SB 827: Power play undermines courts and clean air

When a court found that the South Coast Air Quality Management District was violating the California Environmental Quality Act by awarding emission credits that were reserved for small businesses and essential public services to new power plants, the district decided to go around the law rather than comply with it. The end product of a very complicated and unsavory legislative process was SB 827 (Wright), which abrogates the court decision that found the air district in violation of CEQA and requires the district to use emission credits that may well result in an increase of air pollution in the nation’s dirtiest air basin.