Every time I check the news lately, I’m greeted by an increasingly disturbing state of affairs — rollbacks of civil rights, environmental protections and public health safeguards, one after another, all from a federal government that champions corporate profiteering over the needs of everyday Americans. It makes me grateful to live in California, where our leaders are largely steadfast in defending the rights and protections we all depend upon.
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While Washington races to put profit over the common good, it’s more important than ever to keep our state laws strong. That’s why voters must roundly reject Proposition 45 this November.
Prop. 45’s funders are exactly who you’d expect. Data center developers, Big Oil, PG&E and other polluting industries are spending tens of millions to pass it, betting on a measure that would allow them to push through projects like data centers, warehouses, exurban sprawl and forest clearcutting with limited public oversight. By rolling back protections for our air, water and land, this ballot initiative leaves taxpayers on the hook to pay for the lasting damage these projects can cause.
We don’t have to sacrifice these critical protections to get the projects we need. Consider the STACK Trade Zone Park data center in San Jose, built within 150 feet of homes and 330 feet of a daycare center. Because the project went through review under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), the California Energy Commission required the facility to buy 100% carbon-free electricity. Reviewers also required soil testing to protect construction workers from contamination.
Those and other protections were secured through robust public review that required the developer to identify potential harms and address them before breaking ground. Prop. 45 guts that process. And it handcuffs the Legislature from being able to make changes to the law in the future.
For Californians who live near freeways and industrial sites, environmental review under CEQA is often their only defense against more asthma, more toxic runoff and more pollution.
This ballot measure leaves families vulnerable to higher medical bills and more complications, putting speed ahead of public health.
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Speaking of bills, the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office estimates implementing Prop. 45 could cost taxpayers $100 million or more per year. The bottom line is that rather than reducing costs, Prop. 45 will shift them from the companies that build polluting projects to the rest of us. Just as importantly, nothing in the 41 pages of this proposition requires project developers to lower housing prices, lower utility bills or lower costs for consumers.
California doesn’t need Prop. 45 to address our housing crisis either. Last year’s AB 130 exempted nearly all urban housing, including most apartment buildings, from environmental review. That’s the kind of housing we most need, and Prop. 45 won’t have any impact on building more of it. That’s because Prop. 45 isn’t about affordability or the housing crisis. It’s about handing shortcuts to polluting industries that they’ve wanted for years, disguised as relief for Californians struggling with the cost of living.
Prop. 45 rehashes the same playbook rolling out of Washington: Strip away oversight, hand industry the wheel and let ordinary people absorb the cost. Californians know better. We’ve built stronger environmental protections precisely because we know what’s lost without them, from clean air and water to corporate accountability.
For all of these reasons, more than 300 groups have come together to oppose Prop. 45, including the League of Women Voters of California, the California Democratic Party, California Professional Firefighters, Coalition for Clean Air and San Francisco Bay Physicians for Social Responsibility.
Vote “no” on Prop. 45.
Jordan Grimes is legislative director at the Greenbelt Alliance, a nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting open spaces and building climate resilience in the Bay Area.
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