For over 50 years, the California Environmental Quality Act has acted as our environmental bill of rights, protecting our natural resources and the health and safety of our communities.

CEQA requires California public agencies to publish environmental impact reports before approving  projects with serious environmental and public health consequences. This analysis gives community members basic information about proposed projects and their impacts — for example on air pollution, water use, fire risks, access to public services and more.

The report process gives local residents the right to voice their concerns, ask questions, and demand science-based answers. And it encourages dialogue so that all stakeholders have a voice and decision-makers cannot blindly prioritize for-profit interests over the common good.

No area has benefitted more from the high value Californians place on the environment than San Diego. Its clean air, gorgeous beaches, rich farmlands, rare wildlife, and extensive natural reserves are the reason so many of us choose to live and work here. CEQA has been instrumental in protecting these extraordinary resources and the economy that depends on them.

Now, these values are under threat. The Trump Administration has made no secret of its plans to eviscerate federal environmental laws and agencies, like the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Park Service. At the same time, special interest groups are lobbying to weaken CEQA here at home.

The recently introduced Senate Bill 607, for example, is designed to narrow the scope of CEQA review and to make it easier for new development — from freeways to sprawling housing complexes in wildfire-prone areas — to be built without in-depth environmental reviews. This ill-conceived bill also exempts a broad class of rezonings from CEQA review.

With the environment under assault at the federal level, California must stay true to its environmental values and keep CEQA strong. CEQA has been absolutely critical in ensuring good planning in San Diego County. Recently, for example, a broad coalition of concerned citizens brought an action to enforce CEQA for a sprawling 1,000-acre development in a remote corner of southern San Diego County: Otay Ranch Village 14.

The court found that the environmental impact report had not meaningfully addressed the project’s serious wildfire risks and or its destruction of habitat for the endangered Checkerspot butterfly. The parties ultimately reached a settlement that would reduce the project’s footprint, preserve more land for rare and sensitive wildlife, and minimize wildfire dangers.

CEQA has also ensured our governments adopt the future-forward, sustainable energy policies Californians want for themselves and their children. For example, the city of San Diego adopted a Climate Action Plan with ambitious goals to cut greenhouse gas emissions — but no effective implementation plan. A CEQA action led to a settlement under which the City agreed to make regular reports on its progress toward reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

In another CEQA challenge, San Diego’s regional transportation agency was required to ensure its transportation plan protects public health and reduces climate-harming greenhouse gas emissions.

Look around and ask yourself: would San Diegans be better off if the government could approve billion-dollar deals with developers behind closed doors? If our open spaces, agricultural land, and wildlife corridors could be sacrificed with no public process? If the environmental consequences of power plants, subdivisions, and railyards became apparent only after they were built? If public agencies were not required to disclose and reduce air toxins, dust, noise, and water pollution from new projects? If the public had no information on whether new development might impact their water supply in a severe drought? The answer to these questions is clearly “no.”

CEQA protects every Californian. We must stop the relentless attempts of special interest groups and pro-developer lobbyists to chip away at its provisions and our public rights. Tell your representatives to reject SB 607 and keep CEQA strong.

Pam Heatherington heads the Environmental Center of San Diego, which promotes healthy natural systems to improve the quality of life and economic vitality of our community.