California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA)

The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) is a foundational environmental law in California. It establishes a comprehensive process for assessing the environmental impact of projects and devising measures to mitigate these effects. CEQA applies to all projects, including discretionary activity by a public agency, private activity that receives any public funding, or activities that involve the public agency’s issuance of a discretionary approval and is not statutorily or categorically exempt from CEQA.