FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 10, 2025
Contact: Katie Valenzuela, 916-508-6040 or katie@everydayimpactconsulting.com
Environmental Justice Organizations React to Legislative Proposals
(Sacramento, CA) – Environmental justice and health organizations issued the following statement to express opposition to SB 237 and AB 1207 as amended on September 10, 2025:
Environmental justice communities need tangible air quality benefits in any renewal of the Cap-and-Trade program, but Legislative leadership and the Governor’s Office rejected our proposal that would have given AB 617 the enforceability needed to ensure emissions reductions are finally realized in environmental justice communities. To add injury to injury, Legislative leadership and Governor Newsom failed to fix SB 131 to remove the exemption for advanced manufacturing projects from CEQA requirements, which will have a direct and almost immediate detrimental impact on health and air quality in our communities. The Legislature is also set to approve massive CEQA exemptions for oil extraction in Kern County based on the oil industry’s word but with no guarantee that this will reduce gas prices or ensure stable fuel supply.
Once again, these bills continue to make EJ communities into sacrifice zones for the benefit of industry profit. We are disappointed by the status of these bills and demand that the Legislature and Governor Newsom do more to protect the most vulnerable communities in California.
Signed:
Asian Pacific Environmental Network
California Environmental Justice Alliance
Center for Community Action and Environmental Justice
Center on Race, Poverty & the Environment
Central California Asthma Collaborative
Central California Environmental Justice Network
Central Valley Air Quality Coalition
Communities for a Better Environment
Leadership Counsel for Justice and Accountability
Physicians for Social Responsibility – Los Angeles
# # #