How California Moves Forward with the Rest of the World
While the Trump administration tries to drag us back to darker and dirtier days, California can forge ahead.
As more awful news comes out of the federal government, all eyes are increasingly on California, and the state legislature knows it. Sacramento is in full swing as legislators grapple with whether we should be “Trump proofing” or playing nice to minimize the new administration’s ire. But a new president hasn’t changed what we care about. Earthjustice is working harder than ever for clean air and climate gains in states like California, fighting for a brighter future even as D.C. tries to send us back to darker and dirtier days. Here are the three key new pieces of legislation we’re sponsoring in this legislative session, and the anti-environment measures we’re working to head off in Sacramento:
A New Tool to Clean Our Air Has Arrived
Californians breathe the dirtiest air in the country and ports, warehouses, and railyards — with their dirty diesel trucks and equipment — are pollution hotspots. In fact, transportation is our number one source of air pollution. That’s why we are sponsoring AB 914 (Rep. Garcia), the Pollution Hotspots Solution Act, which would give the state new tools to regulate these hotspots and clean the air in our communities.
Trucks and train cars carrying shipping containers line up at the Port of Oakland in California. (Justin Sullivan / Getty Images)
Protecting Californians from Greedy Utilities
Much like the rest of the country, the topic of affordability has taken over Sacramento. Meanwhile, for-profit utilities have jacked up customer bills, leaving roughly 1 in 5 households served by the state’s largest utilities behind on their payments. Earthjustice is proud to co-sponsor AB 1167 (Rep. Berman), which will protect Californians from funding for-profit utilities’ political and promotional activities through our gas and electric bills. The impetus for this bill? Our discovery several years ago that SoCalGas tried to fund its anti-climate campaigns with $36 million in customer funds.
Electrifying Our Industrial Sector
California’s largest source of greenhouse gas emissions, after transportation, comes from industrial activities. California has long been a national leader in manufacturing, and our factories employ over 1.2 million people. But they also account for nearly a quarter of emissions. These two issues don’t have to be at odds with one another. That’s why we are co-sponsoring AB 1280 (Rep. Garcia), which would give incentives to companies to replace fossil fuel-fired industrial equipment with clean technologies.
Workers use tools on an airplane wing in San Diego, California. (Frank Rogozienski / Getty Images)
The Bad Bills to Keep Us Locked into Pollution
With the good comes sly attempts from polluters to keep California stuck with old, polluting technology. Case in point: AB 1111, which would push back California’s goals to make sure new school buses are zero-emissions by 2035 (keep in mind, that would still leave some diesel school buses on the roads into the 2040s and beyond). Considering children in the back of the bus breathe in high levels of health-harming diesel pollution, that’s clearly a bad idea. Call us crazy, but we think kids deserve a clean ride to school, and we’ll be opposing this bad bill.
Earthjustice attorney Yasmine Agelidis speaks at a rally for electric school buses outside the Los Angeles Unified School District headquarters on Nov. 15, 2022. (Hannah Benet for Earthjustice)
Another terrible idea is SB 34, an attempt to stop regulators in Southern California from using a key new tool to curb pollution from the largest fixed source of air pollution in all of Southern California: the Ports of LA and Long Beach. It’s time to say goodbye to LA’s interminable smog problem and build a clean goods movement system. That’s why we’re saying “no thanks” to SB 34.
Earthjustice is standing up in Sacramento because we believe good policy will help ensure California moves forward with the rest of the world. Join me in a few weeks as we ask you to contact your legislators and Governor Newsom in support of these priorities. Each email and every call to your legislator will matter as we fight for the future we deserve.
Gov. Gavin Newsom points to a graph showing the increased in the risk to wildfires due to climate change during a news conference in Rancho Cordova, Calif. (Rich Pedroncelli / AP)
Ada Waelder is the Policy Advocate for the California Regional Office where she spearheads the organization's legislative and regulatory efforts in and around Sacramento.
The California Regional Office fights for the rights of all to a healthy environment regardless of where in the state they live; we fight to protect the magnificent natural spaces and wildlife found in California; and we fight to transition California to a zero-emissions future where cars, trucks, buildings, and power plants run on clean energy, not fossil fuels.
