FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 24, 2025
Contact:
Ashley Castaneda, ashley@restorethedelta.org
Stockton, CA – On Tuesday, October 21, the California Chamber of Commerce filed a request for a ballot initiative misleadingly titled the “Building an Affordable California” initiative. The proposal seeks to streamline environmental review under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) for so-called “essential” infrastructure projects, including major water, transportation, housing, and energy developments.
Under the initiative, “essential projects” are defined so broadly that virtually any public, private, or utility infrastructure project could qualify—paving the way for large-scale construction without the environmental review and community protections CEQA provides.
“This is a direct attack on environmental justice communities, Tribal sovereignty, and the ecosystems that sustain our state,” said Morgen Snyder, Director of Policy and Programs at Restore the Delta. “At a time when California residents are on the verge of losing their SNAP benefits and healthcare, framing this initiative as ‘affordable’ is frankly disrespectful. While housing affordability is a real crisis, removing community voices and environmental safeguards for the sake of industry profits is a massive step in the wrong direction.”
The proposal follows a growing wave of legislative efforts to weaken CEQA in the name of speeding up large infrastructure and housing projects—despite the fact that many of these recent streamlining measures have not yet been implemented or evaluated. If passed, the new initiative would:
- Eliminate key community and environmental protections, including shortening the timeframe for public comment, which places an undue burden on impacted communities — often with fewer resources — effectively eliminating or severely limiting their ability to provide input and advocate for mitigation of harms.
- Undermine AB 52 Tribal consultation requirements, replacing them with vague, limited language that weakens tribal sovereignty and confidentiality.
- Leave mitigation decisions entirely to the lead agency, giving developers and state departments unchecked authority to define their own environmental accountability.
Notably, the proposed ballot language defines an “essential water project” as one that repairs, replaces, improves, or augments public water systems — or falls under the state’s Water Resilience Portfolio. Under this definition, the controversial Delta Conveyance Project would almost certainly qualify as an “essential project.”
That designation would effectively shield the Delta Tunnel from meaningful CEQA review — silencing Delta communities and ignoring the project’s massive environmental and economic consequences. The Delta region supports a $780 million recreation and tourism economy, a $1.5 billion commercial fishing economy, and $5 billion in agricultural production — all of which could be undermined by the project’s disruption of Delta flows and ecosystems.
The Chamber’s proposal coincides with Governor Gavin Newsom’s announcement this week celebrating new “wins” for the Delta Conveyance Project, including a court decision allowing preliminary geotechnical work to resume and the Department of Water Resources’ submission of a Certification of Consistency with the Delta Plan.
Restore the Delta cautioned that these developments are not victories for Californians, but rather signals of a deeper pattern of state leadership prioritizing politically connected water agencies over the Delta’s ecological and economic health.
“The Governor’s framing of the Delta Tunnel as a climate solution is profoundly misleading,” Snyder added. “It will not create new water, it will only reroute it — deepening harm to Delta communities, Tribal resources, and ecosystems that are already at a breaking point. There will be appeals and debate around whether this project is even consistent with the Delta Reform Act’s coequal goals: protecting the Delta and ensuring reliable statewide water supplies.”
Restore the Delta calls on California’s elected leaders to reject backroom attempts to gut environmental review and instead focus on truly sustainable, community-driven solutions for water resilience such as investments in regional self-sufficiency, ecosystem restoration, and equitable access to clean water for all Californians.
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