Focus
2021 Land Use, Environmental & Natural Resources Update
Allen Matkins – March 25
With the end of the first quarter of 2021 approaching, we thought it timely to issue an update on selected recent developments and proposed changes in law and policy touching environmental, land use, and natural resource issues. At the national level, with the new Biden administration, federal policies already have undergone a significant sea-change from those of the Trump administration. And the Golden State continues to lead with a protective agenda on land use, environmental, and natural resources legislation and regulation. We present here a diverse set of selected snapshots on the federal and state of California policies, laws, regulations, and judicial opinions that have been adopted and issued in 2020 through the first quarter of this year on these topics of key concern to our clients.
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News
California faces new water restrictions
San Francisco Chronicle – March 23
State and federal water officials have delivered their most dire warning yet of California’s deepening drought, announcing that water supply shortages are imminent and calling for quick conservation. Among a handful of drastic actions this week, the State Water Board on Monday began sending notices to California’s 40,000 water users, from small farms to big cities like San Francisco, telling them to brace for cuts. It is a preliminary step before the possibility of ordering their water draws to stop entirely, which state officials say they will likely know by May or June.
Environmental groups challenge BLM’s decision to lease federal land for hydraulic fracturing
Courthouse News Service – March 22
Various environmental groups on Monday sued the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California seeking to rescind leases for seven parcels of federal land auctioned to energy companies in the waning days of the Trump administration. They are the first such federal land oil and gas leases in nearly a decade and would open vast tracts of California’s Central Valley to oil exploration and hydraulic fracturing, commonly known as fracking. The petition challenges the adequacy of the BLM’s environmental review for the leases on the grounds, among others, that the BLM drastically undercounted the number of likely wells, and failed to analyze impacts on local groundwater resources and endangered species.
California has a new idea for homes at risk from rising seas: buy, rent, retreat
NPR – March 21
State Senator Ben Allen has proposed legislation to address the threat of sea level rise by creating a revolving loan program, enabling California counties and communities to purchase vulnerable coastal properties. Under this program, the properties would be rented back to the owners from whom they were purchased, or to a third party, and the rent payments would be used to pay off the loan until the property is no longer safe to live in. Within the next 30 years, properties in California worth a combined $8-10 billion are expected to be underwater, according to the state's nonpartisan Legislative Analyst's Office, and an additional $6 billion to $10 billion worth of properties will be at risk during high tide. The bill was approved unanimously by the state's Senate Natural Resources and Water Committee last week.
Audit: San Diego’s effort to inspect industrial polluters is outdated and inefficient
The San Diego Union-Tribune – March 23
A San Diego program intended to keep toxic sewer water out of the Pacific Ocean suffers from outdated methods and inadequate efforts to identify and inspect the sources of industrial pollution, a new city audit says. The audit was particularly critical of the Industrial Wastewater Control Program for failing to prioritize the identification of potential industrial polluters, noting that program officials are unaware of hundreds of businesses that may fall under the program’s reach. In addition, the Program’s success at keeping toxic materials out of the ocean is one reason the city has been granted consecutive federal waivers of a requirement to spend $2 billion upgrading the Point Loma sewer plant, which, according to the audit, could be jeopardized by the program’s failure to effectively reduce industrial pollution. The city's audit committee last week approved seven recommendations for improving the program. The recommendations will be forwarded to the full City Council for approval.
Democrats to use Congressional tool to reinstate methane rules axed by Trump
Reuters – March 25
Several Democratic lawmakers introduced a resolution on Thursday that would reinstate Obama-era regulations targeting methane emissions from oil and gas operations that former President Donald Trump rescinded last year to ease burdens on industry. Democrats Martin Heinrich of New Mexico and Ed Markey of Massachusetts and Independent Angus King of Maine are introducing the resolution in the Senate under the Congressional Review Act, a 1996 law that allows Congress to reverse recently-adopted federal rules with a simple majority. The lawmakers aim to reinstate the 2012 and 2016 requirements for the oil industry’s production and processing segments and the requirements for the transmission and storage of methane and volatile organic compounds that were rescinded in August 2020 by the Trump administration.
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