Professor Frank Comments on Wal-Mart and California Environmental Quality Act for California Watch, San Francisco Chronicle
Professor Richard Frank commented for California Watch on Wal-Mart's use of California's initiative process as a means of shielding its superstores from lawsuits under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). The article was reprinted in the San Francisco Chronicle.
CEQA requires state and local agencies to review and mitigate environmental impacts of development projects, a process which at times has stalled Wal-Mart's plans for expansion. CEQA does not apply to ballot initiatives, so the retail giant increasingly has sponsored campaigns to place initiatives on local ballots in support of planned developments.
"It is disturbing because it appears to be a fairly overt circumvention of the CEQA process," said Frank.
Frank, a 1974 graduate of King Hall, is a leading scholar and practitioner in the field of environmental law and the founding Director of the new California Environmental Law and Policy Center at UC Davis School of Law.