California representatives urge elimination of redundant federal environmental reviews

Today, a group of U.S. Representatives from California urged the state's transportation authorities to eliminate redundant federal environmental reviews for major transportation projects. The letter was sent by Representatives John Garamendi (D-CA-08), Adam B. Schiff (D-CA-30), Scott H. Peters (D-CA-50), Eric Swalwell (D-CA-14), Jim Costa (D-CA-21), Julia Brownley (D-CA-26), Robert Garcia (D-CA-42), Josh Harder (D-CA-09), Salud Carbajal (D-CA-24), Jared Huffman (D-CA-02), Juan Vargas (D-CA-52), and Linda T. Sánchez (D-CA-38) to California Secretary of Transportation Toks Omishakin and Caltrans Director Tony Tavares.

Since 2015, federal law has allowed Caltrans to apply to the U.S. Department of Transportation to use state-prepared environmental reviews under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) instead of completing a second federal review, which is considered unnecessary and costly.

In January 2021, at Garamendi’s urging, the U.S. Department of Transportation finalized regulations to implement this pilot authority so that states with high environmental standards like California could substitute their state reviews for federally funded projects.

“This commonsense reform would effectively cut California’s permitting backlog in half for major transportation infrastructure projects statewide, keeping road, public transit, and rail improvements on time and under budget,” wrote the lawmakers.

“Californians deserve both world-class transportation infrastructure and their fair share of the generational federal investment under the Biden-Harris Administration’s 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. That requires your Agency and Department to further streamline the environmental permitting for major projects by eliminating redundant federal NEPA reviews,” continued the lawmakers.

Assemblymember Buffy Wicks commented on the matter: “To become a modern state, we must once again remember how to ‘get to yes’ when it comes to building infrastructure.” She added that Caltrans could be part of the solution by implementing this reform while maintaining environmental protections.

Garamendi was an original cosponsor of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law signed by President Biden in 2021. He also helped develop and pass the 2015 Highway Bill as a member of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure.

In July 2023, Garamendi introduced H.R.4908, cosponsored by Swalwell and Costa, which aims to make permanent the pilot authority established in 2015 by substituting CEQA for federal NEPA reviews. Under current law, this authority will expire on December 4, 2027.

The full text of their letter emphasizes that utilizing this pilot program would significantly reduce delays caused by redundant reviews while upholding stringent state environmental standards.

“We are not proposing any changes to CEQA or other state laws,” clarified the lawmakers in their letter. “Rather, we are simply suggesting that Caltrans recognize that California’s state environmental review process makes any federal review redundant.”

The representatives stressed that without action from Caltrans or reauthorization from Congress, this pilot program might expire without being used even once by Caltrans.

They concluded with a call for leadership from Caltrans: “Thank you for your leadership and consideration. We look forward to your response.”