By Vanguard Staff
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A coalition of more than 200 organizations from across California is calling on Gov. Gavin Newsom and the Legislature to immediately fix what they say are major flaws in Senate Bill 131, a recently enacted “permit streamlining” law that they argue threatens public health, air and water quality, and natural lands.
The coalition — which includes environmental, environmental justice, labor, affordable housing, public health, farm, local government, social justice, and food safety groups — said the measure rolled back decades of protections under the California Environmental Quality Act.
“Californians depend on our strong environmental laws to trust the safety of our air, water, and land, and we count on the Governor and Legislature to defend these safeguards,” said Esther Portillo, Western Environmental Health Director at the Natural Resources Defense Council. “In less than a week, SB 131 wiped away core environmental and public transparency protections on polluting industries with health harming consequences for our children and our families. Now, Californians are counting on the Legislature to fix this.”
Since 1970, CEQA has required public disclosure of the environmental harms a proposed project could cause and the adoption of mitigation measures before public agencies can approve or fund a project. SB 131 exempts a wide range of industrial and other development projects from CEQA, including advanced manufacturing facilities that can produce toxic contamination, air and water pollution, and destroy wildlife habitat.
The law’s definition of “advanced manufacturing” is so broad, critics say, it can include lithium compound production, heavy metal and battery manufacturing, waste incineration, and strip-mining. Those projects will now be exempt from the public disclosure and mitigation requirements CEQA has long provided.
“Until SB 131 was passed, Californians had a protected right to know when an industrial project could threaten their health, their community’s safety, the air they breathe, and the water they drink,” said Veda Banerjee, Senior Communications Director for California Environmental Voters. “This rollback is a green light to fast-track some of the most dangerous, polluting projects without public notice and without accountability. As we head into the final weeks of session, the Legislature and Governor must act with baseline amendments for tribes, endangered species, and around advanced manufacturing. Our health cannot be sacrificed for corporate convenience.”
The coalition letter urges repeal of the most damaging provisions that remove CEQA’s requirements from polluting industries and calls for reinstating protections for endangered species and priority conservation areas.
“SB 131 is the most environmentally damaging bill the legislature has adopted in at least half a century,” said Frances Tinney of the Center for Biological Diversity’s urban wildlands program. “In addition to harming the health of our communities, it also threatens the survival of endangered animals that rely on the critical lands and waters that sustain their populations.”
The bill emerged in backroom negotiations after the Legislature passed the 2025-26 state budget. First made public on June 27, it was rushed through with one hearing on June 30 and tied to provisions in the budget bill that threatened to derail the spending plan if lawmakers failed to approve it.
“Under the guise of a housing bill, SB 131 allows the most polluting industries, from strip mining to fuel production, to site their manufacturing facilities virtually next door to homes and schools with dramatically scaled back environmental protections and public notice,” said Asha Sharma from Leadership Counsel for Justice and Accountability. “This weakening of environmental law comes at the exact moment of slashes to environmental law at the federal level. Pollution impacts are already costing Californians billions per year in healthcare and clean up costs, with the highest burdens on low-income communities of color. Governor Newsom and California legislators traded the health and wellbeing of their constituents to score some points with polluting industry. The Legislature must act now to correct this.”
A July 2025 Public Policy Institute of California poll found that 62% of Californians believe protection of the environment should be given priority even if it curbs economic growth. Conservation groups noted that California’s economy grew to be the fourth largest in the world with CEQA fully intact.
“UAW Region 6 wholeheartedly supports the growth of high quality advanced manufacturing jobs in California,” said Mike Miller, Director of UAW Region 6. “These jobs are important not just for workers, but to meet our aggressive state environmental goals. Unfortunately, SB 131 attempts to grow manufacturing while enabling companies to more easily pollute our environment and workplaces, thereby undercutting the environmental and community development goals we and state leaders are so enthusiastically trying to promote. We urge policymakers to come up with a solution for workers, communities, and the environment before major projects move ahead without safeguards.”
“It is hard enough to see the harm that President Trump is doing to America’s environmental and community protections,” said Raquel Mason from the California Environmental Justice Alliance. “It is shocking when Governor Newsom and the California Legislature take a page from the Trump playbook and rush to gut our most important environmental protection law. State leaders should urgently fix this problem.”
The coalition letter, signed by more than 200 organizations, is available here.
“It is shocking when Governor Newsom and the California Legislature take a page from the Trump playbook and rush to gut our most important environmental protection law.”
No comment. Just putting that out there.