May 20 – 24: Make Time to Contact Your Representatives
SB -1497 (Menjivar): Polluters Pay Climate Cost Recovery Act of 2024. This bill would
authorize the California EPA to fine companies that engaged in extracting and refining fossil
fuels between 2000 and 2020 and were responsible for over 1 billion tons of emissions
during that period.
UPDATE: Fines collected would be directed to environmental justice populations facing
climate impacts.
SB 1497 passed out of the Appropriations Committee on May 16 and will have a vote in the
full Senate this week, May 20 to 24.
ACTION: Call your Senator to encourage him/her/them to vote YES.
AB – 1866 (Hart): Oil and Gas: Idle Wells. This bill would require the owners of idle wells
to file a plan for the elimination and restoration of their wells and to follow through with
the scheduled clean-up detailed in the plan. Companies who do not comply would be
subject to a fine.
UPDATE: AB 1866 passed out of the Appropriations Committee on May 16 and will have a
vote in the full Assembly this week, May 20 to 24.
ACTION: Call your Assembly Member to encourage him/her/them to vote YES.
ACA 16 (Bryan): The Environmental Rights Amendment. This bill would require that
the statement “people have a right to clean air and water and a healthy environment” be
added to the State Constitution.
UPDATE: ACA 16 passed out of the Appropriations Committee on May 15 and will have a
vote in the full Assembly soon.
ACTION: Call your Assembly Member to encourage him/her/them to vote YES. If ACA 16
passes out of the both houses, it will appear on the November election ballot.