What California Looked Like Before CEQA—And What’s at Stake.

Recently, California lawmakers rushed together a state budget deal to roll back core public protections—without input from the public.

In AB 130 and SB 131, the legislature passed sweeping policy changes that promise to roll back the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and put our health, safety, and environment at risk.

Here’s what the CEQA rollbacks in these bills will do:

• • Exempt some industrial projects from health and safety reviews, even when they’re near homes, schools, or endangered species habitats.
  • Freeze California’s building code, preventing updates that make homes and buildings safe, healthy, energy-efficient, and cost-effective.
  • Shut out the public by skipping the normal process for public input on industrial development, including projects that could worsen air quality in communities already burdened by pollution.

What does CEQA do—and why do we need it?

The California Environmental Quality Act is a foundational law that protects our health and communities by requiring development projects to consider their environmental and safety impacts.

This is what California looked like before the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA):

Image from “West Oakland: Mapped by Destruction” in the Habitat for Humanity East Bay/Silicon Valley Blog

This photo shows the devastation caused by the construction of the Cypress Freeway through West Oakland, which flattened homes and local businesses in 1957. This split up a community and displaced 600 families, mostly Black and Latino—sparking widespread outrage that drove the creation of environmental laws, including the California Environmental Quality Act.

Historically, polluting industries and toxic chemical facilities have been mostly located in low-income communities and communities of color. Everyone deserves clean air to breathe and a healthy, safe environment to live in, and these environmental protections ensure climate justice by protecting all Californians equally from public health impacts.

What are CEQA’s impacts on everyday Californians like me?

In practice, environmental protections mean that oil companies can’t start drilling in your neighborhood without letting you have a say first. They mean that homes in wildfire-prone areas are built with emergency response plans, evacuation routes, and community safety in mind. And they mean that home and apartment building sites are checked before construction starts to avoid harmful and unsafe conditions that would put people’s health and lives at risk.

These are deeply important laws, and they’re key to a lot of the work we do at EnviroVoters.

Now, corporate polluters are trying to get rid of these protections to make executives richer at the expense of our environment, our safety, and our health.

What can I do to stand up against CEQA rollbacks to protect California’s environment and public health?

These changes will impact families across California, putting our communities at risk. But EnviroVoters is working hard to make sure that our health and safety won’t be sacrificed for a rushed deal.

Some legislators have publicly committed to fixing the worst parts of these bills. Now it’s time to make sure they follow through.

Will you fill out our quick one-minute form to email Speaker Robert Rivas and Pro Tem Mike McGuire to urge them to fix AB 130 and SB 131 and put the health and safety of our communities first?