California, U.S. Environmental Challenges Can Coexist (1)

California counties can’t seek to unwind a state-federal settlement of a lawsuit over hydroelectric licensing at the US’s largest earthen dam, but they can challenge the adequacy of a report a state agency uses without running afoul of federal law preemption, a divided California Supreme Court ruled Monday.

In so doing, the justices in part reversed an appellate ruling that the Federal Power Act preempts state court challenges to an environmental impact report conducted to comply with the federal Clean Water Act. The report was prepared under the California Environmental Quality Act, or CEQA, the state law that predates the ...