Communities for a Better Environment v. Port of Oakland

A lawsuit filed in California Superior Court challenged the final environmental impact report (FEIR) for expansion of the Oakland Airport. The petitioner’s allegations included that the FEIR certified by the Port of Oakland and the Board of Port Commissioners of the City of Oakland (the Port) failed to adequately analyze project-related greenhouse gas emissions and failed to adopt an adequate threshold of significance for greenhouse gas emissions. The petition also alleged that the FEIR did not adequately consider mitigation measures for greenhouse gas emissions. The petitioner contended that the FEIR’s description of the project was incomplete, that it improperly used a pre-COVID baseline, and that the FEIR failed to acknowledge “that improving and expanding the Airport’s facilities will enable a substantial increase in aviation activity – that is, the Project is the driver of significant environmental effects; the Port cannot properly disclaim responsibility for those effects on the faulty assumption that the demand for commercial airline service is going to increase regardless of the Project.”