This is the second post in a three-part series on recent efforts to place justice and equity at the center of California’s climate plans. The first post and third post are also available on our blog.
Environmental justice advocates are calling on California regulators to strengthen protections for underserved and overburdened communities — which are disproportionately low-wealth communities of color — as the state moves toward finalizing the 2022 Scoping Plan, its economy-wide plan to significantly reduce emissions by 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2045.
The California Air Resources Board (CARB), the agency charged with overseeing the state’s comprehensive climate strategy, recently improved its plan in response to concerns voiced by Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) and a large contingent of environmental and racial justice advocates.
Even with these changes, advocates say CARB can commit to further actions to deliver a more transformative plan that protects communities that have been overburdened by pollution from fossil fuel extraction, processing, and use for too long.
The issue came to a head at a joint meeting held September 1 between CARB board members and the Environmental Justice Advisory Committee (EJAC) — the body that advises the agency on the plan’s implications for justice and equity — where they discussed further revisions and environmental justice aspects of the state’s final draft plan (known as the 2022 Draft Scoping Plan).
The EJAC welcomed recent improvements to the draft plan but encouraged CARB to go further. EJAC Co-Chairs Catherine Garupa-White of the Central Valley Air Quality Coalition; Martha Dina Arguello of the Los Angeles chapter of Physicians for Social Responsibility; Sharifa Taylor of Communities for a Better Environment, and other environmental justice advocates provided CARB with alternative roadmap to real zero for achieving deeper reductions in emissions and pollution, ensuring a just transition, and for a more coordinated and holistic approach for meeting the state’s climate goals.
EJAC urged CARB to use its authority to go beyond minimum commitments and include stronger protections for overburdened communities, and implementation actions more consistent with the California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 and AB197, which requires CARB to “protect the state’s most impacted and disadvantaged communities.”
“We have to commit to no increase of fossil fuel pollution in our communities, [and] no increase in water pollution. We can’t continue to threaten the air, water and soil that we depend on for life,” Arguello said.
Jill Sherman-Warne (Native American Environmental Protection Coalition), a newly appointed tribal representative, requested that CARB conduct more meaningful and substantial consultation with tribal governments required under AB 52 when tribal cultural resources may be affected by a state action.
“Our tribal policy says that the agency is expected to summarize how the proposed plan is going to affect tribal sovereignty, tribal resources, tribal lands, tribal economic development, tribal cultural practices, and the tribal community in general,” said Sherman-Warne.
The conversation then centered on key environmental justice issues identified by the EJAC and responses from the CARB board members.
A Productive Exchange
The exchange between the two bodies was productive and provided some clarity on where EJAC and CARB priorities align and diverge.
Clashes over Controversial Proposals
CARB and EJAC clashed over controversial issues, such as the role of “cap and trade” and carbon capture and storage (CCS) (unproven strategies to slow climate change by capturing carbon emissions and storing them underground).
In addition to these recommendations, EJAC also requested clarification from CARB on procedural questions, including on dedicated resources and staff support for a permanent EJAC, and on whether updated models and environmental assessments will be released ahead of the final draft. EJAC submitted their final recommendations to CARB on September 30. The final plan is expected to be finalized later this year.
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