How to Make A Impact at AQMD
AQMD’s board recently returned to in-person meetings, and a dedicated cohort of residents who live near ports, railyards, and warehouses often provide powerful testimony on what it’s like to live with the nation’s dirtiest air. More pressure, from more groups, needs to be exerted on board members to move to a truly zero-emission goods movement system. But the biggest changes in recent years have happened through litigation, with agencies suing each other or various environmental justice groups bringing lawsuits against them.
One of the most contentious issues the board faces is the resistance by some industry groups to going fully electric, and to instead switch to so-called “bridge fuels” like compressed natural gas (CNG), or hydrogen fuels (which are still largely in development), or hybrid vehicles that can be operated by both gas and electricity. While a transition from diesel to CNG will certainly result in fewer airborne pollutants, and hybrid vehicles have fewer tailpipe emissions than internal combustion ones, environmental justice groups view these negotiations as a delay tactic and are rightly insistent on eliminating all fossil fuels as soon as possible.
Action Opportunities:
https://addup.sierraclub.org/campaigns/railyardisr
https://addup.sierraclub.org/campaigns/tell-socals-air-district-to-protect-frontline-communities-from-refineries-toxic-emissions
https://addup.sierraclub.org/campaigns/railyardisr
https://addup.sierraclub.org/campaigns/lets-clean-up-air-pollution-at-southern-californias-ports
https://addup.sierraclub.org/campaigns/clean-air-in-socal-is-possible
Key Advocacy Groups to Follow
Sierra Club
https://www.sierraclub.org/journey-clean-air-social-toolkit
https://angeles.sierraclub.org/news_conservation/blog/2023/09/local_agency_votes_to_adopt_the_nation_s_first_zero_emission
https://www.sierraclub.org/press-releases/2023/12/court-sides-sierra-club-and-clean-air-requiring-warehouse-pollution-cuts
https://www.sierraclub.org/mygeneration/journey-clean-air
Communities for a Better Environment - https://www.cbecal.org
Coalition for Clean Air - https://www.ccair.org/advocacy/
East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice - https://eycej.org
NRDC - https://www.nrdc.org/building-healthy-equitable-california