California transit, housing, and environmental advocates are escalating their campaign to reverse a California Air Resources Board decision that they say will slash roughly $2 billion annually from programs that fund transit, affordable housing, clean air, and clean water projects.
The new regulations also increase the number of free emissions allowances given to major industrial polluters in the state’s cap-and-trade program while reducing the number sold at auction.
The effort is unfolding on two fronts. Politically, advocates are rallying legislators to override or otherwise reverse CARB’s new Cap-and-Invest rules, arguing that the Legislature, not unelected regulators, should determine how California’s climate dollars are spent. Legally, environmental justice organizations have already sued CARB, alleging the agency violated state environmental law when it approved the regulations in May.
CARB members are appointed rather than elected, meaning Gov. Gavin Newsom bears much of the political responsibility for the board’s actions. The governor appoints the chair and a supermajority of the board’s voting members.
Rally to Pressure Legislature
Transit, housing, environmental justice, and climate organizations are planning a rally and lobbying day at the State Capitol on Monday to urge lawmakers to restore funding priorities they say were dismantled by CARB’s vote. For more information, or to sign up for Monday’s action, click here.
Organized by the Transbay Coalition and a broad coalition of advocacy groups, the event is expected to bring supporters from across California to Sacramento before participants fan out to meet directly with legislators. Organizers argue that while CARB adopted the regulations, the Legislature still has the authority to restore funding priorities.
CARB staff has made a similar argument when defending their new rules, arguing that they are setting out permit rules that raise money, and the legislature can do whatever it wants with the funds they generate.
Promotional materials for the event directly blame “Newsom’s appointees” for redirecting billions of dollars away from community investments and toward major industrial polluters, making the rally as much a political statement as a lobbying effort.
Lawsuit Seeks to Overturn Regulations
Separately, the Center for Community Action and Environmental Justice and other environmental justice organizations filed a lawsuit earlier this month to overturn the new rules.
The lawsuit argues that CARB violated the California Environmental Quality Act by failing to adequately analyze alternatives that would have preserved funding for climate programs while avoiding increased pollution in communities already burdened by industrial emissions. Plaintiffs also contend the board failed to properly evaluate the environmental justice impacts of expanding free emissions allowances for large polluters.
If successful, the lawsuit could invalidate CARB’s rulemaking and force the board to reconsider the regulations.
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