California has been deeply involved with the oil and gas business since the first wooden derricks were erected in sleepy Kern County in the 19th century. But these days California is flush with laws, regulations and goals that will likely cause the state to eventually sever its long relationship with fossil fuels…
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.
A study, lead authored by a UC Merced professor, implies a surprising connection between a child’s development and how close they live to busy roads. The study, funded by the National Institutes of Health and the UC Merced Senate Grant, suggests there’s a link — and that it could lead to developmental delays. It’s no secret air pollution is harmful to our health, but what we don’t know is how it can affect children as they grow up…
After the state Water Resources Control Board said its Delta-Bay Plan would not have “significant” effect on the drinking water of disadvantaged communities Assemblymember Adam C. Gray, D-Merced, blasted the board members for what he said was their lack of concern for impoverished and minority communities….
Senate Bill 559 (SB 559), authored by Senator Melissa Hurtado (D-Sanger), representing the 14th Senate District in California, and principal co-authored by Senator Andreas Borgeas (R-Fresno), Assemblymember Devon Mathis (R-Visalia), Assemblymember Dr. Joaquin Arambula (D-Fresno), and Assemblymember Rudy Salas (D-Bakersfield), today advanced through the Senate Committee on Natural Resources and Water by 6 – 0 vote. The legislation, which received bipartisan support, will invest $400 million from the State’s General Fund towards the Friant-Kern Canal, one of the Central Valley’s most critical water delivery facilities…
Leiba has made formal written requests with the California Air Resources Board, asking for the data on CARB’s claims that 1,200 children die each year in the California Central Valley due to particulate matter in the air. So far, he says the CARB has ignored his California Public Records Requests….
California’s native species and its precious water resources are in serious need of some Trump insurance. The state has laws that safeguard threatened wildlife and regulate water quality. But they are muscles and sinews that function only because they are attached to the bones of strong federal environmental laws adopted by forward-looking Congresses and presidents since the 1970s. Now those federal bones are beginning to dissolve…
Low-income communities of color experience three key burdens from our energy system: disproportionate burdens from energy pollution with more dirty facilities closer to where they live, work and play; high energy burdens, paying nearly three times the percentage of their income on energy bills than their more affluent counterparts, forcing families to choose between paying to keep the lights on or for food and medicine; and significant barriers to participating in and benefiting from the state’s incredible suite of clean energy programs…
A California state judge has affirmed the constitutional right of residents concerned about air and climate pollution to challenge power plant siting decisions in their local Superior Court. In 2013 Earthjustice, Communities for a Better Environment and the Center for Biological Diversity filed a lawsuitchallenging the constitutionality of a 2001 law limiting judicial review of the California Energy Commission’s power-plant approvals to the California Supreme Court…
The ghost of Josh Newman haunts the state Capitol, sending shivers through certain politicians’ spines at the mere mention of the scary word “tax.” The former lawmaker’s fate will make it difficult for the Legislature — even with supermajority Democratic control — to pass one of Gavin Newsom’s top priorities: a so-called water tax….
Highland Park’s streetlights were torn out in 2011 because the predominantly black Detroit suburb couldn’t pay its electricity bill after the 2008 economic downturn. Today street lamps once again cast reassuring pools of light—and this time they are cheaper, because they harvest the energy of the sun. Highland Park offers an example of what environmental justice advocates hope to do more of to bring affordable, clean energy to communities of color…