CCEC has initiated litigation against Placer County for its failure to evaluate mitigation for the climate change impacts of its Tahoe Basin Area Plan. Pursuant to legislation adopted by the California Legislature in 2007, lead agencies such as Placer County are required to identify feasible mitigation for climate impacts.

Major projects elsewhere in California have gone so far as to fully mitigate their climate impacts.

Despite being roundly criticized during the public comment period, Placer County nevertheless postponed the issue of feasible climate mitigation making it into a future closed-door discussion between Placer County staff and developers.

The impact of climate change on the Sierras is already clear in the reduced snowpack and the unprecedented forest die-off in the Sierras.  In January, 2016, the Placer County Board of Supervisors itself formally found “that conditions of extreme peril to the safety of persons and property have arisen within Placer County, caused by the widespread and rapidly increasing incidence of tree mortality.”

The County’s process for the Area Plan plainly did not protect the public interest in cost-effective and enforceable climate mitigation. The writ petition is here. The Lake Tahoe News coverage is here. The Sierra Suncoverage is here.