Reduce Global Warming
Global
warming is one of California’s greatest and
most urgent environmental problems, with depleted snow pack in the Sierra Nevada impacting our drinking water supplies,
rising sea levels threatening our cities along the coast, and increased smog
pollution harming our health.
The threat of global warming is cause for immediate action and the pathway to
solving global warming is straightforward: cut the amount of global warming
pollution emitted by automobiles, power plants and the other major sources in
half. We support:
1- AB 493 (Ruskin) Giving Californians an incentive to buy cleaner cars by providing rebates for low-polluting vehicles and setting fees for high-polluting vehicles. bill language and status 2- Ensure the state auctions 100% of emissions allowances in any cap-and-trade program and invests at least $1 billion-a-year in solutions like efficiency and clean energy.
3- Build support for a science-based nationwide cap on global warming pollution to reduce emissions 80 percent by 2050.
Promote Clean Energy
As California grows, the need to continue to pursue energy efficiency and renewable energy aggressively is paramount to protecting our environment and economy. We support:
1- AB 1920 (Huffman) Providing solar system owners fair
compensation for surplus power sent back to the grid. bill language and status
2- AB 2224 (De La Torre) Ensuring California has enough trained workers to meet the growing demand for solar power by establishing standardized training for California schools and educational institutions. bill langauge and status
3- Replacing California’s aging fossil fuel and nuclear power plants with clean, modern renewable energy.
4- SB 410 (Perata/Simitian) – Increasing California’s minimum renewable energy goals to at least 33% by 2020. bill language and status
5- AB 1065 (Lieber) Requiring all new building to be zero energy by 2030. bill language and status
Curb Toxics
There are currently over 80,000 chemicals on the market in the United States. We lack even basic information on the potential adverse health effects regarding the vast majority of these chemicals. We do know that at least 1,400 chemicals have known or probable links to cancer, birth defects, reproductive impacts, and other health problems such as learning disabilities. We support:
1- AB 1879 (Feuer) Moving California towards safer alternatives by requiring scientists to review chemicals in consumer products and take action. Bill language and status
2- AB 2694 (Ma) Reducing lead in toys. Bill status and language
3- Protecting the environment and public health by ensuring the Governor’s Green Chemistry Initiative phases out the use of dangerous chemicals contaminating wildlife and our bodies.
Protect Our Ocean Environments
California’s coastal and ocean environments are invaluable assets to our state. California has an impressive record of taking bold and innovative actions to protect our coastal natural resources, yet recent studies have shown that our ocean environments need more protection. We support:
1- Establishing more Marine Protected Areas.
2- Banning additional offshore oil and gas drilling.
3- AB 2441 (Lieber) Requiring ships carrying hazardous material to have a tug escort. Bill Language and status
4- (Simitian) Removing derelict fishing gear
5- AB 904 (Feuer) changing the packaging of fast food restaurants to recyclable and biodegradable. bill language and status
Encourage Clean Air
Millions of Californians live in places with unsafe levels of air pollution. Air pollution triggers millions of asthma attacks each year and contributes to serious health problems, particularly among children, senior citizens, and other sensitive groups. We support:
1- SB 974 (Lowenthal) Ports: Congestion Relief: Environmental Mitigation. Bill language and status. Bill language and status
Preservation
California is home to some of the country's most beautiful places, with 8 national parks, hundreds of state parks and over 4 million acres of wild forests. Unfortunately, too many of our beautiful places have been lost to logging, mining, oil drilling, and overdevelopment. That’s why we are working to protect California's parks and critical wildlife habitat, and the laws that protect them.
1- SB 404 (Kehoe) Protecting California wilderness areas by ensuring that only a special exemption by the Department of Parks and Recreation and the legislature can change wilderness areas. Bill language and status
2- Protecting state parks from development
3- Ensuring that California State Parks are not closed or neglected by budget cuts.