Sean Scully, THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
The North Coast Railroad Authority is hoping to short-circuit a pair of environmental lawsuits by retroactively saying the effort to restore freight rail service in the region was not subject to state law in the first place.
The agency’s board will consider a motion today that would undo key portions of a 2011 resolution that finalized a $3 million, taxpayer-funded environmental impact report, prepared under the requirements of the California Environmental Quality Act. The resolution wouldn’t disavow the EIR itself, agency Executive Director Mitch Stogner said, but would instead make a technical change to remove any mention of the resumption of freight rail traffic along the North Coast as a "project" as defined in the law.
via North Coast Rail Authority may modify EIR to blunt lawsuits over freight service | PressDemocrat.com.