The OC Coastal Real Estate Blog

A USC symposium heard today that the issue of global climate will change real estate industries. The California Environmental Quality Act, or CEQA, long a target for reform by the homebuilding industry, already is being used as a tool to raise questions about how real estate developments affect global warming, speakers said at the USC Law School 2008 Symposium on Real Estate Law and Business in Los Angeles. In addition, recently adopted Assembly Bill 32, which requires California to reduce carbon emissions to 1990 levels by 2020, also likely will have impacts on the real estate industry.”There will be no construction except for green building,” said Craig Moyer of the Manatt, Phelps & Phillips law firm. There currently is a great deal of uncertainty about CEQA, the law that requires developers to create Environmental Impact Reports, said James Arnone, an attorney with Latham & Watkins in L.A. Developers are uncertain about whether to include global warming when discussing what impacts their project likely will have on the environment. Arnone said developers have been sued by people arguing that if a project creates one molecule of carbon dioxide, it has a significant impact. (more…)