CALL by NOON, MONDAY, June 30! OPPOSE content of AB 306 in two budget trailer bills cont'd

[Hoai-An Truong]

New: Op-Ed 6/27/25 link included below. 

CALL by noon, Monday 6/30!

Help protect a key tool for cities to act on climate! Tell your state legislators to OPPOSE twin “budget trailer bills” #AB130 and #sb130

Many climate groups and other activists have been working for months to oppose AB 306 which would block state and local governments from adopting cost-saving energy efficiency measures in newly built and existing homes, locking households into higher utility bills and putting health, resilience, and climate benefits at risk.

Rather than allow the bill to go through the normal process in the Senate, proponents are pushing to fast track most of AB 306 in twin Budget Trailer Bills, AB 130 and SB 130 by this Tuesday, July 1st, without public scrutiny.

With the federal government on a rampage to roll back climate protections, opposing the fast tracking of these bill trailers is more important than ever to uphold state and local action.

These reach codes (building codes) are absolutely vital for helping lower energy bills, improve air quality, and strengthen community resilience. Importantly, they deliver major cost-savings to families everywhere in California. These budget trailer bills would block nearly $5 billion in statewide savings under the 2025 California Energy Code alone. 💸

We can’t let this happen. Before Monday’s Senate Budget hearing at noon, please call your representative and ask them to oppose AB/SB 130 unless the provisions from AB 306 are REMOVED (specifically, sections 29-31 and 38-41). Now, more than ever, we can’t cut corners on the safety, efficiency, and resilience of our homes! Call now!

Call list: https://shou.senate.ca.gov/members

More info: Stand up for local building codes—they make us safer in our home (you can write a letter through this link but please CALL if you can!)

https://actionnetwork.org/letters/tell-the-legislature-not-so-fast

Op-Ed 6/27/25: If California pauses new local building codes, it risks slowing climate progress

https://calmatters.org/commentary/2025/06/if-california-pauses-new-local-building-codes-it-risks-slowing-climate-progress/

_____

I've also posted this to groups on Facebook. I think you can view and share this public post on Facebook, with all the formatting. (P.S. If you share the one from my page, it will not have all the formatting - boo!)

https://www.facebook.com/groups/oursanjose/permalink/23930012923354048/

Thank you!

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: SoCoCAN! <sonomac...@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, Jun 27, 2025 at 5:57 AM
Subject: [SoCoCAN!] UPDATED LETTER SIGNED AGAIN: AB 306, took another turn for the worse. New letter deadline 9 am Wednesday!
To: SoCoCAN! <ClimateAc...@googlegroups.com>

This is the one pertaining to building codes.

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Janet Cox <ja...@jwcox.com>
Date: Wed, Jun 25, 2025 at 6:20 AM
Subject: AB 306, took another turn for the worse. New letter deadline 9 am Wednesday!

Hi all 

As you may have heard, AB 306’s beleaguered authors gave up on trying to pass the bill through regular legislative order this afternoon (yay us!)…and moved its unhelpful, retrograde provisions to a budget trailer bill — where it will get much less scrutiny and will be far more difficult to amend, let alone defeat. 

So, we’re once again amending our opposition letter, and the larger groups who were trying for “oppose unless amended” have joined with us NO-sayers in a single letter. 

It’s in formatting limbo at the moment but you can read it and see where we’re going. This iteration is necessarily “oppose unless amended” because the trailer bill, AB 130, is a lot bigger than just these provisions—it’s the whole housing enchilada.

Please let me know by 9 am if you want to OPT OUT of this version of the letter. AB 130 is up in the Senate budget committee at 10 am tomorrow. If  you can believe it. Speed kills!

Thanks to you all,

Janet

 

[Hoai-An Truong]

Talking points for opposing AB SB 131 gutting CEQA: 

"a betrayal of environmental justice communities, Tribes, community groups, and the environment."

Subject: FW: AB SB 131 opposition letter

Date: June 28, 2025 at 2:19:56 PM PDT

SUBJECT LINE: THIS WEEKEND CONTACT YOUR LEGISLATIVE REPRESENTATIVES TO VOTE NO ON THE CEQA-GUTTING BUDGET TRAILER BILL

The brawl in Sacramento continues over this weekend. Calls and emails are working (this, from a third-hand source). Please contact your representatives if you haven't already done so, and again if you have. I have attached contact rosters for your convenience, as well as Friday's letter from over 100 groups opposing this unprecedented state attack on our environment and democracy.  

Here are some talking points:

You have been put in a terrible position by those who pushed for this bill and are now holding the state budget hostage until it passes. This is a choice, and not one to which legislators need to acquiesce. We urge legislators to reject this bill, which would silence the voices of your constituents when harmful development is sited in their neighborhoods.

AB SB 131 (formerly SB607) is the worst anti-environmental bill in California in recent memory. It represents an unprecedented rollback to California’s fundamental environmental and community protections at a time in which the people of California grapple with unprecedented federal attacks to their lives and livelihoods. 

Even worse, this bill was negotiated behind closed doors with NO input from the public or even other legislators. THIS IS FUNDAMENTALLY UNDEMOCRATIC. You only need to ask yourself: If the only way you can change state law is to keep it out of the public eye as long as possible, and condition passage of the state budget on the proposed changes, does that not show that its backers know the public wouldn’t support it if they knew the truth?

A vote for AB/SB 131 in its present form condones both the substance and the process and would be a betrayal of environmental justice communities, Tribes, community groups, and the environment.

We need our legislative representatives to be bold, be strong, have guts, and just say "No" to the Governor's CEQA-gutting trailer bill AB SB 131 (formerly SB607). Force the Governor to come back to the legislature with a real budget -- one that does not gut our environmental protections. 

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Communities for a Better Environment <in...@cbecal.org>
Date: Fri, Jun 27, 2025 at 3:50 PM
Subject: This bill is worse than we expected

You heard from us earlier this week about two scary bills being pushed through the legislature in the budget bill process that would gut the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). One of these measures has now been slipped into a larger bill – SB 131 – which represents the largest attack on California’s environmental protection in decades. This morning we saw the language in SB 131 for the first time — it’s worse than we expected and the legislature is scheduled to vote on Monday! If SB 131 passes, protections for environmental justice communities will be sacrificed for developer giveaways. The list of new projects that would receive no environmental review under this law is long, and it includes facilities that would be producing chips and semiconductors, lithium battery production facilities, and nuclear material. Take action today to urge California legislators to oppose SB 131 and keep CEQA strong! CEQA is one of the few tools environmental justice communities have to shape what gets built in their neighborhoods. It gives people a say and helps make harmful projects less harmful. We rely on CEQA to stop the demolition of affordable housing, reduce pollution from industrial projects, and require mitigation for massive infrastructure. The CEQA process leads to better, more just outcomes for ALL of us. This bill represents an unprecedented gutting of one of the only laws that protects environmental justice communities, and it is being pushed through rapidly and behind closed doors. By tying it to budget funding, a select few legislators are forcing us to choose between healthcare, affordable housing, and CEQA. We should not have to sacrifice environmental and health protections to meet other basic human needs. The very communities that rely on resources like healthcare and affordable housing are the ones who rely on CEQA to have a voice in the harmful projects that are built around them. TAKE ACTION TO PROTECT CEQA The CEQA process gives us better projects — electrification for industrial projects, halting destruction of affordable housing, mitigating harms from large infrastructure projects, and more. Rolling back CEQA would disproportionately harm low-income communities living next to polluting facilities — communities that deserve to have input on industrial projects proposed near their homes or children’s schools. We cannot allow private developers and corporate greed to exploit our democratic processes with their calls for deregulation. Take action today to help save CEQA's environmental protections! In solidarity, Communities for a Better Environment Founded in 1978, Communities for a Better Environment (CBE) is one of the preeminent environmental justice organizations in the nation. The mission of CBE is to build people’s power in California’s communities of color and low income communities to achieve environmental health and justice by preventing and reducing pollution and building green, healthy and sustainable communities and environments. Donate

[Rue]

The Budget Committee is the first stop for these bills … CALL before 9:00 AM to reach the legislators on the Budget Committee.  After the BC - it will move through Assembly and Senate votes. 

Find My Legislators

The Budget Committee is just the beginning on Monday.  And damage to CEQA is just part of the problem with the Bill.  Their (Wiener & the Gov) plan is to get it through Budget, Assembly and the Senate - all on Monday.  

Starting with the Budget Committee, contact these Representatives’ offices (especially if you live in their District):

  Scott Wiener, Chair

  Roger Niello, Vice Chair

  Ben Allen

  Catherine Blakespear 

  Chris Cabaldon

  Steve Choi

  Maria Durazo

  Shannon Grove

  John Laird

  Jerry McNerney

  Caroline Menjivar

  Rosilicie Ochoa Bogh

  Sasha Perez 

  Laura Richardson 

  Kelly Seyarto

  Lola Smallwood-Cuevas

  Aisha Wahab

  Akah Weber Pierson Ben Allen

  Catherine Blakespear 

  Chris Cabaldon

  Steve Choi

  Maria Durazo

  Shannon Grove

  John Laird

  Jerry McNerney

  Caroline Menjivar

  Rosilicie Ochoa Bogh

  Sasha Perez 

  Laura Richardson 

  Kelly Seyarto

  Lola Smallwood-Cuevas

  Aisha Wahab

  Akah Weber Pierson

If you can get to Sacramento - that’s great.  If not - email &/or call your Representative today and tomorrow.  (Budget, Assembly, and Senate). Let them know we are aware of the failure of transparency and that the bill should NOT be passed in its current form.  If you need citations - let us know.  

McGuire is just one of the votes we need.  To move this needle - we’ll need a lot more than McGuire.  

Speak as a constituent who is one of MANY watching the bill and how the legislators vote!

I’m glad so many are paying attention … but we’ll need a lot more eyes on this one.  Be in touch with everyone you know who might consider making a call or sending an email.  Ask them for five minutes of their time to avert yet another disaster.

Take good care.  We lean in.

Rue

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[Rue]

I’m sending a correction … Hoai-An was right … I was thinking of the gathering…. see more details in next email.

sincere apologies … I was going too fast.

Rue