Environmental & Energy
Jun. 17, 2026
Providing environmental protection or merely performing it
California's environmental and land use laws have become so focused on process and litigation that they often fail to deliver the outcomes they were designed to achieve, including rebuilding communities after disasters, producing affordable housing and efficiently cleaning up environmental hazards.
California's environmental and land use laws are failing. They are failing not because their goals are wrong, but because the state has confused process with progress. The measuring stick of success should address outcomes, such as whether fire victims can quickly and safely return to their homes, whether affordable housing gets built and whether toxic exposure declines. But too frequently the metric of success is the extent of the process. The State needs processes that deli...
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