Panel Findings Spur Bills To Ease California Climate, Clean Energy Permitting

A California legislative committee is concluding that the state’s permitting processes for clean energy, climate-related and housing projects are overly complicated and time-consuming, prompting state lawmakers to draft a package of bills aimed at streamlining reviews and approvals, officials say. “Our broken permitting system is driving up the cost of housing, the cost of energy, and even the cost of inaction on climate change,” said Assemblywoman Buffy Wicks (D-Oakland), chairwoman of the Assembly Select Committee on Permitting Reform, in a...