Professor Frank Publishes Essay on California Supreme Court Climate Change Cases

Professor of Environmental Practice Richard Frank published an essay in the Daily Journal on three cases pending before the California Supreme Court that call into question whether climate change concerns should be addressed as part of the environmental review process required by the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA).

"CEQA is the most powerful environmental assessment law not just in the United States, but the world," Frank writes, in part because unlike the National Environmental Policy Act, it requires the state not only to identify adverse environmental impacts of a proposed project, but also to prevent or mitigate them. The three cases, Center for Biological Diversity v. California Fish and Wildlife, Ballona Wetlands Land Trust v. City of Los Angeles, and National Forest Foundation v. San Diego Association of Governments, "all reflect the broad uncertainty that currently exists among state and local officials, the development community, conservation organizations, and environmental attorneys regarding the CEQA/climate change nexus," writes Frank.  "The court's decisions in those cases should go a long way towards integrating CEQA and California's climate change law and will bring welcome clarification as to how projected climate change impacts are properly analyzed under CEQA."

Frank, a 1974 graduate of King Hall, is a leader in the field of environmental law and the founding Director of the California Environmental Law and Policy Center at UC Davis School of Law.