California's landmark environmental laws will be suspended for wildfire victims seeking to rebuild their homes and businesses, according to an executive order signed Sunday by Gov. Gavin Newsom.
Under the order, requirements for building permits and reviews in the California Environmental Quality Act and the California Coastal Act, often considered onerous by developers, will be eased for victims of the fires in Pacific Palisades, Altadena and other communities.
“California leads the nation in environmental stewardship. I’m not going to give that up,” Newsom told Jacob Soboroff on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “But one thing I won't give up on is the delay. Delay is denial for people: broken, broken lives, traditions, places.”
Conservatives, particularly President-elect Donald Trump, have criticized Newsom and other Democratic leaders in California for adopting environmental policies that they say laid the groundwork for the historic destruction caused by this month's wildfires. Trump called Newsom “incompetent” and said he should resign, and made false statements about redirecting water to protect small fish and about Federal Emergency Management Agency policy.
“Fires continue to rage in Los Angeles. Incompetent politicians have no idea how to put them out,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, his social media platform, on Saturday night. “Thousands of magnificent homes have disappeared and many more will soon be lost. There is death everywhere. This is one of the worst catastrophes in the history of our country. They just can't put out the fires. What's wrong with them?
Trump's transition team did not respond to requests for comment Saturday.
Newsom, during the interview with NBC, said he had asked the incoming president to come see the devastation in person, as did Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors Chairwoman Kathryn Barger, a Republican, earlier on Saturday.
“We want to do it in the spirit of an open hand, not a closed fist. He is the president-elect,” Newsom said. “I respect the office.”
While noting that many of the buildings that survived the fires were more likely to be built to modern building codes, Newsom said he was concerned about the amount of time rebuilding would take. Therefore, his executive order eliminates some CEQA requirements, modifies Coastal Act provisions, and ensures that property tax assessments do not increase for those who rebuild.
The suspensions apply only to properties and facilities in “substantially the same location” as before the fires, and whose height and footprint do not exceed 110% of their original size, the order says.
CEQA was signed into law by then-Gov. Ronald Reagan in 1970 amid the burgeoning environmental movement, and the Coastal Act was approved by state voters in 1972 after a devastating oil spill off Santa Barbara.
Both have faced challenges for decades, and governors of both parties have argued for more than 40 years that CEQA needs to be reformed. Several of the law's requirements were temporarily suspended by an executive order issued by Newsom during the pandemic. He maintains that now is the time again.
Asked on the news show whether this month's wildfires are the worst natural disaster in the country's history, Newsom noted that recent fires had led to greater loss of life, but said: “I think it will only be in terms of the costs associated with them. in terms of scale and scope.”
He called for a California version of the Marshall Plan, the American effort to rebuild Western Europe after World War II.
“We already have a team looking to reimagine LA 2.0,” he said, “and we're making sure everyone is included, not just the people on the coast, the people here who were devastated by this disaster.”
