Environmental Justice

Good morning, California. It’s Wednesday, March 10. High stakes for governor Buckle your seatbelts: It’s officially election season in California. That much was evident from the ambience of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s State of the State speech Tuesday night. The governor stood at a podium in Los Angeles’ Dodger Stadium, flanked by massive screens that alternated […]

Valley residents have waited more than a decade for the end of burns at vineyards and groves that spew smoke. Several board members pushed for quicker action, but the board voted to grant four more years.

On the edge of the Salton Sea, state officials and investors are seeking to turn brine into ‘white gold’ that can power electric cars. But will this help solve the Imperial Valley’s troubles — or add to them?

California’s air board will vote this week on stopping burns that spew plumes of smoke that can trigger asthma attacks. The move is long in coming — it was supposed to end a decade ago under state law.

Experts say the state’s cap and trade program may be insufficient in meeting ambitious climate goals. And environmentalists have called the program unfair to polluted communities.

While warehouses have become ubiquitous in the Inland Empire, recent proposals call for rezoning residential land for industrial use, leaving the largely minority and low-income residents who live there with few choices.

Mary Nichols has been pivotal in California’s war on smog. But as her tenure ends next week, activists say she didn’t do enough to protect low-income communities and they scuttled her candidacy for Biden’s top environmental post. Wounded but tenacious, she’s contemplating her next battles.

The Legislature took an important step in protecting environmental justice communities from toxic waste; now it’s the governor’s turn.

Local officials must commit to environmental justice to reduce exposure to pollution and promote access to public facilities, healthy food and adequate housing.

State Auditor Elaine Howle found some 1.4 million toddlers enrolled in Medi-Cal had gone untested for lead exposure over the past decade, and another 740,000 missed one of two required screenings — a failure encompassing nearly three-quarters of the babies covered by the state’s publicly-funded health insurance program.