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<\/a><\/p>\nThrough unprecedented investments over the past two state budgets, as well as funding from the federal Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) and Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), California will invest up to $180 billion over the next decade in clean infrastructure, which will create 400,000 good jobs while helping meet the state\u2019s climate goals. By streamlining permitting, cutting red tape, and allowing state agencies to use new types of contracts, these proposals will maximize taxpayer dollars and accelerate timelines of projects throughout the state, while ensuring appropriate environmental review and community engagement.<\/p>\n
Today\u2019s announcement follows Thursday\u2019s report urging permitting reform from Infrastructure Advisor to California, former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, and California Forward.<\/p>\n
Together, these proposals could:<\/p>\n
Cut project timelines by more than three years
\nSave businesses and state and local governments hundreds of millions of dollars
\nReduce paperwork by hundreds of thousands pages<\/p>\n
Also today, Governor Newsom signed an executive order to stand up a strike team to accelerate clean infrastructure projects across the state by implementing an all-of-government strategy for planning and development.<\/p>\n
The legislative package and executive order will:<\/p>\n
Speed Up Construction: Current construction procurement processes drive delays and increase project costs. The Governor\u2019s proposals include methods to offer a streamlined process for project delivery to reduce project timeframes and costs.
\nExpedite Court Review: Legal challenges often tie up projects even after they\u2019ve successfully gone through environmental review. These proposals would authorize expedited judicial review to avoid long delays on the back end and advance projects without reducing the environmental and government transparency benefits of CEQA.
\nStreamline Permitting: Makes various changes to California law to accelerate permitting for certain projects, reducing delays and project costs.
\nAddress cumbersome CEQA processes across the board: Streamlines procedures around document retention and review.
\nMaximize Federal Dollars: Establish a Green Bank Financing Program within the Climate Catalyst Fund so that the state can leverage federal dollars for climate projects that cut pollution, with an emphasis on projects that benefit low-income and disadvantaged communities.<\/p>\n
What Governor Newsom said: \u201cThe only way to achieve California\u2019s world-leading climate goals is to build, build, build \u2013 faster. This proposal is the most ambitious effort to cut red tape and streamline regulations in half a century. It\u2019s time to make the most out of taxpayer dollars and deliver results while creating hundreds of thousands of good jobs. Not since the Pat Brown era have we had the opportunity to invest in and rebuild this state to create the clean future Californians deserve.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Governor visited the future site of Proxima Solar Farm in Patterson to unveil the legislation. The facility, which broke ground in August 2022 and is expected to be operational as early as December, could power 60,000 homes in the surrounding region and is capable of generating up to 210 megawatts of clean, renewable energy and 177 megawatts of battery energy storage. NextEra Energy expects the project to create 300 construction jobs and generate $35 million in local revenue.<\/p>\n
Some examples of projects that could be streamlined include:<\/p>\n
Hundreds of solar, wind, and battery storage projects
\nTransit and regional rail construction
\nClean transportation, including maintenance and bridge projects
\nWater storage projects funded by Proposition 1
\nDelta Conveyance Project
\nSemiconductor fabrication plants
\nWildlife crossings along the I-15 corridor<\/p>\n
The legislation builds on the Administration\u2019s efforts to reform the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) to better serve the needs of today while also preserving the state\u2019s historic commitment to protecting the environment. It also complements actions the Governor and the Legislature have taken to streamline state laws to maximize housing production, with 20 CEQA reform bills signed into law in recent years.<\/p>\n
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Stanislaus County, CA…At the site of a future solar farm in the Central Valley, Governor Gavin Newsom today announced the state\u2019s most ambitious permitting and project review reforms in a half-century to build California\u2019s clean energy future while creating thousands of good jobs. The measures will facilitate and streamline project approval and completion to maximize […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":160198,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_cbd_carousel_blocks":"[]","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,5,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-160197","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-government","category-news","last_archivepost"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/347641694_259855873226460_9125591894442493853_n.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160197","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=160197"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160197\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":160199,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160197\/revisions\/160199"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/160198"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=160197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=160197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=160197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}