It’s often said justice delayed is justice denied. For millions who live in disadvantaged California communities, environmental justice, protection from the noxious effects of air pollution, and other ambient toxins is long overdue…
News
This page features excerpts from news about environmental justice advocacy in the San Joaquin Valley and links to their original sources. Use the features on the right to sort by topic, news source, date, key word or author. You may also subscribe to receive the news by e-mail or through an rss reader. Please note that links to original sources may expire over time.
In the face of fierce opposition from Big Oil companies and Republican legislators, the California state Assembly will decide on an array of pace-setting legislative bills to combat climate change within the next three weeks, thrusting the Golden State into the forefront of this consequential global struggle…
According to a new poll conducted by Latino Decisions for Earthjustice, a national environmental nonprofit law firm, and GreenLatinos, a leading national nonprofit of Latino environmental leaders, 81 percent of registered Latino voters in California strongly support state clean energy standards to combat climate change. Further, 81 percent of California Latino voters are worried about climate change, and 79 percent say they are already directly experiencing the effects of climate change in California. This poll demonstrates that for California Latino constituents, climate change is real—it’s happening now—and that they demand strong and decisive action by the state’s lawmakers and leaders…
Given that discretionary grant programs worth hundreds of millions of dollars—from the Active Transportation Program established by SB 99 to the newly-minted Transit and Intercity Rail Program (TICRP) and Affordable Housing and Sustainable Communities (AHSC) program funded by cap-and-trade revenues—are using this policy framework to evaluate and fund projects, this concept deserves to be scrutinized more deeply than it has been to-date…
Large industrial facilities in California have a few choices about how they comply with the state’s cap-and-trade program…
As Pope Francis prepares to visit the United States next month, the media’s fixation on him is continuing to increase. This is especially true in California, where the Pope’s acknowledgement of human impact on climate change, as articulated in his anticipated encyclical, has created a substantial stir. That is no surprise to Californians, as our record-breaking drought grinds on and we look for new, innovative ways to save water. It’s also no surprise to Latinos, in California and beyond, as our communities are on the front lines of climate change — from the droughts of the southwest to the flood prone regions of South Florida.
It was the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s first and only preliminary finding of discrimination in a civil rights case. The agency saw it as a clear victory for people like Maria Garcia, who’d complained about pesticide spraying on strawberry fields near her children’s school.
In 2011, after a decade-long investigation, the EPA negotiated a settlement that required the California Department of Pesticide Regulation to add a site to a trio of farming communities — including Oxnard — to be monitored for airborne chemicals. The agreement showed the EPA’s “steadfast commitment to protecting and advancing civil rights,” the agency said in a press release…
With heavy hearts, we regret to inform you that our brother and fellow EJ activist Emiliano Mataka passed away this weekend in a tragic car accident. Emiliano was a charismatic and dedicated organizer who helped to shape the movement for social and environmental justice in the San Joaquin Valley. He was a founding member of Valley Improvement Projects (VIP), working for social and environmental justice in the larger Modesto area. His parents, Rosenda and John Mataka are founding members and active Unity Council members for CCEJN. Please send your prayers and love to the Mataka family during this tough time…
In a first of its kind effort, new groundbreaking data points to overwhelming support by California Latino voters on critical positions on the need for stronger state efforts in combating pollution particularly in communities of color, reducing our dependency on petroleum, and further expanding the Green Economy in Latino communities. The poll of 400 registered voters was conducted by Latino Decisions in partnership with Presente.org, Communities for a Better Environment (CBE), the California Environmental Justice Alliance (CEJA), Physicians for Social Responsibility-Los Angeles (PSR-LA), and the Greenlining Institute…
The number of bad wells in Tulare County is continuing to climb while officials are trying to figure out what to do about legal snafus that are preventing more tanks from being installed in areas such as East Porterville.
For the week ending Aug. 3 there were 19 more wells that went bad, either in water volume or quality, on top of 47 that went bad the week before.