SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA – The California Climate Equity Coalition today announced its strong opposition to ACA-1, a state constitutional amendment proposed by Assembly Republican leader Chad Mayes.
Greenlining Institute Environmental Equity Director Alvaro Sanchez said, “California has made it a centerpiece of our fight against climate change to deliver real benefits to Californians who are most vulnerable to pollution. This effort to bring meaningful help to those hit first and worst by pollution as we cut greenhouse gas emissions is at the core of AB 32 and SB 32. The California Climate Equity Coalition has worked for years to ensure these benefits reach disadvantaged neighborhoods by supporting and implementing laws that guarantee benefits to these communities.” SB 535 (De Leon, 2014) and AB 1550 (Gomez, 2016) guarantee 25 percent of fees paid by polluters must go to projects located in disadvantaged communities and an additional 10 percent must benefit low-income Californians.
ACA-1 (Mayes) would create an unnecessary and burdensome requirement that delays these investments in California’s most impacted communities. SCOPE Research Director Laura Muraida said, “Low-income communities of color feel the impacts of pollution and climate change most severely, and most urgently need action to protect the planet and their communities, and they also urgently need the prosperity the growing clean-energy sector has begun to generate. California must make millions of dollars in investments to promote clean air, jobs, transportation, energy efficiency, and healthy environments and these investments must be targeted to benefit the communities hit first and worst by climate change. We’ve made real progress in that effort, and ACA-1 will just get in the way.”
Coalition for Clean Air Policy Director Bill Magavern said, “The supermajority threshold to approve the use of cap-and-trade funds is an ill-conceived amendment that would only delay critically needed funding that our communities need now to address climate change and improve air quality, and create new, clean energy jobs. We cannot afford such needless delays, and politicians should not play games with the lives of our communities.”
