CEQA (the California Environmental Quality Act) - passed in 1970 - is no longer about protecting the environment. Because of an unintended legal interpretation after the law passed, CEQA gives any person who can hire a lawyer the right to endlessly delay anything that requires a permit to build.
Comments
1. They exempt things they care about from CEQA, again, acknowledging that CEQA really has nothing to do with protecting the environment.
2. They could* reform CEQA to return it to its original environmental focus.
Now, because this would take away anyone with a lawyer's de facto veto (or endless delay) power over building projects, a lot of groups that currently use (or abuse) CEQA are against it.
Unions, otherwise indifferent to environmental causes, use CEQA to get labor concessions from developers in exchange for dropping their frivolous lawsuits.
Others use it too...
None of these groups are actually protecting the environment.
1. Environmentalism was bipartisan at that point in time. Nixon also signed a bunch of federal environmental laws.
2. CEQA was never intended to become the monster it is today. It didn't even get a full length article in the LA Times when it passed.
What you say about the LA Times' coverage is surprising. Maybe nobody knew how to cover the issue yet.