The department responsible for cleaning up California’s toxic waste problem is failing working class communities of color.

Thousands of Californians are facing life-threatening health problems due to failed regulations and years’ worth of delayed cleanup of toxic substances in their workplaces, homes, and schools. Some of the stories and culprits of toxic pollution are well-known, including corporations like the battery-smelter Exide, the copper-recycler Phil-Bro Tech, and the U.S military. Many of the most persistent health problems, however, are caused by seemingly harmless offenders, like dry-cleaning businesses across the state.

The bottom line: no matter the cause of the chemical pollution…

Governor’s May Revise Includes Critical Investments for Environmental Justice Communities

Budget surplus is “historic window” to create new climate job training, cap dangerous oil wells, and invest billions in utilities, housing, and climate resilience

May 14, 2021 — Sacramento — Today, California Governor Gavin Newsom released his May revision of the 2021 state budget with investments in critical environmental justice priorities, including $140 million for the Transformative Climate Communities Program (TCC) and a proposed $2 billion to relieve energy and water debt.

Advocates applaud the Governor’s proposal and look to the Legislature to approve and increase the Governor’s numbers. With an unprecedented $75.5 billion surplus, environmental justice advocates urge Senate…

CA Environmental Justice Alliance Calls on Governor to Partner with Communities for Equitable Climate, COVID Recovery

Californians “need investment in community resilience and a Just Recovery”

Los Angeles, CA | March 11, 2021 — In his third state of the state address, Governor Newsom addressed the devastating impacts of the COVID-19 and economic crises on communities of color and low income communities in the past year.

Gladys Limon, Executive Director of the California Environmental Justice Alliance, issued the following statement:

The state of the state is one of staggering inequality. In 2021, there are unacceptable disparities in Californians’ access to shelter, power, clean water, healthy air, and safe, family-sustaining jobs. …

Communities of Color Continue to Lead on Environmental and Climate Justice

Dear community:

It has been an overwhelming and painful year for communities throughout the state. As families face multiple crises, the California Environmental Justice Alliance (CEJA) continues to fight for solutions that will address the long-term exposures/violence of environmental racism and climate injustice in California.

As an alliance of environmental justice organizations throughout the state, we unite the powerful local organizing of our members in the communities most impacted by environmental hazards — low-income communities and communities of color — to create comprehensive opportunities for change at a statewide…

By Strela Cervas, CEJA Action

As recent wildfires, storms, and other extreme weather events have shown, the climate crisis is only getting worse. Everyday we see attacks from the Trump administration on communities of color, the environment, and climate science. Now more than ever, California needs bold, transformative action and real climate leadership, starting with our Governor, to stop bowing to industry pressure to enact bad deals like Proposition 70, and other policies that undermine our climate action and hurt our communities.

On June 5th, voters in California resoundingly rejected Proposition 70, the most controversial proposition on the June primary…

The impacts of climate change are deeply felt in environmental justice communities where residents are impacted by multiple sources of pollution, health vulnerabilities, and related challenges. These health problems are exacerbated by the fact that public investments and resources are scarce in low-income communities and communities of color.

Communities across the state have been leading the way by crafting comprehensive, neighborhood-level sustainability plans that address long-standing environmental health and equity challenges. As a result, California now has a comprehensive strategy to reduce greenhouse gases while improving public health and promoting equitable and sustainable development.

Transformative Climate Communities (TCC) is a…

California’s climate leadership has a national and international spotlight, but it’s everyday residents on the frontlines who are the real heroes.

They are fighting for real climate solutions every day, borne out of their daily struggles and a vision for a just, sustainable world. They are living and working next to polluting factories, oil drilling and fracking sites, industrial agriculture, freeways, rail yards and freight facilities, refineries, and power plants — and fighting for the right to clean air, water and land, and a future that isn’t further jeopardized by climate catastrophes. They are standing up to industry, from Big…

As a statewide women-led alliance that advocates at the Capitol to create equity-focused policies for healthy, sustainable communities, we rise with the nearly 200 women who have signed a letter denouncing a culture of rampant sexual abuse and violence in and around the Capitol. We condemn both those whom have engaged in such intolerable conduct, as well as the individuals whom over years have enabled such violence by failing to meet their moral and legal obligations to end it.

The pervasiveness of sexual harassment and assault has thankfully become a subject of public debate across the nation, including at the…