Liberal Currents: The Case for Abolishing the National Environmental Policy Act

In November 2006, Superior Court Judge Peter Busch upheld a preliminary injunction against the city of San Francisco, preventing them from moving forward with their plan to build new bike lanes and bike infrastructure. Busch ruled that the city hadn’t properly followed the environmental review process mandated by the California Environmental Quality Act, or CEQA. In November 2008, San Francisco was finally finished with the review. All it took was more than 2.5 years, 1,353 pages and more than $1 million in direct costs. This allowed San Francisco the chance at a public hearing in January of the next year, after which the bureaucratic process could either continue or face more delays.