SCOPE is a part of the CEQA Works coalition, a group of dozens of community and environmental organizations working to defend the California Environmental Quality Act.

The California Environmental Quality Act

California’s Environmental Protection Laws Give Communities a Voice

The California Environmental Quality Act became law in 1970. It is an “environmental bill of rights” for all Californians. CEQA is designed to ensure that people in every California community can understand how land use decisions will impact their communities and health, and can hold public agencies accountable to local and state environmental and land use laws. The California Environmental Quality Act:

• is the only state law that ensures the public has an opportunity to be informed about and participate in major land use decisions.
• gives communities a voice in shaping development in a way that supports quality of life by encouraging transit, bike, and pedestrian-friendly development.
• provides important public health protections by requiring agencies to explain to the public the air and water pollution that will be caused by major land use projects and to consider feasible measures to reduce these effects.
• ensures that developers pay for the environmental impacts of new construction.

More information can be found on CEQA works.