CEJA is proud of our 2019 environmental justice legislative achievements. The majority of our priority bills moved successfully through the legislative process and were signed into law by Governor Newsom. These new laws will provide a range of critically needed benefits to environmental justice communities, from bringing clean safe drinking water to communities, greater transparency and community engagement in decision-making and planning processes, better access to resources for disadvantaged unincorporated communities, cleaner trucks, and public banking opportunities.
The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) helps to protect fundamental rights for EJ communities to affordable homes free from the harmful burdens of pollution, to participate in local land-use decisions, and to access clean air and water that improve and protect their health. We must protect CEQA to build affordable housing that is safe and healthy, while ensuring that our state’s most vulnerable residents are not inadvertently exposed to toxic hazards and other dangers in their own homes. Learn more here.
In California, a Green New Deal can mean the Just Transition that environmental justice communities have already been demanding! A Green New Deal means taking bold, inclusive steps to divest from a fossil fuel economy that is destroying our health and environment. It means phasing out oil and gas production. It means saying no to multibillion-dollar bailouts for investor-owned utilities and skyrocketing electric bills for the rest of us. A Green New Deal means building new ways to power our neighborhoods that ensure safety, bring good jobs and stabilize the climate.
