California Newsletter

What's At Stake

As the Trump administration drags us back to dirtier days, Earthjustice is fighting in the California Legislature for cleaner air, water, and energy. The good news is that clean energy and environmental protection bills we are sponsoring have passed in both houses and are now waiting on Governor Newsom’s desk for his signature. The bad news is that we are also awaiting the Governor’s action on a bill that removes hazardous waste protections from toxic metal shredding operations, which would put frontline communities at risk .

We’re so close to the finish line, and we need your help.

Earthjustice and our partners continue to fight for policies that help more people access non-polluting home appliances like heat pumps and to ensure that communities are protected from polluting projects.

Urge Governor Newsom to sign the Home Energy Choice Act (AB 2313) and the Community First Coal Review Act into law (AB 40) and veto Hazardous Materials: Metal Shredding Facilities (SB 811).

Help get more nonpolluting appliances in California homes

The Home Energy Choice Act (AB 2313) would help tens of thousands of Californians upgrade to modern appliances like heat pumps and induction stoves by investing in our homes instead of methane gas pipelines. Urge Governor Newsom to sign this crucial bill that expands access to non-polluting appliances into law.

Urge Governor Newsom to support the Community First Coal Review Act

Developers are joining forces with the Trump administration in an attempt to build a massive, dirty coal terminal in West Oakland. The air pollution from this terminal would increase asthma episodes, worsen other heart and lung conditions, and even cause premature deaths. Along with our partners at the West Oakland Environmental Indicators Project, we’re sponsoring Assembly Bill 40, the Community First Coal Review Act, to ensure a fair and thorough environmental review for large coal projects across California, including West Oakland — and we need your support.

Protect communities from toxic metal shredders

Last year, Earthjustice advocates and our partners pushed back against a bill that exempts metal shredders from vital hazardous waste protections, and Governor Newsom vetoed it. Now, a nearly identical bill (SB 811) has made it through the legislative session and is on Governor Newsom’s desk again. We need your help to make sure Governor Newsom vetoes this bill again.

California's State Capitol in Sacramento (Andre M)
California's State Capitol in Sacramento (Andre M)

22 Days Remain

Delivery to Governor Newsom

Important Notice

Your message is delivered to a public agency, and all information submitted may be placed in the public record. Do not submit confidential information.

By taking action, you will receive emails from Earthjustice. Change your mailing preferences or opt-out at any time. Learn more in our Privacy Policy. This Earthjustice action is hosted on EveryAction. Learn about EveryAction’s Privacy Policy.

Why is a phone number or prefix required on some action forms?

Trouble Viewing This Action?

If the action form is not loading above, please be aware that ad blockers and VPNs may prevent the action form from displaying. Please add earthjustice.org as a trusted website in your ad blocker, and refresh this webpage. (Details.) If the action form still does not display, please report the problem to us at action@earthjustice.org with a screenshot image of the problem. Thank you!

Your Actions Matter

Your messages make a difference, even if we have leaders who don't want to listen. Here's why.

You level the playing field.

Elected officials pay attention when they see that we are paying attention. Read more.

They may be hearing from industry lobbyists left and right, but hearing the stories of their constituents — that’s your power.

Our legislators serve at the pleasure of the people who gave them their job — you.

Make sure your elected officials know whose community and whose values they represent. When you contact your elected official, you’re putting a face and a name on an issue.

Whether or not you voted for them, they work for you, for the duration of their term.

Make sure your elected officials know whose community and whose values they represent. (Find your local, state, and federal elected officials.)

Your action is with us in court.

If a federal agency finalizes a harmful action, the record of public comments provides a basis for bringing them into court. Read more.

Throughout each of the public comment periods we alert you to, Earthjustice’s attorneys are researching and writing in-depth, technical comments to submit — detailing how the regulation could and should be stronger to protect the environment, our communities, and our planet.

We need you to join us — your specific experiences, knowledge, and voice are crucial to add to the Administrative Record through the comment periods.

Lawsuits we file that challenge weak or harmful federal regulations rely on what was submitted during the comment period. The court can only look at documents that are in the Administrative Record — including the public comments — to decide if the agency did something improper.

Your actions aid our litigation. Taking action and submitting comments during a comment period is substantively important.

It’s the law.

Federal agencies must pause what they’re doing and ask for — and consider — your comment. Read more.

Many of us may have never heard of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), but laws like these require our government to ask the public to weigh in before agencies adopt or change regulations.

Regulations essentially describe how federal agencies will carry out laws — including decisions that could undermine science, or weaken safeguards on public health.

Public comments are collected at various points throughout the federal government’s rulemaking process, including when a regulation is proposed and finalized. (Learn about the rulemaking process.) These comments become part of the official, legal public record — the “Administrative Record.”

When the public responds with a huge outpouring of support for environmental protections, these individual messages collectively undercut politicians' attempts to claim otherwise.

What this means is each of us can take a role in shaping the rules our government creates — and ensuring those rules are fair and effective.