This case sought to set invalidate and aside amendments the California Resources Agency adopted for the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) Guidelines, which are the state regulations that implement the Act. These changes and amendments would have improperly exempted a broad range of activities from environmental review, substantially weakened the regulations for the analysis of cumulative impacts and otherwise stripped down the protection measures of CEQA. The case was filed on May 29, 2000 and the trial on the merits was held on April 13, 2001. On April 25, 2001, Judge Ronald B. Robie issued a ruling that invalidates all but one of the sections that were at issue. The intervenor in the case, the California Building Association, filed an appeal of the ruling on July 17, 2001. EPIC and other co-plaintiffs cross-appealed on August 1, 2001 to challenge the portion of the decision that upheld one amended section of the CEQA Guidelines (§ 15332).
EPIC is represented in this case by Sharon Duggan and Ellison Folk of Shute Mihaly.
