Communities for a Better Environment

The mission of Communities for a Better Environment is to achieve environmental health and justice by building grassroots power in and with communities of color and working-class communities.

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The Story of Cap & Trade is a fast-paced, fact-filled look at the leading climate solution being discussed at Copenhagen and on Capitol Hill. Host Annie Leonard introduces the energy traders and Wall Street ...

 

 

www.earthshareca.org

 

 

Thank you Seventh Grade Class of Tehiyah Jewish Day School!

CBE appreciates all your hardwork towards your year-long Tzedakah Project!

• Chevron's fight with Richmond intensifies by David R. Baker, Chronicle Staff Writer January 30, 2010 Greg Karras has heard the talk about Chevron Corp. possibly pulling out of Richmond. He isn't buying it…

• Chevron’s recent announcement that it is considering scaling back some of its global operations this year spawned some nasty rumors that CBE members are asking about.
  Read more on Why refineries might shutdown in 2010!
  

• CBE on Climate KPFA December 7, 2009
  On the first day of the climate talks in Copenhagen, many local Bay Area activist lockdown three gates at Chevron world headquarters in San Ramon, California. Nile Malloy, Program Director of CBE Norcal talks about Chevron's Dirty Crude oil refining plans & how this will effect local Richmond community and global climate change.

  The Morning Show - December 7, 2009 at 7:00am
  
  Click to listen (or download)

• Chevron in Richmond by Ellen Choy and Ana Orozco Richmond is home to over 100,000 people, approximately 82 percent of whom are listed as minorities by the United States Census. Seventeen thousand people live within just three miles of the [Chevron] refinery—some of them in the two housing projects located there. The majority are low-income people of color.

• The Case Against Chevron by Peter Asmus East Bay Express Dec 2, 2009 The Case Against Chevron published Dec 2, 2009 East Bay Express An unprecedented campaign by at least a dozen nonprofit groups targets the oil company's global operations and reputation. Features Communities for a Better Environment and other allies working on Chevron campaigns all around the world.

• Chevron Richmond Refinery State's Leading Greenhouse Polluter Press Release November 24, 2009 The Chevron Corporation's oil refinery in Richmond, California, is the single largest source of greenhouse gas pollution in the state, according to data released by the state of California.

• Read CBE's New Report, Cumulative Impacts:  Changing Regulatory Culture to Address Environmental Injustice and Environmental Racism. The report focuses on the Los Angeles region examining three case studies and making recommendations to the decision-makers.

• Community Stops Dirty Power Plant in Southeast Los Angeles!!

• An Important Case of Environmental Injustice:  The Unlawful Expansion of Industrial Services Oil  company (a hazardous waste facility) in East Los Angeles. Read CBE’s letter to the Los Angeles Councilmember Jose Huizar

• Editorial: The ball is in Chevron's court concerning the Richmond refinery August 20, 2009 Chevron says the changes to the refinery will result in less pollution and that it has no plans to refine heavy crude oil. If that is the case, why won't Chevron agree to a cap that would guarantee that the refinery would not start processing the heavy, dirtier crude?

• Falling Through the Climate Gap July 27, 2009 Robert Carbales, a 28-year-old organizer with the local advocacy group Communities for a Better Environment, says the political marginalization of immigrant households makes Huntington prime real estate for polluters.

• Construction Halted at Richmond Chevron Refinery CBS 5 Tuesday July 14, 2009 Watch...

• Community Groups Welcome AG’s Offer to Mediate Chevron Expansion Dispute- CBE Press Release July 22, 2009 Richmond, CA – Community groups welcomed California Attorney General Jerry Brown's offer, to mediate negotiations with Chevron and the City of Richmond over a court-ordered halt to the company’s refinery expansion.

• Cheveron owes more to Richmond, CA July 17, 2009 This week, Fortune magazine released its list of the 500 largest corporations in the world. With a nearly 25 percent increase in its revenues from 2007, Chevron Corp. moved from the sixth to the fifth largest corporation in the world.

• Community and Public Health Advocates Halt Chevron
  Refinery Expansion at Richmond, CA July 2, 2009 Martinez, CA – Contra Costa County Superior Court Judge Barbara Zuniga has ordered an injunction stopping work on Chevron’s refinery expansion project in Richmond, CA designed to allow processing of heavier, dirtier crude.

• CBE Releases New Report, "Richmond Health Survey Report, June 2009"Communities for a Better Environment together with collaborators from Brown University, UC Berkeley, and Silent Spring Institute, launched a health survey in Richmond. The survey was focused on residents living in the Iron Triangle area and North Richmond. We asked residents a variety of questions about their health, their family members’ health and their neighborhood.

• Court: Chevron Refinery Must Redo Environmental Review in Richmond, CA On June 4th 2009, Contra Costa County Superior Court Judge Barbara Zuniga tossed out the Environmental Impact Report for a major expansion at the Chevron Refinery, in Richmond, California. Access all Press on the Contra Costa County Court's decision on CBE's news blog.

• CBE Releases New Report, "The Increasing Burden of Oil Refineries & Fossil Fuels in Wilmington, CA and How to Clean them Up! CBE's new report documents the heaviest concentration in California of oil refineries in the Wilmington/Carson area in Los Angeles County. About 85% latino, the Wilmington area is a prime example of communities of color bearing more than the fair share of pollution.

• Groups Unhappy with Chevron Expansion - ABC7News May 20, 2009

• Appeal Filed in MTC Discrimination Case - CBE Press Release: In a decision handed down March 27, 2009, the U.S. District Court for Northern California found MTC’s transit expansion program has a harmful “disparate impact” on minority bus riders by making funding decisions favoring rail projects—which on the whole are used by a lower percentage of minority riders—over bus projects...

• Now its official; The Poor & People of Color get the Dirty Air - RaceWire May 6, 2009: The American Lung Association recently released a study containing a list of the most polluted cities, which include Los Angeles, Bakersfield, Sacramento: if policymakers and organizations intend to work towards healthier and cleaner communities, they must recognize the existence of systemic environmental racism.

• New Report, "Justice in the Air", Released - April 28, 2009 - PERE/PERI: The report, called Justice in the Air: Tracking Toxic Pollution from America's Industries and Companies to Our States, Cities, and Neighborhoods, offers a first-time ever glance at not just who receives the disproportionate share of toxic air releases -- unsurprising to you, it is low-income communities and people of color -- but who is releasing them.