- “Thanks to California Democratic leaders, corporations can now build extremely hazardous manufacturing facilities that handle explosive gases and toxic materials next door to homes and schools with no environmental review or public notification.” – Asha Sharma, state policy manager at Leadership Counsel for Justice and Accountability
By Vanguard Staff
SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Environmental groups say California just experienced its worst legislative year for climate and environmental protection in recent memory, marked by sweeping deregulation and new corporate giveaways to some of the state’s most polluting industries.
They point to Democratic leadership — Gov. Gavin Newsom, Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas and Senate President Pro Tem Mike McGuire — as central to passing measures that rolled back protections. Much of the action happened behind closed doors, advocates said, with high-profile bills like SB 131 and SB 237 negotiated without meaningful public input or hearings.
Despite public commitments to fix SB 131, pressure from more than 230 organizations, and support from 35 legislators, no cleanup legislation materialized this session. SB 131 remains largely unchanged, continuing to eliminate tribal consultation, community input and environmental review for facilities including refineries, chemical plants, waste incinerators, and semiconductor manufacturers — the latter having created 23 Superfund sites in Santa Clara County alone, the most in any county in the nation.
“Thanks to California Democratic leaders, corporations can now build extremely hazardous manufacturing facilities that handle explosive gases and toxic materials next door to homes and schools with no environmental review or public notification,” said Asha Sharma, state policy manager at Leadership Counsel for Justice and Accountability. “This legislative session, we’ve seen California legislative leaders turn their back on their constituents and values like environmental stewardship and equity, to side instead with megapolluters. It’s incredibly disappointing to see such a sudden shift.”
Nick Lapis, director of advocacy at Californians Against Waste, said it was “outrageous” that lawmakers exempted toxic disposal facilities and other hazardous operations from environmental review with little public process. “Now the legislature is set to adjourn without following through on its commitment to clean up SB 131, and there will be real, ongoing pollution impacts on California communities,” he said.
Jakob Evans, senior policy strategist at Sierra Club California, said leadership failed to deliver on promises to repair a rushed law with “disastrous consequences for frontline communities and endangered species.” He warned that, at a time when Trump administration policies are slashing federal safeguards, “California should be stepping up to protect our people and ecosystems, not offering handouts to polluting industries.”
This year’s session also advanced new giveaways to the oil industry. SB 237 removes environmental and community protections from drilling in Kern County, the state’s oil hub and home to some of the nation’s worst air quality. At the same time, negotiations between the governor and industry continue over incentives designed to prevent global consolidation.
“At a time when our state, and frankly the country, need progressive leadership the most, Governor Newsom, Speaker Rivas and Pro Tem McGuire acquiesced to Big Oil and massively deregulated the industry,” said Dan Ress, senior attorney at the Center on Race, Poverty & the Environment. “SB 237 guts environmental protections for Kern County communities when there is no evidence that those actions will do anything to stabilize supply or lower gas prices.”
Hollin Kretzmann, senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity’s Climate Law Institute, said the measure acknowledges harms of drilling while expanding it. “Removing environmental safeguards won’t reverse the terminal decline of California oil production but it will allow the industry to do more damage on its way out the door,” he said.
Other key environmental priorities also failed. SB 350 (Durazo), which would have created a low-income water assistance program, died. So did AB 914 (Garcia), which sought to regulate transportation climate emissions. SB 674 (Menjivar) and AB 1243 (Addis), which would have created a “polluters pay” climate superfund, stalled and were pushed to the next session.
“Environmental justice communities — mostly all low-income communities of color — have been shamelessly targeted as sacrifice zones for the benefit of industry profit and for the benefit of whiter and wealthier communities,” said Rabeya Sen, equitable land use director at California Environmental Justice Alliance Action. “They have always been expected to bear the brunt of any fallout from the climate, economic, and housing crises in the name of progress. But, ‘progress for whom?’ we ask, because the result is a cynical bid to excuse the continuation of policies of environmental racism. Our communities deserve better.”
Despite widespread frustration, advocates said they see signs of hope in newer legislators who resisted pressure from leadership.
“While this legislative session had many disappointments from our perspective, we have seen new leadership emerge in the Legislature — members that are willing to push for environmental and community protections even when it’s not popular with legislative leadership,” said Natalie S. Brown, environmental policy advocate at Planning and Conservation League. “We look forward to working with these members in future years to ensure California leaders do not backslide on their commitments to their constituents to protect the environment, public health, and vulnerable communities.”
Follow the Vanguard on Social Media – X, Instagram and Facebook. Subscribe the Vanguard News letters. To make a tax-deductible donation, please visit davisvanguard.org/donate or give directly through ActBlue. Your support will ensure that the vital work of the Vanguard continues.
