California Lawmakers Approve Major Overhaul of Landmark Environmental Law

Trailer bill SB 131, which includes Wiener’s bill, makes more technical changes to CEQA reviews, but ultimately tries to avoid redundancies in the process. Among other provisions, the bill includes a number of CEQA exemptions for certain categories of development, including high-speed rail, trails and wildfire mitigation projects.

It also exempts advanced manufacturing facilities in industrial areas, a feature Wiener hopes will spur the production of electronics and semiconductors in the state.

“We’re seeing a new kind of manufacturing that we’re trying to reshore into the US, whether it’s semiconductors, electronics, other kinds of advanced technology that we want to be produced here,” Wiener told KQED. “And the last thing we want is for California to get skipped over.”

But environmental groups say this exemption is precisely what concerns them about the bill. Semiconductor factories often require significant amounts of water to fabricate microchips and can release hazardous chemicals into the air and water supplies.

Silicon Valley garnered international esteem for its semiconductor and microprocessor facilities, but now has 23 toxic Superfund sites, a designation the Environmental Protection Agency gives to the worst hazardous waste sites in the United States.

“There are examples across the state of how the communities surrounding these facilities have just really experienced a lot of health harm,” Raquel Mason, senior legislative manager with the California Environmental Justice Alliance, said at a press conference opposing the bill. “This is why CEQA [was created], so that we can have this review and make sure that there’s safety and health considerations for projects exactly like that.”

When it comes to housing, however, some advocates argue those reviews can result in more process than progress. They have criticized recent legislation as being ineffective because they made too many concessions to environmental groups and often fell into an everything bagel black hole of qualifications — an idea central to the burgeoning Abundance movement. That Newsom fought to get Wicks’ and Wiener’s bills pblocked so quickly is telling, Lewis said.

CEQA has been the third rail of California politics for decades, but Lewis argued the state no longer has the luxury to delay the housing it needs.

“It is just fundamentally irresponsible to be blocking homes in California cities in 2025 when we’re seeing the incredible heat waves across the country. We’re seeing wildfires, we’re seeing flooding, we’re seeing storms destroy entire communities, all because of the pollution caused from sprawl and traffic and other pollution,” he said. “It’s time to get over that.”