Thank you to everyone who contacted their State Senate and Assembly representatives at the end of June about the detrimental changes to the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), California’s bedrock environmental law. Although the changes were passed on June 30, we have another opportunity now to correct them.
As you may know, changes to CEQA were contained in Assembly/Senate Bill 131, a last-minute addition to the state budget that exempts a wide range of development projects from environmental review. AB/SB 131 weakens CEQA’s protections for rare plants and wildlife and allows construction of “advanced manufacturing” facilities without environmental review.
Because the budget must be enacted by July 1 each year, the legislature passed this last-minute bill even though not all legislators’ questions were fully answered. However, legislators made a commitment to consider a “clean-up” amendment to address two features of AB/SB 131:
- The bill broadly exempts a vague class of “advanced manufacturing” facilities from environmental review, which will expose surrounding communities to dangerous pollution.
- The bill’s exemptions for “natural and protected lands” is too narrow; it does not include habitat for endangered species. (For more information, refer to bill text section 21067.5.)
We need your help to urge members of the Senate and Assembly to communicate with their leadership that these fixes need to be approved before the month-long legislative recess begins this coming Friday, July 18. We will have to make our voices louder right now, in this short window of time.
Here’s how to help:
FIRST – Call your State Assembly Member and State Senator. Their contact information can be found at https://findyourrep.legislature.ca.gov.
SECOND – Call the Speaker of the Assembly, Robert Rivas, at (916) 319-2029.
THIRD – Call the Senate President Pro Tempore, Mike McGuire, at (916) 651-4002.
Suggested talking points:
- My name is [insert name]. I am calling on behalf of the California Native Plant Society regarding AB/SB 131.
- This bill passed on June 30, but legislators made a commitment to work further to fix parts of the bill that threaten significant harm to communities and the environment.
- We urge you to follow through on these promises.
- (When speaking with your local representative): Please communicate with [Senate / Assembly] leadership and urge them to enact these fixes.
- Please remove AB/SB 131’s exemption for advanced manufacturing facilities. This exemption will expose residents to toxic industrial projects with zero protections for environmental justice communities living alongside industrially zoned land.
- Please amend AB/SB 131’s definition of “natural and protected lands” to include habitat for species protected under the federal and state Endangered Species Acts and the state Native Plant Protection Act.
The fight over this dangerous bill is not over. Please take action today. Your voice makes all the difference.
Thank you.
Jim Hanson, on behalf of CNPS East Bay Chapter Conservation Committee volunteers
This land is now planned to become the East Bay’s next public regional park due, in part, to CEQA. Three pro-bono attorneys filed a lawsuit on behalf of CNPS and other parties citing a massive, high-end condo project’s inadequate Environmental Impact Report, and won on the merits at the Appeals Court. Photo by Jack Scheinman
The South Coast Air Quality Management District, Riverside County, community groups, and environmental organizations challenged the project under CEQA. After the CEQA actions were filed, the air district and the county entered separate settlement agreements, requiring the developer to provide further mitigation for the project’s air quality and transportation impacts.
See CEQA Works.
