Photo Credit: Kristiana Faddoul
February 4, 2020: Following years of informal collaboration, Sierra Club and the California Environmental Justice Alliance (CEJA) officially launched a joint campaign to push the state off of gas plants and towards clean energy, with prioritized investment in environmental justice communities. More than half of the state’s 200 gas plants are in environmental justice communities, subjecting people nearby to an unfair share of climate, air quality, and health impacts. The Regenerate Campaign aims to push the state towards decreasing the impacts of dirty gas plants and increasing the deployment of local renewable energy through new, family-supporting clean energy jobs.
The Regenerate Campaign launched with a rally outside the California Capitol building with nearly a hundred frontline community members on February 4th. Multiple community members addressed the health impacts of gas, the reliability issues with gas plants, and the need for a just transition. A small group of members met with Capitol staff to raise their concerns and introduce the campaign.
California has taken multiple steps in the past few years towards envisioning a future with far fewer gas plants. In recent years, proposals to build new gas plants in California have been met with widespread public opposition, concerns of stranded costs, and regulatory agencies have ultimately rejected the proposals. State legislation has set ambitious targets to decrease the state’s greenhouse gas emissions in order to meet benchmarks set for 2030 and 2045. The California Public Utilities Commission launched a proceeding in January to begin implementing the transition away from the gas system, including gas power plants. The Regenerate Campaign aims to speed that transition through public mobilization and coordinated regulatory and legislative advocacy.
The Regenerate California Campaign merges Sierra Club and CEJA’s statewide advocacy and grassroots campaigns in order to position environmental justice communities at the center of the state’s transition to clean energy. CEJA is made up of community organizations, including Communities for a Better Environment, Center for Community Action and Environmental Justice, and Central Coast Alliance United for a Sustainable Economy. CEJA and Sierra Club have informally collaborated on issues before the state’s legislature and regulatory agencies for years, but the Regenerate Campaign marks the first joint campaign.
This joint campaign is the result of many Sierra Club and CEJA staff and volunteers. Sierra Club contributors include Luis Amezcua, Nidia Erceg, Andrea Rojas, Evan Gillespie, Dan Prull, Cara Bottorff, Victoria Chu, Angie Balderas, Yassi Kavezade, Francis Yang, Katya English, Eddie Kaufman-Morrow, Rachel Boyer, Kristiana Faddoul, Diana Rozendaal, Kathryn Phillips, Lauren Cullum, and ELP attorneys Katie Ramsey and Andrea Issod.