The discussion continues around the attempt to limit development based on a set of regulations not yet developed emanating from the state global warming legislation.
Bob Dutton: AG's stance unfairly limits development
By Bob Dutton - Special to The Bee
Published 12:00 am PDT Wednesday, August 8, 2007
Imagine driving down a recently opened freeway that has no posted or established speed limit. During that drive you are pulled over by a California Highway Patrol officer who proceeds to write you a ticket for speeding.
You tell the officer that there is no posted speed limit and that you weren't driving more than what would be the normal speed limit for that type of road. The officer acknowledges these facts, but says you are still getting the ticket because at some point in the future the speed limit is going to be changed and you should have known that the speed limit was going to be lower.
Does that scenario sound absurd? It should. But here's the scary part: This is the type of situation facing anyone who may attempt to build a freeway, school, hospital or create a new source of fresh drinking water in the state if California's Attorney General Jerry Brown has his way.
The AG filed a lawsuit earlier this year against San Bernardino County and charges that its General Plan violates the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). He believes that the county should take into account greenhouse gas emission standards under Assembly Bill 32 -- the Global Warming Solutions Act.
The problem is that the regulations for AB 32 have not yet been written and aren't scheduled to be completed until 2012. That means Brown is asking San Bernardino County, and potentially any other county or developer in the state, to comply with a set of standards that has yet to be written and put in place.
