Sacramento, CA – The California Environmental Justice Alliance Action (CEJA Action), a project of Beyond Impact, is excited to announce the latest updates on our 2026 Legislative Agenda, which is current as of 7/16/2026.
This legislative agenda is held in partnership with our 501(c)(3) affiliated organization, the California Environmental Justice Alliance. To learn more about how we partner on our legislative work, check out the initial agenda announcement.
Equitable Land Use: Healing the Land, Healing the People Campaign
Support: SB 954 (Blakespear)
This bill addresses the environmental and public health rollbacks enacted under Senate Bill 131 (2025), and takes critical steps toward fulfilling the commitments made last year by legislative leadership to scale back the most harmful of these provisions. SB 954 would address these impacts by restoring necessary protections for communities, workers, and the environment, and by establishing state oversight over the use of the “advanced manufacturing” CEQA exemption.
Why We Support It:
We reject the false narrative that Californians must choose between a strong economy and a clean environment. In reality, the state has developed the largest manufacturing sector in the country, and the fourth largest economy in the world, while upholding robust protections for workers and communities. Economic growth must support the well-being of all Californians and must not compromise the health of our workers and residents, nor the quality of our air, water, and natural ecosystems.
Support: AB 1457 (Bryan)
AB 1457 (Bryan) would amend SB 1000 (Leyva, 2016) to set a specific compliance deadline for the existing requirement for local governments to adopt an environmental justice element, or related policies, goals, and objectives in other general plan elements. Additionally, AB 1457 would add transparency and local public process requirements to ensure disadvantaged communities can provide input during the development and adoption of these elements.
Why We Support It:
AB 1457 upholds community engagement in the environmental justice element development which is a vital component that allows communities to have a voice in the decisions made in their neighborhoods. The passage of this bill will ensure that communities have the opportunity to provide input in the development of their local environmental justice element.
Support: AB 40 (Bonta)
AB 40 would require a full Environmental Impact Report before any local agency may grant a discretionary approval for a new or expanded coal handling, storage, or export terminal with a design capacity exceeding 5 million short tons per year. The bill also requires an updated environmental review when the type or quantity of coal changes materially or when the existing EIR is 10 or more years old.
Why We Support It:
The bill ensures that communities and decision-makers have access to current information about a project’s potential impacts, particularly when scientific understanding or project conditions have significantly changed over time. By strengthening transparency and public participation, AB 40 helps ensure that decisions affecting air quality, public health, and environmental justice are based on the best available information.
Support: SB 1091 (Caballero) – The Community Anti-Displacement and Preservation Program (CAPP)
This bill will allow community organizations, nonprofit affordable housing developers, and local jurisdictions to access resources to acquire unsubsidized rental housing from the private market where tenants are at risk of displacement and preserve its affordable rental housing status. Not only will this help maintain the availability of affordable housing, but it will also prevent community members from being displaced if the private market plans to move to market rate housing.
Why We Support It:
Even with initiatives to build affordable housing, many affordable homes are lost each year to the transfer to market rates, slowing progress to address the housing crisis in the state. This bill will create a pathway to reduce the loss of affordable housing, while keeping community members in their homes.
Climate Justice: Managed Decline Campaign
Support: SB 1259 (Blakespear) – Transparency for Refinery Asset Retirement Obligations
This bill would require oil refineries to assess and report the cost and timelines of environmental clean-up for when they eventually close, even if their retirement date is unknown. This is a step towards meeting the more stringent requirements as other energy sectors (wind, solar, and nuclear), which are all also required to set aside funds to pay for the cleanup. The reports will allow communities time to plan and prepare for the transition phase when the refinery closes and the following clean-up period. It also provides a foundation for future bills to expand upon how refineries should prepare to fund the clean-up.
Why We Support It:
A critical step in having a managed decline from fossil fuels is knowing what the clean-up will look like and how long it will take so communities can plan accordingly. Lacking this information delays site remediation and development planning for the next use of the land, elongating public health and economic impacts.
Support: AB 1661 (Bryan) – Oil and gas: low-production wells: Baldwin Hills Conservancy: Equitable Community Repair and Reinvestment Account
Existing law (through AB 2716) states that oil wells in certain regions (LA County, near state parks and within Baldwin Hills Conservancy) cannot remain “low-producing” for more than 12 months without incurring a $10,000/month penalty until the well is plugged and abandoned. The penalty fees go into the Equitable Community Repair and Reinvestment Account, which funds community benefit projects in the same region. AB 1661 (Bryan) proposes to amend this law to require that the first $5 million brought into the account must be used for direct cash assistance to families and children with respiratory health conditions living within 2.5 miles of Inglewood Oil Field.
Why We Support It:
This bill will ensure that impacted residents truly benefit from this program and create a model for environmental reparations within a historically Black community.
Support: AB 2461 (Hart)
Although current law requires oil and gas operators to pay to plug and remediate their wells, many fail to meet this obligation and leave taxpayers covering the cost. This bill reduces that risk by requiring operators that acquire idle and marginally producing oil wells to post a bond or other financial assurances for the full cost of plugging and environmental clean-up.
Why We Support It:
As amended, this bill supports protecting the communities already bearing the health and environmental burdens of the fossil fuel industry from also having to pay for its cleanup. It is also a step toward polluter accountability.
Support: SB 1075 (Reyes)
This bill reforms how the AB 617 program is administered by ensuring that community emissions reduction plans (CERP) are completed, strengthening the enforceability and oversight of the program funding and spending, and providing guidance for communities to graduate from the program.
Why We Support It:
These reforms will support the achievability of emissions reductions on the community level from CERPs and better support communities in the implementation process.
Support: SB 1180 (Allen) – Plastic Pollution Prevention and Packaging Producer Responsibility Act: California Plastic Pollution Mitigation Fund
In 2022, California legislators passed SB 54 (Allen), which established the Plastic Pollution Mitigation Fund (PPMF), requiring plastic producers to pay $500 million annually to the fund for 10 years, starting in 2027. Money from this fund will be used to address the impacts of plastics, prioritizing disadvantaged communities facing environmental justice and health impacts of plastics. SB 1180 proposes that the fund’s allocation prioritize programs and projects that benefit communities most affected by the impacts of plastic pollution, align with or implement community-driven solutions, provide multiple benefits, and demonstrate engagement with communities and Tribes in planning, development, and implementation.
Why We Support It:
Plastics are made from fossil fuels, and their environmental and health impacts are becoming better understood over time. Environmental justice communities often face multiple hazards simultaneously, such as poor air quality from refineries and plastic pollution. As amended, this bill is another approach to help our communities recover from the impacts of the fossil fuel industry.
Support: SB 1216 (Laird)
SB 1216 protects the integrity of California’s climate investments by making targeted adjustments to the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (GGRF) and limiting the California Air Resources Board’s implementation of the Manufacturing Decarbonization Incentive (MDI). The bill helps ensure that Cap-and-Invest revenues continue to support programs that reduce greenhouse gas emissions, improve public health, expand affordable housing and clean transportation, protect safe drinking water, and advance environmental justice.
Why We Support It:
CEJA supports SB 1216 because it safeguards critical climate and environmental justice investments that directly benefit communities disproportionately impacted by pollution. Following CARB’s approval of expanded subsidies for oil refiners, the Legislative Analyst’s Office estimated that GGRF revenues could decline by approximately $2 billion annually, putting essential programs at risk, including affordable housing, public transit, community air protection (AB 617), safe drinking water (SAFER), and sustainable agriculture. SB 1216 restores accountability by prioritizing public investments that reduce pollution, strengthen climate resilience, and ensure California’s climate policies deliver meaningful benefits to frontline communities rather than expanded subsidies for the fossil fuel industry.
Energy Justice: Retire and Replace Campaign
Support: AB 1813 (Ward)
Requires the California Public Utilities Commission to evaluate current renewable energy subscription programs as a steppingstone to establishing a meaningful community solar program in CA. If the current programs are deemed ineffective, a new one would be established. Criteria for the effectiveness of current programs includes:
- Complement building energy efficiency standards (Title 24 of CA Building Code),
- Construction workers and apprentices are paid fairly at their respective prevailing wages/rates
- 51% or more of program capacity serves low-income customers
- Programs are aimed to not pass program costs to non-participating customers, by utilizing the avoided cost calculator as a way to better value distributed resources
Why We Support It:
Improving the effectiveness and scalability of renewable energy subscription programs will help them become or be replaced with programs that are more accessible to low-income and working families. The revamp subscription program is aimed to reduce energy bill costs and ensure the cost of the program is not at the expense of others ( i.e. nonparticipating households). Equitable, local-scale clean energy resources should be accessible to everyone, including those who have been harmed by the fossil fuel industry. The State must invest in a community solar + storage program that secures proper workforce development standards where clean energy workers are paid at a prevailing wage.
Support: SB 327 (McNerney)
SB 327 would explicitly ban the use of ratepayer funds on lobbying or other political activities against efforts by cities and counties to create their own municipal utilities. This bill would also clarify the Public Advocate’s Office’s role in investigating the IOUs’ activities to protect consumers from utilities’ abuses.
Why We Support It:
With energy rates becoming less affordable, seemingly by the minute, we cannot allow investor-owned utility (IOUs) companies to utilize ratepayer monies for advancing misaligned political positions. For example, Californians are looking to municipalize their energy system, reflective of an energy democracy movement. However, IOUs currently can use our money to lobby against such proposals. Not only is this practice extremely undemocratic, but it also hurts the wallets of everyday residents. As the ones who benefit, shareholders should pay for political positioning activities, not ratepayers.
Support: AB 2313 (Berman)
Requires that the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) mandate that gas corporations offer a program to provide a financial incentive for households to choose electric alternative appliances instead of replacing their gas service lines when scheduled. The financial incentive will be the equivalent of 85% of the average lifetime cost of replacing the gas service line.
Why We Support It:
There are two primary reasons why AB 2313 is a progressive bill, moving us to a just transition. Firstly, the cost of replacing gas service lines is passed on to all customers. As the demand for gas decreases, it will become more expensive for each ratepayer to pay for an aging system. Low-income households are most likely to be impacted by rising costs of the gas system, and the least likely to be able to switch to electric appliances without assistance.
Secondly, the proposed program will give households the choice to move away from gas and electrify their homes. Instead of using these funds to update a polluting pipeline, the money would be used to transition households to electrification. AB 2313 benefits particularly low-income households that have been intently left out of adopting clean technologies.
Support: SB 913 (Becker)
This bill will mandate that applicable government agencies – California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), California Independent System Operator (CAISO), and the California Energy Commission (CEC) – enhance pathways, update processes, and simplify enrollment for households to participate in the Resource Adequacy program. The Resource Adequacy program will be required to pay households at the same rate at utility-scale producers for energy that they export into the grid for their full capacity. This means that a home with a solar panel array that exceeds its energy use would be fairly compensated for the additional energy that it passes back into the electrical grid.
Why We Support It:
Distributed Energy Resources (DERs), such as rooftop solar, strengthen electrical grids, support the transition to clean energy, and lower costs for ratepayers. This bill will make changes to existing law to incentivize additional solar installations and make energy more affordable for all ratepayers.
Support if Amended: SB 886 (Padilla) California Technology Innovation and Ratepayer Protection Act
This bill creates a framework for protecting customers of investor-owned utilities from subsidizing the largest data centers and other large-load customers by passing the costs of interconnection to ratepayers, requiring the data center to pay these expenses instead. It also requires that the participating customer prefunds a contract of at least 10 years by installing clean resources behind its meter.
What We Like:
Protecting ratepayers from subsidizing the costs of large energy users, such as data centers, is critical for combating the rising costs of energy in our communities. Prohibiting more infrastructure investment into carbon-intensive systems for on-site energy production and storage supports California’s goals of carbon neutrality.
Proposed Amendments:
- On-site power generation must be limited to zero-emission technologies.
- Since data centers will add additional strain to the power grid, they should be required to fund the development of new zero-emission electric generation sufficient to meet their energy needs each hour, including delivery infrastructure.
- Instead of including all large-load customers (over 75 MW), the threshold should be reduced to 20MW, but make it specific to data centers rather than all large-load customers. This will also need clarification that a project cannot avoid thresholds by being split between multiple utility interconnections.
Solidarity Bills
Solidarity bills include proposed legislation related to social or environmental justice issues that CEJA and CEJA Action have a stance on, and they are as follows:
Support: AB 2227 (Connolly) – This bill would increase the bonding used to pay out wage theft claims for farmworkers.
Support: AB-2157 (Connolly and Bryan): This bill extends California’s Displaced Oil and Gas Worker Pilot Program, providing continued funding and support for retraining, job placement, and workforce development for workers affected by the decline of the oil and gas industry, helping ensure a managed transition that protects workers and communities as California moves toward a clean energy economy.
Support: SB 1125 (Menjivar) – This bill creates a low-income water rate assistance program.
Support if Amended: AB 2635 (C. Rodriguez) – The bill aims to support a more equitable transition to zero-emission landscaping equipment statewide and builds on AB 1346 (Berman), which was enacted in 2021. We want to see a continuation of the incentives for air districts, contingent on available funding, and adding a sunset clause.