Cleveland National Forest Foundation v. San Diego Association of Governments

The California Supreme Court ruled that the San Diego Association of Governments’ (SANDAG’s) review of greenhouse gas emissions associated with a regional development plan adequately disclosed information about the plan’s greenhouse gas emissions and the plan’s potential inconsistency with statewide goals for reductions in such emissions. The court therefore reversed lower courts’ rulings that SANDAG’s California Environmental Quality Act Review (CEQA) should have evaluated the significance of impacts against the 2005 executive order issued by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger that set a goal of reducing emissions 80% below 1990 levels by 2050. The Supreme Court found that SANDAG’s environmental impact report (EIR) “[did] not obscure the existence or contextual significance of” the executive order’s target and “[made] clear that the 2050 target is part of the regulatory setting in which the Plan will operate.” The court said SANDAG’s overall approach to evaluating greenhouse gas impacts was reasonable and adequately informed EIR readers. The Supreme Court stated, however, that “we do not hold that the analysis of greenhouse gas impacts employed by SANDAG in this case will necessarily be sufficient going forward. CEQA requires public agencies like SANDAG to ensure that such analysis stay in step with evolving scientific knowledge and state regulatory schemes.” One justice filed a dissenting opinion, writing that the EIR managed “to occlude the elephant in the room—that the plan was associated with a major projected increase in greenhouse gas emissions, diverging sharply from emission reduction targets reflecting scientific consensus.”