Prop 23, Whitman cannot slow down progressive planning laws.(insight)

The entire California planning world now seems to revolve around combating climate change and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. But Proposition 23 - a long-term suspension of the state's climate-change law - is on the ballot this fall. The proposition is behind at the polls - but if it passes - will that be the end of SB 375. Sustainable Communities Strategies, greenhouse gas emissions analyses in environmental impact reports, and the whole industry that has been built up around climate change planning?

And even if Prop 23 fails, Republican Meg Whitman could be elected governor. And though Whitman opposes Prop. 23, she has promised to suspend parts of AB 32 until the economy gets better. So could she kill SB 375 and the whole climate change planning effort if she wanted to?

The answer appears to be no. And the fact that the answer is no represents an important lesson in how policies that emerge in response to a law quickly become embedded in the fabric of …