SACRAMENTO— Conservation, environmental justice and local government groups filed a petition with the California Energy Commission today asking it to consider the environment and public health when making decisions about the state’s clean energy future, as state law requires.

“It’s ludicrous that California doesn’t factor in the environment and people’s health when it’s deciding how to meet the state’s climate target of 100% renewable energy. This petition is the first step toward getting regulators in line with the law,” said Roger Lin, an attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity. “For decades the California Energy Commission has ignored the state’s hardest-hit communities, our air, and our water in favor of a lopsided cost-benefit analysis that helps polluting industries and corporate utilities. By basing its decisions on inaccurate data, the commission has worsened conditions in disadvantaged communities and blocked their access to clean energy resources.”

“The (California Energy Commission) is long overdue in satisfying the Legislature’s mandates to consider improved health, safety and comfort to individuals and other benefits that accrue to society at large, including local job creation, increased community resilience, improved air quality and other environmental benefits, such as reduced water use and water quality improvements,” the petition says.

The state’s failure to fully consider public health and the environment in its clean energy decisions is fundamental to the California Public Utility Commission’s new regressive rooftop-solar policies. Those include a policy that takes effect Feb. 14 that will put rooftop solar further out of reach for renters and make net-metering changes that have already led to widespread business closures and layoffs — just when California should be accelerating this key tool for tackling the climate emergency.

“We have been fighting so hard for resources to ensure environmental justice communities are not left behind in this energy transition,” said Katie Valenzuela, senior policy advocate at the Central Valley Air Quality Coalition and facilitator for the Building Energy, Equity and Power Coalition. “Including these needs in decisions will ensure that the California Energy Commission's work is equitable - continuing as usual will only further exacerbate the inequities that plague our communities.”

“Biogas energy projects make millions for their owners and utilities, while people living next to them suffer health effects from their pollution and their energy costs continue to skyrocket,” said Kevin Hamilton, senior director of government affairs at the Central California Asthma Collaborative.

“We don’t have to accept tradeoffs that hurt the environment and our people to meet our climate goals,” said Lin. “We have to serve 100% of Californians to reach our 100% clean energy target.”