{"id":856503,"date":"2026-09-22T10:42:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-22T10:42:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/856503\/"},"modified":"2026-09-22T10:42:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-22T10:42:10","slug":"newsom-veto-manufacturing-sites-to-keep-ceqa-exemptions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/856503\/","title":{"rendered":"Newsom veto: Manufacturing sites to keep CEQA exemptions"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Alejandra Reyes-Velarde<\/a>, CalMatters<\/p>\n

This story was originally published by CalMatters<\/a>. Sign up<\/a> for their newsletters.<\/p>\n

Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed a bill that would have required more polluting facilities built near homes and schools to undergo environmental review \u2014 a decision that keeps in place looser rules he championed to speed up development in California.<\/p>\n

The bill authored by Sen. Catherine Blakespear,<\/a> a Democrat from Encinitas, responded to fears raised by a chemical incident in Orange County<\/a>\u00a0 that led to evacuation orders for 50,000 people.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It would have narrowed an exemption of the California Environmental Quality Act that covers a broad swath of advanced manufacturing<\/a> sites. Only facilities handling the final stages of production would have kept the exemption.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In his veto letter\u00a0 on Friday, Newsom said Senate Bill 954<\/a> would have effectively repealed the advanced manufacturing exemption.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cProtecting communities and strengthening California\u2019s advanced manufacturing economy are not mutually exclusive goals,\u201d he said. \u201cThe exemption was designed to advance both and should be given a meaningful opportunity to work.\u201d<\/p>\n

Newsom added that if problems arise, the Legislature should address them through targeted changes \u201cnot by preemptively rolling back our progress.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Blakespear in a statement said she\u2019s disappointed by the veto and will raise the issue again next year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

She pointed to the near disaster GKN Aerospace in Garden Grove as an illustration of the danger.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe should not have to wait for another emergency before recognizing that sweeping \u2013 and rushed \u2013 exemptions from environmental review need reasonable guardrails,\u201d she said. \u201cProtecting communities and workers is not an impediment to economic growth \u2013 it is part of responsible growth.\u201d<\/p>\n

Roots in last year’s budget fight<\/p>\n

The veto is a setback for legislators who advocated for fixing last year\u2019s major overhaul of the state\u2019s landmark environmental law, which Newsom had a heavy hand in shaping and pushed through<\/a> by threatening to withhold budget funds if lawmakers refused to act.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Lawmakers went along with the overhaul, but expressed concerns about an unprecedented, broad exemption for polluting manufacturing sites from strip mines to clean energy projects.<\/p>\n

Environmental advocates said the bill would have still allowed for manufacturing developments, with guardrails to protect communities.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s really unfortunate that we have to wait until something bad happens before we make an adjustment,\u201d said Kim Delfino, a lobbyist for environmental justice groups. \u201cA foundation of environmental law is the precautionary principle: that we try to protect instead of waiting for something bad to happen. This is flipping it on its head.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Asha Sharma, deputy director at Sierra Club California, said California is losing \u201can important opportunity to protect communities that are once again being asked to bear the risks of industrial development without the safeguards and public participation they deserve.\u201d .<\/p>\n

Business and industry groups, including the Bay Area Council and the California Manufacturers & Technology Association, opposed the bill and praised Newsom\u2019s veto, arguing it would stunt economic development.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom autonomous vehicles and clean energy systems to revolutionary medical devices and digital technologies, advanced manufacturing is building the future and creating the good-paying, high-skilled jobs that California desperately needs,\u201d said Libby Schaaf, chief executive of the Bay Area Council.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

This article was originally published on CalMatters<\/a> and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives<\/a> license.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Alejandra Reyes-Velarde, CalMatters This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters. Gov. Gavin…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":856504,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[177397,93682,178992,192,6011,79],"class_list":["post-856503","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-california-elections","tag-ceqa","tag-election-2026","tag-environment","tag-orange-county","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/856503","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=856503"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/856503\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/856504"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=856503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=856503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=856503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}