Category: Blog Post

What matters to me today is: AB 1751: CEQA Relief Meets the Affordability Test. California’s latest attempt to liberate housing construction from CEQA’s burdensome processes and litigation may have found a sweet spot. But does the math work? Too often, CEQA litigation has little to do...

What matters to me today is: ESA in Disarray The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has dramatically narrowed its view of what constitutes prohibited “take” under the Endangered Species Act—but what that means on the ground remains decidedly unsettled. Effective September 14, the Service rescinded its...

What matters to me today is: Climate Chaos: Federal Deregulation and California Dysfunction Climate regulation is increasingly difficult to follow—let alone comply with. At the federal level, U.S. EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin has taken two significant steps toward eliminating federal greenhouse-gas regulation of fossil-fueled power plants....

What matters to me today is: SB 1087: Newsom's Housing Versus Climate Crossroads The Legislature sent Governor Gavin Newsom its double down on Governor Schwarzenegger’s 2008 blueprint for forging “sustainable communities” throughout California. Newsom must now decide whether Schwarzenegger’s SB 375 remains the pathway for balancing California’s housing crisis...

What matters to me today is: Cement is Hard (and It Needs to Stay That Way) “Hard,” in the context of cement, has everything to do with context. Building stability and foundations depend upon the fortitude of concrete. But cement—the essential ingredient in concrete—is also among the hardest industries...

What matters to me today is: Ca Home Builders’ Bee Burden Broadens. New guidance from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) only heightens and exacerbates the current—and future—uncertainty surrounding regulatory compliance for Crotch’s bumble bee and likely forthcoming insect candidates. California developers already know...

What matters to me today is: Defining “Best” I’m humbled to share that I have again been recognized as one of the “best” in my profession and area of expertise. Truth be told, the first time I landed on such a list, I was with a prominent national law...

What matters to me today is: Ca Gov on Housing: Past is Prologue When Gavin Newsom took office, he pledged that California would produce 3.5 million new homes by 2025. It was breathtakingly ambitious. But it was not naïve. Newsom knew California’s regulatory, political and economic obstacles—and made the...

What matters to me today is: Your Regulatory Mandate Demonstrably Infeasible? So What? What happens when a regulatory agency can demonstrate—exhaustively—that meeting a statutory or other mandate is infeasible? According to the Ninth Circuit: that may not matter. In Committee for a Better...

What matters to me today is: The Power of a Handwritten Note. Some messages are read. Others are remembered. Early in my career, after working with California's Senate President pro Tempore, an envelope arrived from Sacramento. Inside was an embossed note card with a few handwritten...

What matters to me today is: California on Climate: Ready, FIRE, Aim . . . Again. California has never lacked ambition on climate policy. What it increasingly lacks is regulatory certainty.  The regulated community deserves and must demand better. Today’s workshop by CARB staff, the latest...

What matters to me today is: What's the Harm in Undefining "Harm"? Sometimes the biggest legal battles turn on a single word. The Trump administration is rescinding the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's regulatory definition of "harm" under the Endangered Species Act, eliminating the decades-old interpretation...