[an error occurred while processing this directive] Ventana Chapter - Support environmental justice
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Sierra Club

Support environmental justice | Vote NO on prop. 54

by Clifford Rechtschaffen

Sierra Club urges a no vote on Proposition 54, the “Classification by Race, Ethnicity, Color, or National Origin Initiative.” This initiative, authored by Ward Connerly, would prevent state and local governments from collecting or maintaining racial or ethnic data in their operations. Sierra Club California joins the other major environmental groups in the state in opposing Prop. 54 because it would undermine our effort to achieve environmental justice in California.

Proposition 54’s ban on information gathering by state agencies would greatly hamper efforts to identify and document the unequal distribution of environmental hazards in California. Studies show that numerous environmental harms are disproportionately located in communities of color, even after controlling for income and other factors. These hazards include the likelihood of living near abandoned waste dumps that release toxic chemicals, living in areas that fail Clean Air Act standards, suffering from childhood lead poisoning or pesticide-related illnesses, and eating contaminated fish. Some of the most important demographic data on which these studies are based comes from the California Department of Finance, the Department of Health, and County Health Departments. If Proposition 54 is enacted, state and county agencies could be precluded from collecting these data.

Proposition 54 would also jeopardize programs designed to achieve environmental justice including a new law which requires Cal/EPA to prevent discriminatory siting and enforcement and to improve research and data collection for its programs, including their impact on minority populations. Proposition 54 could stop state and local agencies from identifying higher risks faced by minority populations who fish for food. Prop. 54 could stop analysis of whether proposed projects would have disproportionate environmental impacts on communities of color. Prop. 54 could stop targeted outreach to African-American and Latino communities where rates of childhood lead-based paint poisoning are several times higher than in white neighborhoods. Prop. 54 could stop research on the causes of high asthma rates among African Americans.

In short, Proposition 54 provides no concrete benefits and instead will only make us ignorant about environmental injustices that are prevalent in California and greatly hinder efforts to remedy these injustices. Please vote NO on Proposition 54. For more information, visit the Coalition for an Informed California, www.informedcalifornia.org.

Clifford Rechtschaffen is a Professor and Director of the Environmental Law Program at Golden Gate University in San Francisco.

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