70 diverse organizations from across the nation sent a letter today to the United States Environmental Protection Agency Office of Civil Rights and California Attorney General Kamala Harris in support of the administrative federal and state civil rights complaints filed March 19th against the California EPA and Department of Toxic Substances Control by El Pueblo Para El Aire y Agua Limpia/People for Clean Air and Water of Kettleman City and Greenaction for Health and Environmental Justice…
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.
Chevron and Occidental inject more contaminated waste into the San Joaquin Aquifer each month than BP dumped oil into the Gulf of Mexico, farmers say in a RICO complaint. The Committee to Protect Agricultural Water sued the oil companies and the state of California on Wednesday in Federal Court…
LOS ANGELES (CN) – Chevron and Occidental inject more contaminated waste into the San Joaquin Aquifer each month than BP dumped oil into the Gulf of Mexico, farmers say in a RICO complaint…
The three most powerful political leaders in the state – Governor Brown, Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de León, and Assembly Speaker Toni Atkins – are moving in lockstep to enact an ambitious long-term climate and clean energy agenda…
Assembly members Brian Dahle (R-Bieber) and Assemblyman Rudy Salas’ (D-Bakersfield) Assembly Bill 590 passed the Assembly unanimously this afternoon with bipartisan support, and is on its way to the Senate…
Being a climate advocate is not for the weak of heart. The US is a safe haven for climate deniers. Instead of taking bold steps to reduce our carbon emissions, our elected officials focus on stunts like bringing in snowballs to Congress to claim there is no climate change. In the face of such obstinacy, climate advocates must stand together and take to the streets. And as the People’s Climate marched showed, there is no shortage of people willing to stand up and join the fight against climate change…
In a win for communities across California, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld residents’ ability to enforce all rules, regulations and standards used to meet California’s clean air mandate. Several community groups from the San Joaquin Valley filed the lawsuit because the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) had allowed California to exclude dozens of motor vehicle controls from its plans to reduce air pollution. California’s San Joaquin Valley ranks as having some of the worst air to breathe and it is vital that residents can enforce the State’s plan to clean its air. The court ruled that EPA has been failing to protect public health by illegally allowing California to exclude its motor vehicle standards from EPA review and citizen enforcement…
On May 8, 2015, in El Comite Para El Bienestar De Earlimart v. EPA, a Panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit denied a petition for review filed by several groups that the court describes as “community organizations” who challenged the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) 2012 approval of California State Implementation Plan (SIP) elements under the Clean Air Act (CAA), including its related approval of certain fumigant regulations. This challenge was previously discussed in our blog post “Ninth Circuit to Consider Civil Rights Issue in Review of California SIP“…
The San Joaquin Valley’s vast fields of cotton and other crops have formed a backdrop to human suffering and struggle for generations. Chinese labor camps of the late 1800s, Depression-era families fleeing the Dust Bowl of the 1930s, César Chávez and the farmworkers movement of the 1960s and beyond, and today’s environmental justice advocates have all called this region both workplace and home. Although the Valley produces great material wealth in the form of food and commodity crops, many of the people who live there are among the poorest in the nation. Nonetheless, over the decades their efforts have been part of successful campaigns to improve the political and environmental context in which they live and work…
Sunflower Alliance has joined California environmental justice organizations to endorse the following letter to Attorney General Kamala Harris. The letter states strong opposition to a permit granted by Kings County officials that would significantly expand what is already the largest hazardous waste landfill in the western United States…