SECTION 1.
(a) The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:(1) The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) (Division 13 (commencing with Section 21000) of the Public Resources Code) facilitates the maintenance of a quality environment for the people of the state through identification of significant effects on the environment caused by a proposed project, consideration of alternatives, and implementation of feasible mitigation measures to reduce those effects.
(2) CEQA is premised on transparency in decisionmaking through public dissemination of information about a proposed project’s effect on the environment.
(3) CEQA empowers the public to challenge a project in court for failure to fully comply with CEQA’s exhaustive disclosure and mitigation requirements.
(4) Various entities are increasingly using litigation pursuant to CEQA for competitive purposes to either frustrate a competitor’s project or to extract concessions from a project proponent.
(5) Despite the focus on transparency and public disclosure in the decisionmaking process, shadow groups funded by unknown backers often threaten and bring litigation challenging proposed projects without being required to disclose who is funding the litigation or what financial interests those entities have related to the proposed project.
(6) Project opponents sometimes strategically use litigation to delay a project
past its point of economic viability, thereby using litigation to stop projects that could not otherwise be stopped during the decisionmaking process.
(7) California Rules of Court require the disclosure of entities that fund the preparation and submission of amicus briefs to the court.
(8) The state and public have a compelling interest in the disclosure of the identities of entities that fund litigation under CEQA so they can better understand the identities of those organizations participating in the public decisionmaking process, determine whether the petitioner or plaintiff may be suing for competitive or other nonenvironmental purposes, and protect scarce judicial resources by deterring entities from using lawsuits for competitive or other nonenvironmental purposes.
(9) The courts have a compelling interest in
disclosure to determine whether the plaintiff or petitioner is seeking to advance environmental, nonenvironmental, or a mix of environmental and nonenvironmental interests in filing an action pursuant to CEQA.
(b) It is the intent of the Legislature to require plaintiffs and petitioners bringing an action pursuant to CEQA to disclose those persons or entities who make contributions to fund the preparation of the petition and subsequent actions or proceedings and any financial interests they may have related to the proposed project.