Professor Richard Frank says on the Legal Planet blog (in “The California Supreme Court’s Most Important Environmental Law Decisions of 2020”) that “2020 was an atypically light year when it comes to environmental law in the California Supreme Court,” with the court deciding “the fewest number of environmental law-related cases in the past 15+ years.” But, he continues, “I believe that 2020 represents a statistical aberration rather than the start of any long-term trend, and that we can once again expect a larger output of environmental cases from the justices in 2021 and future years.”
Justice Martin Jenkins at his confirmation hearing two months ago identified California Environmental Quality Act cases as an “area where the Supreme Court’s guidance . . . is necessary.”
Right now, however, it looks like there’s only one pending review-granted environmental case — County of Butte v. Department of Water Resources (see here). The case, involving federal preemption issues, is fully briefed, but the court has yet to send out an oral argument letter.