This initiative was introduced by the California Chamber of Commerce, which represents oil companies, developers, Southern California Edison, PG&E, and other major industrial interests. It will directly weaken protections for clean air, clean water, and public health.
- 1.
The initiative guts air, water, and health protections for polluting projects.
It shifts power from public agencies to developers, and nearly eliminates the courts' ability to prevent toxic contamination of our air and water. These changes could apply to everything from data centers* and freeway expansions to dams, landfill gas facilities, and waste incineration plants.
- 2.
If a project pollutes our air and water, taxpayers will have to pay to clean it up.
By weakening environmental review requirements, the initiative forces cities, counties, and the state to absorb the long-term costs of pollution, infrastructure damage, public health impacts, and climate risks. Corporations save money; the public pays more.
- 3.
The initiative leaves California vulnerable to the federal government's extreme environmental rollbacks.
Federal environmental laws that protect clean air and clean water are being dismantled. This initiative removes our state's strongest backstop to the federal rollback.
- 4.
This initiative is being bankrolled by special interests and corporations.
The measure is heavily funded by corporate interests and billionaires. These entities are protecting corporate profits, not everyday Californians.
- 5.
The initiative gives corporations the right to sue cities that try to stop or fix polluting projects.
It allows developers to sue public agencies for denying polluting projects or imposing conditions that protect communities – like requiring a data center to reduce its water usage.
- 6.
The initiative won't save money for Californians.
It includes no requirements that projects must find a way to bring costs down for everyday Californians. The Legislative Analyst's Office analysis says the measure will cost taxpayers tens of millions of dollars in the initial years of implementation.
Bottom line
This initiative is a corporate-backed rollback of critical public health and environmental protections. It raises costs for taxpayers. It's the wrong direction for California.
*Legal scholar Eric Biber of UC Berkeley Law writes that data centers could fall within the Initiative's expansive project definitions.