endangered species of Shasta salamander. That would be one of the essential projects moved forward under Prop 45. So Prop 45 will reduce the amount of information that we will have on these projects, in part because it will streamline project analysis. So do you want to speak briefly about that?

REID-WAINSCOAT:

I mean, basically CEQA does require a thorough analysis of a project's impacts to public health, air, land and water and of course also habitat. And so Prop 45 would basically prevent a lot of that analysis from actually occurring and thus would not be disclosing that information to the public before a project is approved.

WHEELER:

And it also says that it's going to streamline environmental analysis. And I think that streamlining sounds perhaps good to some folks, right? It will have a faster way by which projects are reviewed. I know here in rural Humboldt County, though, we don't have the staff to adequately review projects and to deliver projects on the tight and artificial timelines that Prop 45 would demand.

So if you're thinking about a very large complex project, let's say the heavy lift marine terminal being proposed here on the Port of Humboldt Bay to facilitate offshore wind, something that EPIC is absolutely not opposed to and in favor of investigating seriously. That is a very complex and difficult project to analyze. Under Prop 45, the local jurisdiction who is in charge of that project will only have 365 days by which to fully analyze and complete environmental analysis. That is rushing it for a project of that sort. So we are also going to cut short the timelines by which governments are to do things, putting local governments at risk if they are not complete within those timelines, opens new forms of litigation, and it risks sloppy, fast work by governments on things that oftentimes will require very considerable analysis.

One other thing that is concerning to me about Prop 45 is it bypasses the legislature and makes it harder to fine-tune CEQA in the future. So CEQA reform has been taken up by the legislature in nearly every legislative session in the last 10 years, and we've had pretty significant reforms made. Under Prop 45, the legislature would be prohibited from touching what was approved by the voters. So once this is passed, it would effectively need another ballot initiative to undo the structure, or if something wasn't working here, if we decide that we actually don't like all these data centers that are being unleashed as a consequence of Prop 45, it would require going back to the voters again instead of the legislature just moving forward and making appropriate amendments.

So who stands to benefit from all this? You listed out who's paying for the initiative, PG&E, California Chamber of Commerce, yeah, who's behind this?

REID-WAINSCOAT:

Yeah, as you said, the initiative is funded by the California Chamber of Commerce and investor-owned utilities like SoCal Edison and PG&E, also data center and warehouse developers, the California Building Industry Association, and other special interest groups. So this proposition is just a handout to billionaires. That's really what it comes down to. They don't want to pay to make their projects safer and better for community health and the environment. They want to streamline the process and reduce the ability of community groups like the center to actually engage and make those projects better. So this is really fundamentally just a handout directly to those developers.

WHEELER:

In thinking about CEQA, one of the great benefits of this law is that it offers an opportunity for the public to get engaged in a project and to figure out ways by which a project can work for communities. So it will cause developers, cause government agencies to enter into talks with neighbors about how they can minimize and mitigate the impact of projects. What may happen to this kind of ability to negotiate changes to projects should Prop 45 pass?

REID-WAINSCOAT:

Yeah, I mean, communities and community groups really lose that leverage and they lose that time, like you said, they're now have significant less time to engage, they have less information to use when they are entering into those discussions. And they just, yeah, generally have less tools at their disposal to hold those developers accountable. So right now, the role of CEQA is to improve projects by including the community in the project planning process. And so when a project is proposed, they must analyze the impacts to air quality, water quality and habitat, and then mitigate those impacts. And this means implementing the most up to date and efficient technologies to reduce emissions and protect local air quality.

It also means assessing alternatives to the project and allowing the community to weigh in on the different project options so that at the end, the project best reflects the needs and wants of the local community and the general public. So yeah, this is one of the essential tools that makes sure developers in California actually invest in making our state more sustainable and resilient. And that's what we are potentially going to lose if Prop 45 passes.

WHEELER:

So one example from Humboldt Bay was a proposed fish farm here on Humboldt Bay. The fish farm would have used a very significant amount of electricity. And what environmental groups were able to do was through this CEQA process, we were able to enter into negotiations with the county, with the project developer, to ensure that if this project were to move forward, which it ultimately did not do, and not because of any consequences CEQA, but if this project were to move forward, the project was to have to have 100% renewable energy. This is the sort of opportunity that an engaged citizenry can have to ensure that economic development in our state does not come at the expense of our natural environment or our climate.

Another project example, perhaps would be Last Chance Grade, a highway project up in Del Norte County that would, when built, create a tunnel around a landslide-prone area of Highway 101. Because of CEQA, because of this ability to engage on projects, environmental groups were able to ensure that Caltrans appropriately mitigated that project, that the old growth forests that it would impact would be adequately mitigated through compensatory mitigation elsewhere. That is a consequence of CEQA.

I think that we often can get distracted in discussions of CEQA on a couple bad actors and a couple of test cases or silly applications or NIMBY groups or whatever it is, right? The reality is that most projects under CEQA move forward without a hitch and that CEQA adds a benefit by having a more considered role for local governments and the public.

All right, so let's bust some myths from the yes side. Do you have a favorite myth that you've seen the yes side put out because of how egregious and dumb it is?

REID-WAINSCOAT:

Yes. They love to say that Prop 45 will cut costs for everyone. But we know that it doesn't reduce costs. It just shifts them to taxpayers. So the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst's Office estimates that implementing Prop 45 could cost taxpayers $100 million or more a year. And Prop 45 rolls back protections for public health in our air, water, and land, which will directly be passed on to taxpayers through cleanup bills. So for example, taxpayers are already spending more than $750 million to clean up lead contamination from just one industrial plant in Southern California.

Nothing in Prop 45 requires that there be lower housing prices or lower utility bills or lower costs for consumers. There's nothing in the 41 pages there that actually mentions affordability. So while that is their talking point and one of their central talking points, the details of the proposition just doesn't back that up.

WHEELER:

One thing that I am glad about is that there was some initial polling that showed that Prop 45 was doing very well amongst voters. But when you started to get into the tabs within the poll, you found that the more voters came to understand about Prop 45, the more they learned about it, the less likely they were to vote for it. So I think that this is really important that we get on the radio, that we talk to our neighbors, talk to our friends, learn more about this and start to say the truth, start to talk about the role that CEQA does play in making sure that California is a place that we want to live. That is this beautiful green and gold state.

All right, so what are some other myths that you would like to bust? I will go on housing, because I think we've talked a little bit about this before. Which is housing and the kind of housing that we want to see in the state of California has already largely been exempted from CEQA, right? The state legislature has responded to the housing crisis that we here in the state are confronting by doing things like SB9, in which all property owners are able to have an ADU and then some on their property. So we're able to fast track the sort of low impact developments in areas that are already developed and get housing built.

Same too with affordable housing. There are a ton of CEQA exemptions already in existence for affordable housing and for infill housing and for transit oriented developments. The kinds of housing that we need to get built in our urban areas to make a meaningful difference in affordability, in ensuring people have appropriate housing that is well-serviced by facilities, by social services. We already have those CEQA exemptions.

What isn't exempt are the kind of harebrained schemes like the California Forever, let's build a new city in the middle of nowhere. Elizabeth, California Forever might not be familiar to folks. Do you wanna just talk about California Forever, the idea and like how this sort of Prop 45 might enable those sort of wackadoo schemes?

REID-WAINSCOAT:

Yeah, California Forever is a billionaire-backed development that is really just in the proposal stage right now, but they've been buying up land in Solano County and with the intention of building this city that they say will be completely reliant and provide both housing and jobs and everything under one roof. And that's why it's okay that it's sprawl development and it's not near anything and there's no public transit or access to anything. But of course, they were doing this behind closed doors for a while. They knew it wasn't going to be popular with the residents.

And so when it came to light, there was a huge pushback from the community. And they said, we're not supportive of this. We would like to know a lot more information on what you're planning and how that would impact our own economy and our environment and all of that in our own jobs. So they've taken a back step. They realized that they have to do more in letting the community know. And part of that process is CEQA. So they're still preparing those documents. And once those become public, that is going to be a tool for the community and community groups to actually look at what specifically are they proposing and what will those impacts be? And what are some project alternatives that potentially would have less impact on people and the environment?

So yeah, I think California Forever is just one of many examples of kind of billionaire developers trying to push their vision for California forward without really asking questions or getting feedback from communities.

WHEELER:

So I think that oftentimes when I'm looking at ballot measures, who supports a ballot measure can tell me a lot about whether or not I might support a ballot measure. So we've talked about the folks who are in support of Prop 45. That is California Chamber of Commerce, we have the California Forestry Association, basically every sort of industry advocacy group that you can think of from wine growers to water associations are in support, right? The folks who are dependent on resource extraction.

Let's contrast that with folks in opposition to Prop 45. So we have the Center for Biological Diversity, we have groups like EPIC, we also have labor. Labor is in opposition to Prop 45. We have most, I'd say kind of the Democratic establishment or Democrats are coming out in opposition. The California Democratic Party is opposed, California Young Democrats. We have faith-based groups here in California, groups like Green Faith who are trying to align the concern for the natural environment with their faith.

So I would encourage folks to check out who's on whose team, and I think that that might be a clear indicator of how you should vote. So if you want to do that, you can go on noprop45ca.com, check out the no side, or yesonprop45.com to look at the industry groups in support of gutting the natural environment.

REID-WAINSCOAT:

Yeah, so we have over 360 organizations who are now all in opposition of Prop 45, and you can see them all listed out on that website. As you mentioned, the California Democratic Party is in opposition, and I was there at the meeting where they voted overwhelmingly to oppose and also just wanted to flag that the gubernatorial candidate Hilton is supporting Prop 45.

WHEELER:

Right, so my grandma used to say something, right, that you can tell a lot about a person by the company they keep. So maybe keep that in mind. All right, so Elizabeth, ballots are coming out soon. Do you have any other thoughts on Prop 45 that you think are important for voters as they sit down with a pen to fill out their ballot?

REID-WAINSCOAT:

Yeah, I think we hit a lot of the important talking points, but just reiterating that CEQA is really a tool for communities to use to improve projects, not to prevent them. And I think that's one of the reasons that California is so unique. We can look at, we have a thriving economy. This CEQA has not prevented us from developing and being a competitor in a lot of different industries. It's just made us better. And it's made us balance that with the goals of community health, sustainability, resiliency, and as we face climate change, and also protecting our natural world and our biodiversity. And that's what really makes us different. And I think that we should really invest in those systems and those tools that allow us to build a California that we're all proud of.

WHEELER:

You know, I'm really sick of people with California bashing. I think that you make a really great point, right? California has the fourth largest economy in the world, right, we are bigger than the United Kingdom, India, France, Japan, we are just behind Germany and China. That's, that's insane. We have an economy that works. We have high housing prices in part because people want to move here and people want to move here because of the stupendous natural environment that we've been able to shepherd through California's environmental laws. We've been the leader on environmental laws throughout our state's history. Our Clean Air Act, our Endangered Species Act, our California Environmental Quality Act were inspirations for the Federal Clean Air Act, the Federal Endangered Species Act, the Federal National Environmental Policy Act. These things have been to our benefit, not to our detriment.

And this Ezra Klein "Abundance Agenda" thing that has become en vogue in the last couple of years is unfortunate. I think that there is an affordability issue here in the state of California, but I don't think that the answer to that is making data centers cheaper for billionaires to build.

REID-WAINSCOAT:

Yeah, I mean, I definitely want to acknowledge we're not perfect. We definitely have opportunities to grow and they're taking advantage of a true affordability crisis. So that's a very real reality that a lot of Californians are facing every day, but trickle-down economics is not gonna solve that. And that's really handing out free giveaways to billionaires is not going to actually make the day-to-day expenses for Californians cheaper. And so I think we can do both. We can protect what we know works and then we can also work to improve affordability for Californians in other ways.

WHEELER:

Elizabeth, you are hosting a webinar on Prop 45 later this month. Folks might want to tune into that. Want to give us a little bit more details on when and you can find a link to this webinar to register for it on the Lost Coast Outpost. Look for the article here with this show.

REID-WAINSCOAT:

Yeah, so next Thursday, September 24th at 6 p.m., we'll be hosting a virtual webinar. We'll have a couple more folks from the Center for Biological Diversity there to talk about what Prop 45 is and the potential harm it has and also give a little bit more background on CEQA and how the Center has used this to protect species and public health across California. At the end of the webinar, we'll also be linking some action items. So we're really counting down the days now. Ballots are going to be coming out the first week of October. So that means we really need to reach out to as many people as possible. So we are, with coordination with the campaign, going to be hosting some phone banking and text banking nights. And so that's this webinar. We'll set you up for getting more involved in direct action to help oppose Prop. 45.

WHEELER:

Awesome. All right. Again, the link is in the show notes at the lostcoastoutpost.com. Elizabeth Reid-Wainscoat, thank you so much for joining the Econews Report.

REID-WAINSCOAT:

Thank you for having me.

WHEELER:

All right, listeners, join us again next week on this time and channel for more environmental news from the North Coast of California.