About the Initiative
Written by
the polluters.
This initiative was introduced by the California Chamber of Commerce, which represents oil companies, developers, Southern California Edison, PG&E, and other major industrial interests. It will directly weaken protections for clean air, clean water, and public health.
Five things to know
What this measure
actually does.
- 01
The initiative guts air, water, and health protections for polluting projects.
It will allow more pollution and increase wildfire risks for communities. These changes could apply to everything from data centers* and biogas facilities to freeway widenings, new dams, and sprawl development in areas at high risk for wildfire.
- 02
If a project pollutes our air and water, taxpayers will have to pay to clean it up.
By weakening environmental review requirements, the initiative forces cities, counties, and the state to absorb the long-term costs of pollution, infrastructure damage, public-health impacts, and climate risks. Corporations save money; the public pays more.
- 03
The initiative leaves California vulnerable to the federal government's extreme environmental rollbacks.
Federal environmental laws that protect clean air and clean water are being dismantled. This initiative removes our state's strongest backstop to the federal rollback.
- 04
The initiative is bankrolled by corporate interests, Big Tech, and billionaires.
The measure is heavily funded by corporate interests and billionaires. These entities are protecting corporate profits, not everyday Californians.
See the funders → - 05
The initiative won't save money for Californians.
It includes no requirements that projects must find a way to bring costs down. The Legislative Analyst's Office analysis says it will cost taxpayers tens of millions of dollars in the initial years of implementation.
Bottom line
This initiative is a corporate-backed rollback of critical public health and environmental protections. It raises costs for taxpayers. It's the wrong direction for California.
*Legal scholar Eric Biber of UC Berkeley Law writes that data centers could fall within the Initiative's expansive project definitions.