Campaigns

Southern California Campaigns and Projects

South East Los Angeles

Community Stops Dirty Power Plant in Southeast Los Angeles

A Victory For LA's Air And A Victory for the Planet!

Move over Al Gore, make room for some new environmental leaders - working class Latina mothers and high school youth from South East Los Angeles!

After 3 years of organizing, mobilizing, advocacy and lawsuits, CBE members in Southeast Los Angeles stopped a 943 megawatt fossil fuel power plant that would have emitted over 1.7 million pounds of toxic pollution per year as well as 2.8 million tons of greenhouse gases.

The strength of this exciting grassroots effort compelled the City of Vernon to withdraw their application for the power plant on September 28th, 2009. The was a life-and-death struggle since the power plant emissions could have caused as many as one dozen deaths every year. Since these facilities usually operate for fity years, literally hundreds of lives have been saved.

This was not only a local victory. By preventing the emission of more than 200 million tons of greenhouse gasses, the mujeres and youth made a major contrubution to the flight against global warming. They have also created a community empowerment model for teh other 22 California communities facing a similar threat of fossil fuel power plants.

In the immortal words of Cesar Chavez: Si Se Puede!

Southeast Los Angeles (SELA) is the northern portion of LA’s industrial corridor, home to vibrant communities of predominantly Latino working class residents. Unfortunately, mixed in with these communities are hundreds of industrial facilities (power plants, chrome platers, toxic waste facilities, etc) and tr South East Los Angeles ansportation corridors (freeways, diesel truck routes) that expose local residents to tons of hazardous pollution each year.

United Residents of Southeast LA for Environmental Justice (URSELA)
URSELA is a group of parents eager to improve conditions in their community. They participate in trainings, discussions, networking and environmental justice campaigns.

Youth for Environmental Justice (Youth-EJ)
Youth-EJ works with youth from 3 SELA high schools (Huntington Park, South Gate & South East), providing a space for learning, teaching, sharing, creating, discussing and taking action for environmental justice.

Both URSELA and Youth-EJ work together on the following campaigns:

No Vernon Power Plant! Yes Renewable Energy!
The City of Vernon is proposing to build a 943-megawatt fossil fuel burning power plant in Southeast Los Angeles, less than a mile from several schools and residential neighborhoods. The plant is projected to emit 881 tons of pollution each year (= 1.7 million pounds). CBE opposes building a major source of pollution in an area that is already overburdened with pollution. CBE supports the development of clean renewable energy sources to ensure a safe, stable and healthy future for California.

Read about a recent success in our ONGOING campaign to block the Vernon Power Plant.

710 Freeway Expansion
Residents along the I-710 corridor are concerned about proposed plans to expand the freeway, adding lanes to accommodate more diesel trucks traveling to and from the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. Working with allies in a coalition (Coalition for Environmental Health and Justice – CEHAJ), CBE is organizing and advocating for a reduction of pollution and an improvement of corridor conditions, pushing for cleaner alternatives to the increasing diesel-based goods movement in the region.

News: "Community Groups/California Regulators Battle Diesel Pollution", LA Times, December 11, 2008

View Organizer, Robert Cabrales' Bio »