Contact: Gissela Chavez, gissela@cbecal.org
The California Air Resources Board Must Stand Up to Big Oil
California– On Tuesday, The California Air Resources Board (CARB) announced additional changes to the proposed CARB rulemaking on the Cap & Invest Program (formerly Cap & Trade) for public review during a 15-day comment period. The 15-day comment period began on April 14, 2026, at 12:00 pm (PST) and will conclude on April 29, 2026, at 11:59 pm (PST).
In January 2026, CARB proposed changes that lowered the ambitions of the program, ultimately yielding to industry pressure to avoid higher goals that had been previously analyzed. Now, CARB’s changes fail to correct course and will likely result in more industrial pollution and less revenue.
“Cap & Trade continues to weaken. Abundant handouts to refineries and other industry sectors won’t meaningfully reduce greenhouse gas emissions and co-pollutants— it will keep California from meeting its climate goals and fail to close the emissions gap in environmental justice communities,” says Lauren Gallagher, Northern California Attorney with Communities for a Better Environment. “Additionally, these changes give up revenue that could be directly reinvested into affordability solutions for Californians in need.”
Cap & “Invest”, as it has been renamed, is about capping pollution and investing revenue into climate and affordability solutions. CARB should make the program stronger by doubling down. The cost of air pollution should not be on Californians; they should be seeing the financial benefits and investments in their communities instead of industry bailouts. CBE will release a more detailed comment and analysis of these changes with environmental justice allies in the coming weeks.
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Communities for a Better Environment (CBE) is one of the preeminent environmental justice organizations in the nation. The mission of CBE is to build people’s power in California’s low-income communities of color to achieve environmental health and justice by preventing and reducing pollution by building green, healthy, and sustainable communities and environments. cbecal.org