Friends of the Santa Clara River v. County of Los Angeles

The California Court of Appeal rejected the argument that Los Angeles County needed to prepare supplemental analysis under the California Environmental Quality Act of the impacts on water resources of the first two phases of the proposed Newhall Ranch development to take into account recent historic drought, record high temperatures, and “accumulating data” on climate change’s regional and global effects. The appellate court found that the County was “well aware of the threat posed by climate change” when it certified environmental impact report in 2011 and that post-2011 data were “consistent with the range of projections considered in 2011.”