Yes to renewable energy, no to dirty natural gas power plants!

CEJA has been fighting at the California Public Utilities Commission on stop new dirty power plants and to win clean energy in EJ communities. 

Our Fight for Clean Solutions to “SONGS” Closure

Utility companies are using the shut down of the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) as justification to build more dirty natural gas power plants to replace the energy that came from SONGS. New dirty natural gas power plants are being proposed all across Southern California.

Big utility companies are falsely promoting natural gas as a “clean bridge fuel”. We like to call natural gas a “gateway drug”.  All the facts show that natural gas is another form of dirty energy. Natural gas is bad for our health, bad for California, and bad for our climate. Building more natural gas in California is also completely unnecessary. California has enough clean energy resources such as energy efficiency, solar, and innovative energy storage solutions to cover our energy needs.

Our Fight to Stop Dirty Power Plants:

Dirty energy corporations and the utilities are out to build expensive unnecessary dirty natural gas power plants across California. These natural gas power plants are:

  • Bad for the community:  They cost ratepayers billions of dollars and lock communities into decades long contracts. Power plants get built in communities that are already over-burdened with pollution and where communities suffer from the highest rates of illnesses.
  • Bad for California: It is not Californians that will benefit from these power plants: it’s corporate polluters and the utilities. Natural gas power plants are about profits, not customer service. California’s choice is clear: more renewable energy or more dirty power plants, climate change, and clogged lungs. Which future do you want for your kids and family?
  • Bad for the climate: Natural gas power plants will continue the climate chaos we have seen over the past year. In 2013 alone, California has faced near-drought conditions and experienced  the largest forest fires in history. These are the impacts of climate change, driven by dirty fossil fuel use that is being proposed by dirty energy corporations and the utilities.

Our Fight to Ensure EJ Communities Benefit from Clean Energy Laws

CEJA celebrated a win with getting environmental justice language in SB 43 (Wolk, Green Tariff Shared Renewables Program) in 2013. CEJA is now fighting to make sure that SB 43 is implemented correctly and that EJ communities benefit from this new law.

CEJA is advocating at the California Public Utilities Commission to ensure that solar and other renewable projects that come out of SB 43 implementation actually get into EJ neighborhoods and that these communities see the economic and jobs benefits from these projects.