(Full post) It’s a new month, we’ve turned the page on the calendar, but there is no turning the page on the devastation caused by racism and white supremacy. We must act to dismantle them every day, every month of the year. CBE mourns the lives stolen from the families and communities of these attacks.
(Full post) We are honored to be part of the 2022 Justice40Accelerator cohort, joining 48 other community-based, climate-justice organizations to apply local knowledge and wisdom to solutions on the frontlines of the climate crisis. Learn more about our work https://www.justice40accelerator.org
Somos parte del cohorte de Justice40 Accelerator del 2022. Somos un grupo de 49 organizaciones comunitarias de justicia climática que aplican nuestros conocimientos y sabidurías locales a las soluciones en la primera línea de la crisis climática. Visite ➡️ https://www.justice40accelerator.org
Please, RSVP today to get your spot on the bus! ¡Por favor, confirme su asistencia hoy para obtener su lugar en el autobús!
English RSVP: http://bit.ly/EastOaklandTourAug3
Spanish RSVP: http://bit.ly/RecorridoToxico3deAgosto
FB Event: HERE
You are invited to join our Toxic Tour of East Oakland on August 3rd. We will show you the toxic sites of concern in East Oakland. You will get to witness how close these industrial uses are to where we live, work, learn, and pray.
Te invitamos a unirte a nuestro Recorrido Tóxico del Este de Oakland el 3 de agosto. Le mostraremos los sitios tóxicos de preocupación en el Este de Oakland. Será testigo de lo cerca que están estos usos industriales de donde vivimos, trabajamos, aprendemos y oramos.
With the haze of Butte County’s “Camp Fire” looming over the Bay Area, the injustices people face have become ever more evident. During this fire, we are most concerned for the health of children, those with asthma and other respiratory issues, outdoor workers, and our unhoused neighbors. Suggestions to stay indoors and switch out masks every 8 hours are not feasible as an ultimate solution. It took hustle to get masks to share with schools, local organizations, and the unhoused. We still do not have enough for all that need them. We know that masks are not enough. Our adult masks do not properly work for children because of fit and activity. The recommendation has been to keep children indoors with air filtration. This is difficult as air filtration devices are not affordable for low-income people and information on making your own air filtration device is not as accessible. Everyone has been told to stay indoors to avoid this poor air. This is not possible for our unhoused neighbors and for those housed in spaces unable to keep outdoor air from coming in due to poor insulation.
Poor air quality impacts are nothing new to East Oakland residents. Exposure to pollution from 880, industrial land uses, the Oakland Airport and the Port of Oakland has resulted in harsh smells, nausea, and flare-ups of asthma. In East Oakland, there is twice the rate of Asthma emergency department visits. People in the hills of Oakland, on average, will live 15 years longer than those in the flats. Smells reach local schools and recreation centers, which do not have air filtration. Breathing in East Oakland is a problem year-round. Many residents in East Oakland are Black and Latino, and race has historically not been considered in planning decisions. Most recently, a mega-crematorium, which will burn 3,000 bodies a year, was approved near a neighborhood that is nearly half Black and Latino.
The history of injustice and disinvestment have left many in the East Oakland flats vulnerable to climate change. As summers get warmer, East Oakland flats get even hotter because of the asphalt and gray industrial uses that absorb the heat. Since recreation centers and schools do not have air conditioning, we have less access to local cooling centers. The lack of trees also adds to the impact of even walking in the community on a hot day. Now with the fires, proper air conditioning, and especially those with adequate air filtration, is an example of a resource that we do not have to support people in breathing through this fire. This is at a time when fire season is lasting longer than before.
Right now, we demand the City and other regional agencies to act with urgency to bring forth justice year-round.
We demand urgency but must work at the pace of the community. Major education is required to inform people of upcoming impacts and emergency resources.
We urge Mayor Libby Schaff (Oakland), Mayor Pauline Cutter (San Leandro), Mayor John Bauters (Emeryville), Supervisor Scott Haggerty, Supervisor Nate Miley, Councilmember Larry Reid, Councilmember Desley Brooks, Councilmember Noel Gallo, Councilmember Annie-Campbell Washington, Councilmember Abel Guillen, Councilmember Lynette Gibson McElhaney, Councilmember Dan Kalb, Councilmember Rebecca Kaplan, Nikki Fortunato Bas, Loren Taylor, Sheng Thao, Jack Broadbent (Chief Executive Officer – BAAQMD), ( William Gilchrist (Director of Planning and Building), Darin Ranelletti (Policy Director for Housing Security) and Darlene Flynn (Director, Department of Race and Equity) to protect our community and future.
Communities for a Better Environment
Organizational sign-ons:
Block by Block Organizing Network
Brower Dellums Institute for Sustainable Policy Studies & Action
Causa Justa :: Just Cause (CJJC)
East Bay Alliance for a Sustainable Economy
East Oakland Building Healthy Communities
East Oakland Black Culture Zone
East Oakland Collective
Oakland Climate Action Coalition
Oakland Green Party
Original Scraper Bike Team
Planting Justice
The Electric Smoothie Lab Apothecary
UC Berkeley Students of Color Environmental Collective
Individual sign-ons:
Ernesto Arevalo
Eavan Barbieux
Amanda Bloom
Jasmine Brown
Larisa Casillas
Vicente Cruz
Ke’era Cozine
Alegra Dashielle
Cheryl Diston
Anne-Lise Francois
EM Goolsby
Anna Maria Gracia
A. Jermany
Jamay Jermany
John Jones III
Michael Kaufman
Seonghee Lim
Betty McKay
Les Morones
Elva Palacios
Tamara Perkins
Rigel Robinson (Berkeley City Councilmember-elect)
Michael Rubin
Angela Scott
Ms. Sherry
Gabrielle Sloane Law
Angie Tam
Sylvia Targ
Bronte velez
Sign onto our letter by emailing earevalo@cbecal.org.
Contact Angela 510-302-0430 (angela@cbecal.org | ex 21) or Esther (esther@cbecal.org | ex 24) for immediate mask delivery.
Help us demand the Air District stop reverse its permits to refinery expansion. Join us, Wednesday, September 5th at 8am at 375 Beale Street, San Francisco. Learn more here.
What: Protest at the Bay Area Air Quality Management District (the “Air District”)
When: 8 AM Wednesday, September 5, 2018 (Air District Board of Directors Meeting)
Where: 375 Beale Street, San Francisco, CA 94105 (4 blocks from Embarcadero BART)
Bay Area Air Quality Management District staff—whose job it is to ensure healthy air and protect the climate—has approved a fundamental part of the massive San Francisco Refinery tar sands expansion project proposed by Phillips 66. The move comes almost five years after the Air District passed a resolution condemning the KXL pipeline. That resolution warned against the more intensive processing required by tar sands oil, which causes enormous quantities of toxic, criteria and greenhouse gas pollutants to spew from refinery smokestacks. As the 2013 resolution made clear, “any increase” of these pollutants will cause negative impacts on the health of local residents.
The administrative permit which staff just issued to Phillips 66 could expand heavy gas oil hydrocracking at its San Francisco Refinery in Rodeo by 61.3 million gallons per year. This greater hydrocracking capacity will enable the oil company to refine increased quantities of tar sands oil it wants to bring across the San Francisco Bay. Without exactly this type of refinery expansion, Phillips 66’s proposed wharf expansion cannot go forward. Air District staff brandished its rubberstamp for the project on August 16, 2018, without any review by its own Board of Directors, or by the public.
Please join us—impacted community members, regional allies, environmental justice and climate protection groups, First Nations and local Indigenous supporters—to protest this dirty deal!
The heavy-oil processing expansion which the District has approved is an essential part of the refiner’s plan to switch its Rodeo refinery over to imported Canadian tar sands oil. This is a project Phillips 66 has touted to investors, tried to lock in using oil trains, and now seeks to advance by expanding oil imports over its Rodeo Wharf. Tar sands bitumen is the most carbon-intensive, hazardous, and polluting major oil resource on the planet to extract, transport, and refine. This project alone could increase by a factor of 35 times the total volume of Canadian tar sands oil that all refiners in the region import across San Francisco Bay and refine.
But the bad news doesn’t stop here. The Air District’s action also directly attacks one of California’s greatest environmental protections. In issuing the Phillips 66 permit, Air District staff is now intentionally evading mitigation, evaluation, or even disclosure of climate impacts from refinery projects under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) because of the state’s cap-and-trade program. It’s citing California’s climate pollution trading scheme as its alibi for refusing to protect our climate from oil pollution.
JOIN US AT THE AIR DISTRICT ON SEPTEMBER 5TH!
When he was Attorney General, Governor Brown championed demands to disclose and mitigate under CEQA the climate impacts from oil projects at the Rodeo and other refineries. As Governor, however, Brown has supported cap-and-trade, and has so far been silent about the Air District’s attack on the CEQA disclosure he once championed.
The attacks don’t stop in Rodeo: On August 7, 2018, the Air District staff revealed an
agreement signed by its Air Pollution Control Officer (APCO) on March 28, 2017, with
Phillips 66, Tesoro (now Marathon), and Valero that commits the District’s APCO to propose and advocate for weakening crucial refinery emission control requirements.
This relentless collusion with the oil industry must stop! Demand that the Air District do its job instead of sabotaging public health and climate protections. No more climate cowardice! No more abandonment of refinery communities! Join us on Wednesday, September 5th!
Before the Crematorium burns 3,600 bodies, the community deserves an updated health risk assesment. In selecting the site for the crematorium, there was disregard for the community, one that is comprised of mainly African Americans and Latinos. Find out how to help and join us in solidarity.
Oakland for the Living
In the census tract around the crematorium, we are 47% African American and 49% Latino
Why is it that this census tract falls into high percentiles for:
– asthma? (99th)
– toxic cleanups? (97th)
– and diesel? (92nd)
East Oakland is left in the hands of people who do not understand what our communities need for better living conditions. You are essential to Oakland and its vitality.
Stewart Enterprises who have merged with Service Corporation International (SCI) will introduce the largest crematorium on the West Coast, at 9850 Kitty Lane in Oakland, CA by the airport.
Residents of East Oakland were not included in the decision to bring in this crematorium that plans to burn 3,600 bodies.
The crematorium will be responsible for emitting toxic air pollutants that worsen asthma and are linked to cancer, including mercury, arsenic, and particulate matter. WE must speak for ourselves and demand life in our air!
Now, it is in the hands of the Bay Area Air Quality Management District (BAAQMD) to ensure that there be the best possible health risk assessment of the crematorium.
We need your help in demanding a health risk assessment with the existing form of air modeling used. Do not dump on low income people of color communities anymore!
We are asking that BAAQMD notifies the community if Stewart seeks a permit to operate, and that BAAQMD staff conducts a new review, not relying on its 2011 work, but instead using the most current, health-protective standards.
Please, send your letter to the local representative on the BAAQMD Board of Directors. We have left space for you to add in your own personal message.
For example, if you live in Alameda County, you can send your letter to one of the following:
Supervisor Nate Miley
Supervisor Scott Haggerty
Council member Rebecca Kaplan
Mayor Pauline Russo Cutter
Full list of BAAQMD Board of Directors can be found here.
For more information or request to present to your local community group, please contact: Ernesto | earevalo@cbecal.org or Esther | esther@cbecal.org
Together we can take down all the ways in which white supremacy affects our communities.
Lives beyond the red dots and on the frontline need the power and knowledge to advocate for change. Read CBE East Oakland’s press release on EDF and Google Cars mapping of air pollution in East Oakland here!
