Communities for a Better Environment

I learned about the bucket probably within a couple of months of moving home.

And there was a group from California, Communities for a Better Environment, that was training people here to use this air sampling device, which actually is a bucket with a non-reactive plastic valve inside and a vacuum that helps to draw air into the bag so that people who are in the middle of getting polluted or dumped on by some chemical can just go outside, take a sample and document what they're living with.

The power is that it puts the tools in people's hands.

You don't have to call somebody.

A lot of what you do when you comment on an EIR, particularly for a bigger project, is really technical.

And people who live in environmentally, environmental justice impacted communities like East Yards for Justice, Communities for Better Environment, they're very concerned that the most under-resourced communities are now going to have no time to be able to comment adequately on a project.

And that's

concerning.

She's president of the California Chamber of Commerce, which wrote Proposition 45.

Then we have Sylvia Arredondo of Communities for a Better Environment, one of the groups leading the fight against it.

Let me start with the yes side.

Proposition 45 is formally called the Building an Affordable California Act.

The Yes side says that data centers aren't covered by Prop 45.

My guest now, on behalf of the No side, comes from the environmental justice wing of the No on 45 coalition.

Sylvia Arredondo is a Civic Engagement Director at Communities for a Better Environment, known as CBE.

For decades, CBE has organized in low-income communities of color, living next to refineries, ports, power plants, and freeways.

Glad to have you joining me, talking about the insanity in California and what we ought to be learning about it.

On July 1, this environmental group called Communities for a Better Environment sued the air board in Sacramento.

They asked a judge to throw those rules out and make the state start the entire environmental review all over again.

The relief that's keeping California's refineries open is actually just sitting in that courtroom right now.

They say it's a, it's a limiting factor, and it could really undermine their efforts to, uh, you know, legitimately, um, uh, fix environmental concerns in major projects.

And, and I'll tell you, you know, uh, I have an episode coming out of What's Next Los Angeles, where I talk to somebody from Communities for a Better Environment and somebody from, uh, the, the, the Cal Chamber a- about this, and we go in-depth.

But, you know, one of the things i- is this 90-day comment period.

And, you know, a lot of folks say, "Well, yeah, I mean, why do you need more than 90 days to send a postcard and say, I oppose this project?" That's not what the comment period is.