Citizens for a Responsible Caltrans Decision v. California Department of Transportation

A community group filed a lawsuit in California Superior Court seeking to set aside a notice of exemption issued by the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) for a highway interchange project in San Diego. The group said Caltrans had improperly concluded that the project was exempt from California Environmental Quality Act review without notice after members of the group had been “actively engaged” in commenting on the draft environmental impact report (EIR) for over five years. The group also charged that the EIR was inadequate. The group asserted a number of shortcomings in the EIR, including that it erroneously concluded that the project’s contribution to climate change was too speculative and that it failed to quantify or analyze construction-related greenhouse gas emissions.