(Full post) Dear CBE Family,
As we confront the results of this year’s Presidential Election, we encourage our community to come together to combat misinformation with facts, to fight fear with compassion, and most importantly, to care for those who need it most in this moment… (Read more)

(Full post)📢Environmental Justice has WON! ✊🏾 We defeated Big Oil’s attempt to overturn SB 1137, the law that would create 3,200 ft setbacks between sensitive community receptors and oil drilling sites. ⛑

 
📌On June 26th, 2024, Californians for Energy Independence pulled their referendum seeking to overturn SB1137 in the November 2024 election! 
 
This is the result of decades of organizing to protect our neighborhoods and communities in solidarity with CEJA, CEJA Action, Working Families for a Healthy California, CRPE, PSR-LA, APEN Action, Black Women for Wellness Action, VISION, CCEJN, and the Central California Asthma Collaborative.

🔥SB1137 will now immediately go into effect to protect the health and safety of working families living within the 3,200 feet of oil and gas drilling. A future where Wilmington will be free of neighborhood oil drilling is within reach! 🔥🥺

Our communities are thankful for the partnership of Senators Lena González, Monique Limón, and Assemblymember Issac Bryan for upholding these crucial safeguards

Please join us in celebrating this amazing victory by donating to CBE today so that our communities can continue to fight for clean air, water, and healthy places to live. Donate at cbecal.org/donate 😊

(Full post) On September 16^th, 2022, we won statewide 3,200ft science-based health and safety protective buffer zones 🎉 between oil drilling operations and sensitive receptors like homes, schools, parks, and hospitals when California’s Governor, Gavin Newsom, signed SB1137 into law. This was a huge moment for us and the future health of many frontline communities throughout our state, like Wilmington, CA, who have been fighting for healthier air for YEARS by advocating for an end to neighborhood oil drilling. ✊🏾🙌🏾 

El 16 de septiembre del 2022, ganamos zonas de amortiguamiento de seguridad y salud basadas en la ciencia de 3,200 pies en todo el estado 🎉 entre operaciones de perforación petrolera y receptores sensibles como hogares, escuelas, parques y hospitales cuando el gobernador de California, Gavin Newsom, promulgó la ley SB1137. Este fue un gran momento para nosotros y para la salud futura de muchas comunidades de primera línea en todo nuestro estado, como Wilmington, CA, que han estado luchando por un aire más saludable durante AÑOS abogando por el fin de la extracción de petróleo en los vecindarios. 

Shortly after the bill was signed, big oil spent over $20 million, at times, misleading signature gathering campaign throughout the state. They collected enough signatures to formally qualify the bill for a referendum; SB1137 is officially on the November 2024 ballot as a referendum. This November, we need to vote to keep the recently passed law to reduce the carcinogens, pollution, and smog in our local neighborhoods so that we can all have clean, safe air to breathe.  We must stand up to oil corporations who are using the referenda process to reverse community-led policy wins, this law was shaped by those who live next to harmful neighborhood oil drilling operations, who made their voices heard, lobbied their state representatives, and will continue to fight for the change that they long deserve.

Poco después de que se firmara el proyecto de ley, la gran industria petrolera gasto más de 20 millones de dólares, en ocasiones, en campañas engañosas de recolección de firmas en todo el estado. Recogieron suficientes firmas para calificar formalmente el proyecto de ley para un referéndum; La SB1137 está oficialmente en la boleta electoral de noviembre de 2024 como referéndum. Este noviembre, debemos votar para mantener la ley recientemente aprobada para reducir los carcinógenos, la contaminación y el smog en nuestros vecindarios locales para que todos podamos tener aire limpio y seguro para respirar. Debemos hacer frente a las corporaciones petroleras que están utilizando el proceso de referendos para revertir las victorias políticas lideradas por la comunidad; esta ley fue diseñada por aquellos que viven cerca de operaciones de perforación petrolera dañinas en los vecindarios, quienes hicieron oír sus voces, presionaron a sus representantes estatales y siguen luchando por el cambio que tanto merecen. 

What can you do to help and what’s at stake this November? Talk to your friends, family, and anyone who votes to inform them of this process. We have the power to KEEP THE LAW by voting this November (2024). It’s time to hold greedy Big Oil CEOs and the politicians they support accountable to protective health measures that help neighborhoods perpetually exposed to pollution. Currently, Californians live with nearly 30,000 oil wells within a half mile of homes, schools, hospitals and other sensitive sites throughout the state. We must work together to ensure that the election reaffirms what frontline communities have known for decades—we must keep oil drilling away from our children and families.

¿Qué puedes hacer para ayudar y qué está a riesgo este noviembre? Habla con tus amigos, familiares y cualquier persona que vote para informarles sobre este proceso. Tenemos el poder de MANTENER LA LEY con nuestro voto este noviembre (2024). Es hora de responsabilizar a los codiciosos directores ejecutivos de la gran industria petrolera y a los políticos que apoyan sobre las medidas de protección de la salud que ayudan a los vecindarios perpetuamente expuestos a la contaminación. Actualmente, los californianos viven con casi 30,000 pozos petroleros a menos de media milla de hogares, escuelas, hospitales y otros sitios sensibles en todo el estado. Debemos trabajar juntos para garantizar que las elecciones reafirmen lo que las comunidades de primera línea han sabido durante décadas: debemos mantener la extracción de petróleo fuera del alcance de nuestros hijos y familias. 

The power is 100% in the hands of the voters here. Let’s show them that no amount of money can deny the collective POWER OF THE PEOPLE! ✊🏾 

Aquí el poder está 100% en manos de los votantes. ¡Demostrémosles que ninguna cantidad de dinero puede negar el PODER colectivo DEL PUEBLO! ✊🏾 

(Full post) In honoring the power of storytelling, we are proud to share our Resilience Hub StoryMap as a way to share our process, lessons learned, and the overall success of community-led planning.

Click here to learn more

(See full post) CBE Wilmington was instrumental in a huge win today! Emissions from petroleum storage tanks are a major threat to the health of frontline communities, and today, we won major protections from these sources of pollution!
Earlier today, South Coast AQMD adopted amended rule 1178 as the first step toward protecting #FrontlineCommunities from the harmful pollutants & toxic chemicals they leak into our air! 🎉

🔑This major oil refinery regulation will cut cancer-causing benzene emissions & smog-forming Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) in EJ communities. These mods are estimated to cut VOCs by about one ton/day -will also apply to the whole South Coast region.
It is projected to slash emissions by adding domes onto floating roof crude oil storage tanks that were previously exempted, require weekly inspection with Infrared Optical Gas Imaging (OGI) cameras to detect invisible leaks, and require more stringent standards for leaking seals.

“We had to push to get this regulation into the Wilmington, Carson, W. Long Beach Community Emissions Reduction Plan under #AB617 years ago.” said Alicia Rivera, Wilmington Community Organizer with CBE. “The regulation adoption is turning the plan into a real community win! The fight to phase out oil refineries also continues, but today we celebrate important protections for thousands living near these facilities.”

(Full Post) Make your voice heard and give your feedback on the Environmental Justice Element of the Oakland 2045 General Plan. Comment on the incompatible land use in your community and help create tangible changes that will improve your quality of life.

If you are living in Oakland, this plan will impact YOU! Set up a time with Sharifa, our East Oakland Staff Researcher, and she will help you submit your comment.

Here are the available office hours for Sharifa (30 minute appointments):

• Thursday June 8th from 3-5pm
• Thursday, June 15th from 9-11am
• Wednesday, June 21st from 9-11am & 3-5pm

We hope to hear from you soon. Email Sharifa by clicking here, or send an email at Sharifa@cbecal.org

(Full post) In 2022, you changed the way that climate plans get written. As California’s top air regulators put together their 20-year climate blueprint for California this year, thousands of people joined us in taking action to demand a climate plan that puts us on a path to a future beyond oil and gas where our families are safe from toxic pollution, asthma, and cancer.

Together, we sent over 10,000 letters to the California Air Resources Board (CARB) and placed hundreds of calls to Governor Newsom. We held community meetings and rallies from Richmond to the Central Valley, and turned out in force to meeting after meeting in Sacramento.

In response, CARB made changes to the plan that will have huge implications for communities across California. The final Scoping Plan, which CARB voted on yesterday:

✅Stops the expansion of dirty gas power plants, investing instead in offshore wind.

✅Doubles the state’s targets for reducing Vehicle Miles Traveled – meaning more mass transit for all.

✅Creates a multi-agency process to coordinate the phaseout of oil extraction and refining in California.

Together, these changes mean that communities like ours across the state will breathe cleaner air and live in healthier neighborhoods, and be able to walk, bike, and commute to work and school more easily.

However, major elements of the final plan will bring real harm to our communities and our climate. Alarmingly, the final plan still relies far too heavily on carbon capture schemes, which could keep fossil fuel infrastructure online indefinitely, in addition to subsidies for fuel sources like dirty hydrogen and biofuels that increase pollution in California’s working-class communities of color.

In the coming years, we will need to fight to make sure that the burden of the energy transition doesn’t fall on the communities already hit hardest by pollution. 

At the meeting yesterday, CARB members and the Chair spoke in support of a permanent Environmental Justice Advisory Committee, which was instrumental in lifting up the voices and perspective of frontline communities in this year’s Scoping Plan Update. They also confirmed that there will be a dedicated process in 2023 to create rules regulating proposals for new Carbon Capture and Storage projects in California. These are procedural changes that our advocates have been calling for and that create real opportunities for us to make sure frontline voices are centered at CARB in the next few years.
But for right now, we should celebrate our wins. Whether you wrote a letter, called, marched, rallied, gave public comment, or engaged on social media – thank you for standing in solidarity with California’s frontline communities this year.

(Full post) Councilmembers Nury Martinez, Gil Cedillo, and Kevin de León must resign NOW!  We denounce the racist, violent, anti-Black, anti-Indigenous, and homophobic rhetoric heard in the leaked audio from public servants and a labor leader, some of whom CBE has worked with closely in pursuit of environmental health and justice. These Councilmembers and former labor leader have betrayed our trust, the trust of their constituents, and communities across Los Angeles. We demand accountability for their racism and assault upon democracy. There is no place for bigotry in the movement for environmental justice.

Community members are the true voices of Los Angeles. No politician or city leader can take away from the beauty, power, and worth of the Black American/ African American/ African Descent, Indigenous, Central/ South American, and Latine/Latinx communities in LA. CBE is committed to centering and advancing the rights and dignity of multiracial, multiethnic, LGBTQIA+, tenants, families, and children in Los Angeles and across the state.  We are fighting to dismantle institutional and systemic racism, white advantage, settler colonialism, and anti-Blackness that is pervasive and divisive.  

The recorded backroom conversations are indicative of gerrymandering. Equally troubling is that Latine/x Councilmembers Martinez, Cedillo, and De León’s callous plans to remove assets from Black communities are reminiscent of redlining, a historically discriminatory practice that limited resources and services to communities based on racial characteristics, which still affects these communities today. In addition to voicing repugnant views, we believe that these three councilmembers may have violated California’s vital sunshine law, the Brown Act, whose purpose is to prevent backroom, biased decision-making. Therefore, we ask for a full investigation into these conversations and the historical actions of these council members. CBE joins allies in the call to reevaluate the redistricting process, as we also believe that these councilmembers were actively strategizing to erase Black political power.  

Far too often in our communities, some people embody white advantage ideals and actions to compete for resources and power. As we collectively move towards a Just Transition and towards a better way of being, we must address bigotries so as not to replicate the same policies and actions that got us here. 

Angelenos deserve elected officials who value the richness of diversity and work towards building our collective power and liberation. Unity and solidarity are needed now more than ever. We join our movement partners to demand the immediate resignation of Martinez, Cedillo, and De León. Together, we can root out people who aim to divide us, move forward in electing the representation communities deserve, and deliver on equity and justice

(Full post) Nizgui Gomez has fond memories of growing up in Wilmington: going to the waterside park with her cousins, getting ice cream from an ice cream truck.

The problem: right next to the park was the Phillips 66 oil refinery, polluting the air and making children sick.

“Children play near there. It definitely makes me frustrated that we have these industries next to our parks. I don’t think it’s fair we have to settle to that.”

Now, Nizgui organizes in her community with Communities for a Better Environment, and continues to fight for a #FutureBeyondOil for Wilmington and frontline communities across California.

Join Nizgui in calling on Governor Newsom to direct his top air regulators to plan for a phaseout of fossil fuels in California: call (866) 932-1358 or head to caleja.us/newsom to take action 📞📞

“We need a target date to phase out fossil fuels in California. Politicians need to do better for the people who elected them in that position. They need to actually hear our voices because that’s not something that they’re doing. And if that’s not something that they’re willing to do, then we’re going to kick them out.”

Shout out to the folks at Survival Media, CEJA and APEN for their incredible work on this video!