Opinion: Prop. 45 will take a meat axe to California environmental protections

CEQA isn’t the problem or the solution to building affordable housing or public infrastructure, argues Stanford Law’s Deborah Sivas

By Deborah A. Sivas

PUBLISHED: October 26, 2026 at 3:44 AM PDT

However well-intentioned, support for Proposition 45 is deeply misguided. It is true that California, like most states, needs to build more housing, renewable energy projects, and other 21st century infrastructure. But eviscerating the California Environmental Quality Act won’t do that.

At its core, CEQA is a “stop, look, and listen” law. It requires government officials to make informed decisions by considering the environmental impacts of projects, evaluating less impactful alternatives and other ways to mitigate adverse effects, and soliciting public input from affected communities. CEQA itself cannot prevent projects from going forward, but it can make developers and agencies think harder about designing them in the most sustainable way.

Since CEQA’s passage more than 50 years ago, developers have been trying to kill it. Their efforts have recently gained momentum as the “Abundance” narrative has taken hold. The general concept, as the best-seller of the same name tells us, is to rid public decisions of “paperwork and procedure and hearings and disclosure demands and lawsuits” — the very public process innovations that have made government more accountable to constituents and significantly reduced air and water pollution.

The California Legislature has already responded to industry concerns over project delays, repeatedly tinkering with CEQA’s provisions to help expedite the review process. The most significant of these amendments came in June 2025, with passage of AB 130 and SB 131. These new laws exempt most urban housing from CEQA altogether and streamline the review process for many other projects.

Developers are not content to let these substantial CEQA reforms play out. Instead, they have taken advantage of the “Abundance” movement with an industry-funded voter initiative that goes far beyond streamlining. Proposition 45 would, among other things, give developers new litigation rights to sue local agencies over even shorter approval deadlines, allow developers to replace the normal “reasonable range of alternatives” that officials must consider with a single, developer-designed onsite “alternative,” and reduce the ability of the public to comment on projects.

Most troubling, Proposition 45 so severely constrains judicial review as to make CEQA meaningless. Courts finding an environmental analysis legally deficient could not prevent the project from going forward while the CEQA flaws are remedied. That is, the developer could build the project before the impacts are properly evaluated. This single provision renders CEQA nothing more than a paper tiger.

And here’s the kicker: If passed, Proposition 45 would prohibit future statutory amendments unless they (1) affirmatively “further” the newly-declared statutory purpose of “streamlining and speeding approval of essential projects” and (2) are enacted by a two-thirds vote of the Legislature. In short, developers want to disenfranchise communities in perpetuity.

The non-profit Rose Foundation has published several empirical studies (in 2016, 2021, and 2023) confirming that CEQA affects only a very small fraction of housing projects. These studies refute the methodology and conclusions advanced in a 2017 report by the industry’s favorite private law firm.

The reasons for project delays are myriad — misaligned financial incentives, skilled labor shortages, outdated building codes, vocal public opposition, and yes, occasionally CEQA lawsuits. The Legislature has steadily addressed these obstacles in targeted reforms, especially with respect to housing. Instead of a surgical scalpel, Prop 45 takes a meat axe to the law. That is likely why even the very pro-housing YIMBY movement takes no position on the initiative and why most environmental groups and many local officials strongly oppose it.

CEQA promotes decision transparency, agency accountability, and public participation. It has significantly reduced pollution and unsustainable resource exploitation. And it is virtually the only tool available to communities facing public health and environmental impacts from sprawling projects like data centers, Amazon warehouses, and expanding oil fields. Proposition 45 attempts to deprive Californians of a meaningful say in their own future, while doing nothing to make housing more affordable or available.

Deborah A. Sivas is a professor of environmental law at Stanford Law and of environmental social science at the Doerr School of Sustainability.