When examining any given political outcome, your first question should always be "how does this benefit people with large amounts of money", because that's why

When examining any given political outcome, your first question should always be "how does this benefit people with large amounts of money", because that's why most of the things in our society actually happen -- particularly the persistent structural flaws. It can be absolutely true that CEQA was passed by sincere environmentalists. But it can also be true that the beneficiaries are wealthy property owners. If this law produced really bad outcomes for those people, it would already be gone/reformed. But it makes most property more valuable, so that doesn't happen. Anyway, I'm offering this because loads of people think this is some kind of left/right "process" dynamic that they can fix, when in fact if you fix the process dynamic those same people will find another way to fight you. And that's ok! It's possible to win! Just don't confuse yourself that this is some accidental screwup that you can easily fix, like a downed tree blocking the street.