A Summary of Published Appellate Opinions Under the California Environmental Quality Act -

In 2017, the California Supreme Court issued two decisions involving highly controversial questions of first impression. In the closely-watched Cleveland National Forest Foundation case, the court reversed the court of appeal’s ruling that the EIR for SANDAG’s regional transportation plan was fatally flawed because it had not sufficiently considered the 2050 greenhouse gas emissions reduction goal in the Governor’s executive order. The court held that SANDAG was not required by CEQA to use the executive order’s goal as a standard for gauging the significance of projected emissions.