Portions of the Governor’s proposed Trailer Bills that would significantly weaken the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) could be approved as early as next week. Tell the Governor we reject his secretive trailer bill effort, which excludes public input and evades the democratic process. We provide a suggestedphone/email script below but encourage you to use your own words.
TAKE ACTION
You can call the Governor’s office at 916-445-2841 or email through the portal at Contact the Governor.Additionally, please tell your elected representatives in the State Legislature to Keep CEQA Strong. Remind them that a strong CEQA is vital to protecting public health and the environment, advancing California’s urgent climate priorities, and giving disadvantaged communities a voice in local land use decisions. Please find your state legislators and write or call them today.
SUGGESTED SCRIPT
“I’m deeply concerned about Governor Newsom’s infrastructure trailer bills, which include provisions that would greatly weaken the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). They would, as a practical matter, take away the ability of small nonprofits, including those that advocate for environmental justice and protecting clean air and water, to bring citizen suits to enforce environmental laws. Communities that are most heavily burdened by environmental injustice, which are often low-income, could find it impossible to enforce CEQA in court because of the increased costs that could be associated with gathering the administrative record. Endangered species, water in the Delta, and pollution-burdened communities would be damaged by many of the proposals in the Governor’s infrastructure trailer bill package. Finally, I object to this process: there is no need to rush consideration of the Governor’s drastic measures in a budget trailer bill instead of through the normal Legislative process.”