Governor Newsom’s CEQA Overhaul: A Necessary Step to Unshackle California’s Housing Crisis

California’s chronic housing shortage and escalating homelessness crisis have long been fueled by an overly restrictive regulatory environment, and Governor Gavin Newsom has finally taken decisive action. On Monday, Newsom signed into law a sweeping reform of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), a decades-old law whose overreach has throttled new housing development with endless environmental red tape.Originally designed in the 1970s to protect the environment from unchecked development, CEQA has become a tool for obstruction rather than preservation. Its complex mandates have allowed special interests and bureaucrats to block or delay projects for years—driving up costs and driving away...