{"id":341786,"date":"2026-06-01T19:17:18","date_gmt":"2026-06-01T19:17:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/341786\/"},"modified":"2026-06-01T19:17:18","modified_gmt":"2026-06-01T19:17:18","slug":"california-workers-say-newsoms-return-to-office-order-is-environmentally-illegal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/341786\/","title":{"rendered":"California workers say Newsom\u2019s return-to-office order is environmentally illegal"},"content":{"rendered":"

Getting almost every American to agree on one thing is a tough sell, but not when it comes to working remotely. A whopping 95% of workers want<\/a> at least some form of it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That includes state workers in California who may be losing some of their remote options. Now, those state workers are threatening to use a controversial state environmental law to block Newsom\u2019s order.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A union representing thousands of those workers argues that returning people to the office will put tens of thousands more cars on the road and thus undermine California\u2019s efforts to move closer to carbon neutrality.<\/p>\n

Newsom order<\/p>\n

Gov. Gavin Newsom issued a return-to-office executive order<\/a> last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn-person work makes us all stronger \u2014 period,\u201d Newsom said at the time. \u201cWhen we work together, collaboration improves, innovation thrives, and accountability increases.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"WASHINGTON DC, UNITED STATES \u2013 MAY 20: Governor Gavin Newsom (D-CA) speaks to reporters inside the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC on May 20, 2026. Credit: Nathan Posner\/Anadolu via Getty Images.<\/p>\n

His order required state agencies to require people to be in the office at least four days a week by July 1, 2025.<\/p>\n

When Newsom originally put this order on the table, state workers used AI to make billboards<\/a> saying Newsom was mandating more traffic on the roads.<\/p>\n

That mandate was postponed<\/a> for one year after intense pushback from several unions.<\/p>\n

CEQA push<\/p>\n

Now one union is citing the California Environmental Quality Act, or CEQA, to prevent that order from taking effect on July 1 this year.<\/p>\n

\"\"(Original Caption) Sacramento: Gov. Ronald Reagan explains his requested shutdown of California\u2019s higher education system in the wake of threatened anti-war violence on statewide television. Reagan said he took action after learning \u201cthat deliberate violence and disruptions planned for a number of institutions\u201d in California.<\/p>\n

Enacted in 1970 by former Gov. Ronald Reagan, it requires public agencies in the state to consider the environmental consequences of their actions before taking them.<\/p>\n

The California Attorneys, Administrative Law Judges and Hearing Officers in State Employment, or CASE, represents some 5,000 state workers.<\/p>\n

They wrote a 194-page letter<\/a> to the Attorney General\u2019s office explaining why Newsom\u2019s order cannot be allowed to stand right now.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Agency\/Department\u2019s RTO order will require hundreds of thousands of additional monthly commutes by state workers, creating hundreds of thousands of new car trips and thousands of tons of additional air pollution from automobile tailpipes,\u201d the letter reads.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re proposing that agencies planning to follow through on Newsom\u2019s order must conduct environmental studies before that\u2019s allowed.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re now demanding an environmental impact review.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of times, when people sue under CEQA, they just want to kill the project, they want to set it aside, they don\u2019t want it to happen,\u201d Art Coon, shareholder with the law firm Miller Starr Regalia, told Straight Arrow. \u201cSometimes, they really do want to study, and sometimes they really do want feasible mitigation measures.\u201d<\/p>\n

CASE has made it clear that they will move forward with legal challenges if their demands for these reviews are not met.<\/p>\n

Will it work?<\/p>\n

The union\u2019s vice president, Matthew Gauger, told The Merced Sun Star<\/a> they \u201cexpect to be very successful.\u201d<\/p>\n

But will they?<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a complex question,\u201d Coon said.<\/p>\n

Numerous state agencies are subject to this executive order.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere may be some state agencies that are bound to follow it, and there may be other state agencies that don\u2019t have to, as a matter of law,\u201d Coon said.<\/p>\n

The governor\u2019s office is not a public agency within CEQA, so the order is not directly subject to CEQA.<\/p>\n

The union\u2019s argument is that the choice to follow the order is a discretionary one. If that\u2019s the case, it would fall under CEQA rules.<\/p>\n

And their argument is that more traffic means more pollution.<\/p>\n

\"\"LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA \u2013 FEBRUARY 13: A pedestrian walks on the 4th street overpass bridge over traffic on the 110 Freeway on February 13, 2026 in Los Angeles, California. On February 12, 2026, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) officially repealed the 2009 Endangerment Finding, removing the legal basis for federal regulation of greenhouse gases (GHG) from vehicles. Credit: Apu Gomes\/Getty Images.<\/p>\n

Newsom seems ready to move forward with his plan. He sent a\u00a0letter<\/a>\u00a0to his cabinet secretaries last month telling them to prepare for workers to be back in the office on July 1.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of times the feasibility of mitigation is a policy matter,\u201d Coon said.<\/p>\n

Even if the unions are successful in obtaining an environmental impact report (EIR), it doesn\u2019t necessarily mean they\u2019ll achieve their long-term goal.<\/p>\n

Conducting that review could again postpone Newsom\u2019s order, but may not keep them out of the office indefinitely because of Newsom\u2019s goals with the order, which include more interaction, accountability, efficiency and more.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven if the plaintiffs filed suit and succeeded against some agencies that were subject to CEQA in getting an EIR, that it might ultimately just be an interesting study, and conclude that, well, the mitigation that they want, which is to keep the status quo, isn\u2019t feasible because it doesn\u2019t achieve the governor\u2019s objectives,\u201d Coon said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getting almost every American to agree on one thing is a tough sell, but not when it comes…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":341787,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8],"class_list":["post-341786","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341786","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=341786"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341786\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/341787"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=341786"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=341786"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=341786"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}