Professor Frank Quoted in Los Angeles Times, Associated Press on California Supreme Court Ruling
Professor of Environmental Practice Richard Frank was quoted by the Los Angeles Times and the Associated Press on the California Supreme Court ruling in the much-watched case California Building Industry Association v. Bay Area Air Quality District.
In finding that, under the California Environmental Quality Act, public agencies reviewing a development proposal generally do not have to consider environmental conditions unless the project itself would worsen those conditions, "The court rejected the relatively more absolutist positions of both sides and instead kind of hewed to a middle ground which gives something to each side and probably totally satisfies neither," Frank told the Associated Press.
The Times quoted from Professor Frank's blog entry for Legal Planet in noting that Frank called the decision a "qualified win" for environmentalists that is "unlikely to fully satisfy either side in the litigation, though over the long-term it would seem to favor local regulators and their environmental allies over development interests."
Frank, a 1974 graduate of King Hall, is a leader in the field of environmental law and the founding Director of the California Environmental Law and Policy Center at UC Davis School of Law.