California Lawyers Association's 2022 Environmental Law Conference

To meet California’s short- and long-term clean energy transition goals, the state must permit and build renewable power, upgrade transmission lines, and do much more. However, under current law, California’s environmental review and permitting requirements can at times pose significant challenges for these kinds of projects. This panel would examine the current areas of conflict between the renewable energy and the planning and permitting spheres and identify areas and opportunities for change and improvement. The panelists will seek to answer the questions of how and where we can accelerate development of clean energy, how to address equity issues and incorporate feasible mitigation measures to redress potential adverse impacts associated with new projects, and what kinds of political interventions or legal reforms to permitting and environmental review regimes might present solutions to these problems.