The science is clear: airports make surrounding communities and workers sick and worsen climate change. Fossil jet fuel combustion emits huge volumes of climate change-inducing greenhouse gasses (GHG) and toxic air emissions that are most concentrated at airport worksites and in surrounding communities.
Despite clear harm to East Oakland residents, airport workers, and the planet, the Port of Oakland voted in November 2024 in favor of pursuing a massive expansion of the Oakland International Airport (OAK). In December of 2024, we filed a lawsuit against the Port of Oakland for violating the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA).
Our lawsuit asserts that the environmental impact report understates the true impacts to air quality, noise, and traffic, and petitions the court to require the Port to redo its environmental analysis of the project and fully disclose and mitigate its environmental impacts.
In the past two years, CBE members and staff have: mobilized to give public comment at Port Board of Commissioner meetings; testified before the Oakland City Council Community and Economic Development Committee; hosted a bilingual public town hall on the OAK expansion; drafted Community Emission Reduction Plan strategies with the Bay Area Air District and Alameda County Public Health Department to reduce airport pollution; and co-authored a report on airport pollution with SEIU United Service Workers West.
The Port of Oakland ignored East Oakland community members, airport workers, scientists, doctors, environmental organizations, and other government agencies who have warned that their proposed expansion plan was not sufficiently studied or disclosed to the public, and that expanding OAK will cost human health and lives.
In March 2025, the Port of Oakland reached a settlement with the City of Alameda that requires the Port to push airport-related ground and air traffic away from Alameda towards East Oakland.
This settlement is a prime example of the Port’s continued pattern of concentrating toxic pollution in working class communities of color like East Oakland so that wealthier, whiter neighborhoods don’t have to bear the cost of fossil fuel-dependent industries.
Our lawsuit is ongoing and we will continue to fight for East Oakland’s equal right to a healthy environment!
Learn more about the environmental harms of the proposed OAK expansion
Our report Pollution for Airline Profit: Proposed Expansion of Oakland International Airport Would Worsen Toxic Pollution of Workers, Communities of Color, & the Planet provides an in-depth analysis into the potential harms of this project.
Nuestro informe, Contaminación a beneficio de las aerolíneas: La expansión propuesta del Aeropuerto Internacional de Oakland empeoraría la contaminación tóxica de los trabajadores, las comunidades de color y el planeta, proporciona un análisis en profundidad de los posibles daños de este proyecto.