Climate Change and Environmental Policy
King County, Washington (which includes Seattle) recently became the first county in the nation to require a climate change impact analysis of any proposed project, as part of required environmental review. Washington state's SEPA law, like the federal NEPA, California's CEQA, and similar laws in other states promote informed decision making by requiring an evaluation of the environmental impacts of projects subject to government approval.
Because climate change science incorporates the study of so many individual environmental disciplines and the relationship between them, King County's approach is an important step forward. It reflects evolving environmental analysis towards consideration of global and regional, rather than just local, impacts.
King County, Washington may have been first, but the dominoes are falling fast. California Attorney General Jerry Brown announced a settlement of the state's lawsuit against San Bernardino County for failure to evaluate the greenhouse gas impacts of County-approved projects. The settlement requires the County to develop a comprehensive greenhouse gas reduction plan (read details of the settlement here). Brown has put several other California counties on notice that he expects the same, and some have voluntarily implemented greenhouse gas reduction measures. Massachusetts also recently began requiring evaluation of greenhouse gas impacts under its environmental review law.
This is a trend that is intended to arrest some harmful projects early in the process. It also will begin to condition local decisionmakers to habitually take climate change impacts into account when asked to approve new development.
Posted by David J. Petersen, partner practicing in the Sustainability and Real Estate & Land Use Practice Groups.
