In the first suit of its kind in the state, if not the country, a Southern California county was sued by environmental groups because their general plan doesn't consider the effects of global warming. The state attorney general has joined the suit.
"The state's lawsuit comes a couple of days after environmental groups sued the county on similar grounds, alleging the county's new general plan should have discussed ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions."
"California Attorney General Jerry Brown (former Oakland mayor and state governor) filed the suit under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), arguing that San Bernardino County failed to evaluate and disclose the impending impacts of the plan on climate change and air quality."
"The general plan is the overarching vision of where houses, businesses and open space will be over the next 25 years.
The state's global warming law calls for greenhouse gas emissions to be cut to 1990 levels by 2020."
"However, the county notes that the bill wasn't signed by the governor until last September, 'when the general plan was in the home stretch before its final adoption last month (March, 2007).'"
"It's not fair to impose complex and undefined new requirements on a plan that has been in the works for years," said David Wert, county spokesman..."There are no state guidelines on how to address global warming in the planning process".
Thanks to Edward A. Mainland
