It is bad enough that California’s stringent environmental laws have driven up the cost of energy, food, and housing. Now, public-sector unions are weaponizing the state’s most powerful environmental statute to avoid showing up for work. [some emphasis, links added]
Getting California’s unionized state workforce back into the office has been a challenge ever since the COVID lockdowns ended.
Until June 2024, state employees eligible to work remotely were not required to show up at their offices for even a minimum number of hours. Some departments imposed their own rules, but there was no statewide rule.
Since then, state workers have generally been required to report in person two days a week.
To his credit, Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) wants to raise that minimum from two days a week to four. Unions oppose this because they would rather keep collecting taxpayer-funded paychecks at home than return to the office, where taxpayers can see them.
Newsom issued an executive order requiring most state workers to return to the office four days a week by July 1, 2025, but unions fought back with billboards across Sacramento attacking him. Newsom caved, delaying the mandate until July 1 of this year.
Now, with that date just a short time away, unions have a new trick.
The public-sector union representing California state lawyers is threatening litigation to block the return-to-office, arguing that it violates the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA).
Because of the absurd breadth of this law, the argument is not as much of a stretch as it should be.
Modeled after the National Environmental Policy Act and signed into law in 1970, CEQA empowers plaintiffs to sue to block government actions that may have environmental consequences.
A gas station owner could use it to sue a city for allowing a rival gas station to add more pumps. Once sued, the government must show that it conducted the proper environmental review and considered alternatives that might cause less environmental damage.
These lawsuits can take years to resolve, while attorney fees and environmental consultant costs climb into the millions.
California’s government lawyers claim that requiring state employees to return to the office four days a week “will require hundreds of thousands of additional monthly commutes, creating hundreds of thousands of new car trips and thousands of tons of additional air pollution from automobile tailpipes.”
The suit argues that state agencies failed to conduct the environmental analysis needed to identify alternatives, including allowing employees to continue working from home.
Only California could take such an argument seriously. Forcing workers to commute will increase car trips. More car trips will increase emissions.
And there is little indication that the state conducted a full review before issuing its return-to-office order. A normal state would laugh this argument out of court. California built a legal regime that may invite it in.
Read rest at Washington Examiner
