Skip to main content

Environmental Policy

Support Provided By
Environmental activists protest in Sacramento.
Over a nine-hour meeting, car owners, environmentalists and industry representatives showed up in droves to voice concerns about ramping up electric car sales and banning new gas-powered cars in 2035. Board members asked for more strategies to help low-income residents.
Rally in support of SB 1486 to shut the SoCalGas Aliso Canyon storage facility
Legislation that would have streamlined the closure of the Aliso Canyon, the underground gas storage facility responsible for the biggest gas leak in U.S. history, was gutted by the California Senate last Thursday.
Farmer Joe Del Bosque, of Los Banos, watches as a tractor driven by his employee destroys a 70-acre organic asparagus field in Firebaugh, California.
The so-called “exchange contract” has created a surreal split-screen effect: One group of farmers has ample water. Another has almost none.
A herd of cattle feed on a mix of alfalfa and hay in Riverdale, California.
California is double counting the same carbon and methane emissions reductions across different environmental programs.
Plastic trash on Berawa Beach, Bali, Indonesia.
The petroleum company is under investigation for misleading the public while exacerbating the global plastic pollution crisis.
 Diesel trucks passing through Van Buren Boulevard and Etiwanda Avenue in Mira Loma.
The American Lung Association (ALA) just released its annual State of the Air Report and San Bernardino and Riverside counties ranked first and second for the worst ozone pollution in the country. Despite challenges, a "glimmer of hope" remains for some residents.
Old Santa Ana City Hall
On Wednesday, the Santa Ana City Council approved a General Plan Update that addresses lead contamination and other land use issues that disproportionately affect marginalized communities. A law called SB1000 has been key in helping community advocates lobby city officials to incorporate environmental justice into land use planning in order to reduce health risks.
2 electric vehicles sit in a parking lot while another charges next to them.
If enacted this summer, California’s mandate — the first in the world — would increase sales of electric or other zero-emission cars to 35% in 2026, and prohibit new gasoline or diesel cars by 2035.
A sea of warehouses extend across Redlands
Warehouse moratoriums have come up for vote at numerous city council meetings across the Inland Empire, the region with the worst air pollution in the country. Advocates argue for temporary pauses in development to analyze health impacts of facilities and implement regulations.
Wilmington Oil Fields Flag
In a repeat of last year’s criticism, legislators were told there’s “a very real risk” the cap-and-trade program won’t meet California’s greenhouse gas goals. The state air board is revising the program.
An oil pump jack (L) operates as another (R) stands idle as the sun sets in the background.
Assemblymember Al Muratsuchi, a leading environmental lawmaker, has a bill to create a state fund to support and retrain oil industry workers as California strives to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and end fossil fuel production in the state. But the ‘just transition’ bill is pitting unions against unions.
Aerial of an inland port in Stockton, CA
California’s environmental justice law is supposed to clean the air for 15 hot spot communities, home to almost 4 million people. But after more than four years and one billion dollars, it’s still impossible to say whether it’s worked.
Active loading indicator